April 2022
would contemptuously gather in their skirts, cross streets, flee rooms, cast hateful glances, or make derisive comments. Some sang spirited renditions of “The Bonnie Blue Flag” and other Confederate songs, or spat on soldiers’ uniforms, while teaching their children to do the same. One woman emptied a chamber pot on Capt. David C. Farragut from her window shortly after the Mayor of New Orleans surrendered the city to him. The women hoped their actions would force a retaliatory incident serious enough to incite paroled Confederate men to revolt against the Federal occupation troops in New Orleans.” Butler’s men showed admirable restraint against the insults, but he knew that it was only a matter of time until one of his soldiers, pressed too far, would confront or arrest some female belligerent and incite a riot from a mob made up of irate and impassioned gentlemen of the city. Butler feared his small occupation force would be overcome by the outraged mob and the matter would result in anarchy. He summarily dealt with the problem on May 15, 1862, by issuing General Orders No. 28, carefully worded to stop dead the insults to his men: “General Orders, No. 28
HDQRS. DEPARTMENT OF THE GULF, New Orleans, May 15, 1862.
As the officers and soldiers of the United States have been subject to repeated insults from the women (calling themselves ladies) of New Orleans in return for the most scrupulous noninterference and courtesy on our part, it is ordered that hereafter when any female shall by word, gesture, or movement insult or show contempt for any officer or soldier of the United States she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated as a woman of the town plying her avocation.
By command of Major-General Butler: GEO. C. STRONG,
Assistant Adjutant-General and Chief of Staff”
Except for a few isolated incidents this plan worked very well, and when the ladies of New Orleans learned they would be subject to arrest as vagrants or prostitutes and thus branded as dishonorable just for the act of demeaning a man wearing a U.S. army uniform, the insults stopped abruptly. Psychologically, the reason this worked was due to the potential for absolute destruction of their reputations which could result from even the perception of dishonor. For example, any arrest of this sort could mean those
unfortunate women might never marry someone from same social register, or be able to get one of the few decent jobs available such as schoolteacher or nurse; if she were already married her husband was expected to throw her out or at least live apart from her…send her away. Butler made the insulting behavior no longer worth the potential “cost” to the ladies of New Orleans. He achieved a nearly complete surrender based solely on the societal pressure of etiquette without any further action. Well, almost… one Mrs. Eugenia Levy Philips of New Orleans, wife of a former congressman from Alabama and mother of nine, already pardoned once, earned herself a 90 day sentence at Shipp Island with other Confederate prisoners in July 1862 for standing on her balcony and shouting disparagements at a Union funeral procession passing by. When confronted with the facts in court, she stated “Yes, I was in good spirits that day.”
Technically, the charges against Mrs. Levy were not pressed as stated in General Orders 28, “being a woman of the town plying her avocations,” but rather the complaint was in the legal realm of disorderly conduct “… acting as a dangerous woman, stirring up strife and inciting a riot.” Few others followed her example, and after her release from prison the notorious Mrs. Philips with her husband and brood moved to LaGrange, Georgia, for the rest of the war. Her husband, Philip Philips practiced law in Washington, D.C., after the war but never achieved as much in his political career as he might have otherwise because of the “unrestrained activities of his wife.” Even the stalwart Confederate patriot Mary Chesnutt notes in her diary that Mrs. Philips was “a bad, mad woman.” American society in the 1860s was extremely concerned with the maintenance of proper standards for both men and women, but particularly women.
We can see that the “rules” of behavior were very different for women of the Civil War era than for men. Men would have been well aware of this double standard unless they were terribly stupid or socially backward. In conclusion the goal is to base any portrayal of 1860s behaviors on the existing documentation of the manners of the time period. The surviving record strongly suggests that tipping your hat to a lady on the street who is a total stranger and saying “Good Morning, Ma’am” or almost anything else would cause her to potentially be seen as less than honorable and set tongues wagging. People would gossip endlessly about the circumstances of your greeting, assume there was a prior acquaintance, and depending on who witnessed the exchange, it could be very damaging. For example, it raises several questions beginning with, “How does she know this soldier?” which leads to “Has she been out to their camp?” and then logically to speculation on “What was she doing there?” inferring nothing good and so on.
Hence, this common greeting would only be initiated by the man if he wanted to cast doubt on the woman’s character for some reason, or to show himself to be uncouth and crude. To demonstrate the proper respect of a Southern gentleman, it was always expected that he would wait for a cue from the woman to whom he wished to speak and never initiate even polite conversation with female strangers in the street.
LIVING HISTORY! James Country
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Craig L. Barry was born in Charlottesville, Va. He holds his BA and Masters degrees from UNC (Charlotte). Craig served The Watchdog Civil War Quarterly as Associate Editor and Editor from 2003–2017. The Watchdog published books and columns on 19th-century material and donated all funds from publications to battlefield preservation. He is the author of several books including The Civil War Musket: A Handbook for Historical Accuracy (2006, 2011), The Unfinished Fight: Essays on Confederate Material Culture Vol. I and II (2012, 2013). He has also published four books in the Suppliers to the Confederacy series on English Arms & Accoutrements, Quartermaster stores and other European imports.