Civil War time
Subtitle: temporality & identity in America, 1861-1865
By: Cheryl A. Wells.
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 2005
Place of publication: Athens
Language: eng
Number of pages: 195
Subjects: Time -- Social aspects -- United States -- History -- 19th century.; Time -- Psychological aspects -- History -- 19th century.; Group identity -- United States -- History -- 19th century.; National characteristics, American.; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Social aspects.; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Psychological aspects.
Description: "In antebellum America, both North and South emerged as modernizing, capitalist societies. Work bells, clock towers, and personal timepieces increasingly instilled discipline on one's day, which already was ordered by religious custom and nature's rhythms. The Civil War changed that, argues Cheryl A. Wells, by overriding antebellum schedules and playing havoc with people's perception and use of time. For those closest to the fighting, the war's effect on time included disrupted patterns of sleep, extended hours of work, conflated hours of leisure, indefinite prison sentences, challenges to the gender order, and desecration of the Sabbath."

"Wells calls this phenomenon "battle time." To create a modern war machine, military officers tried to graft the antebellum authority of the clock onto the actual and mental terrain of the Civil War. However, as Wells's analysis of the Manassas and Gettysburg battles shows, military engagements followed their own logic, often without regard for the discipline imposed by clocks. Wells also looks at how battle time's effects spilled over into periods of inaction, and she covers not only the experiences of soldiers but also those of nurses, prisoners of war, slaves, and civilians."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-185) and index.
Table of contents: title: Time lost, time found : the Confederate victory at Manassas and the Union defeat at Bull Run; title: "An hour too late" : the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg; title: "Like a wheel in a watch" : soldiers, camp, and battle time; title: Battle time : gender, modernity, and Civil War hospitals; title: Doing time : the cannon, the clock, and civil war prisons; title: Epilogue : antebellum temporalities in the postbellum period.