Common Men in Uncommon Times: Examining Archaeological and Historical Evidence to Reconstruct the Daily Lives of Civil War Sailors

Summary

The American Civil War was a tumultuous period in history for the United States, forcing brother against brother in a battle over the secession of the Confederate States. To study the Civil War sailor, a wealth of archival information exists in the form of personal narratives. Like their ships, naval crews were very much a reflection of where they were built and supplied. This paper extracts evidence for shipboard life from these sources and seeks to contextualize the daily lives of sailors within their societal framework. The primary sources predictably reflect a standardized lifestyle, but was there any variation between Confederate and United States shipboard conditions? Historical evidence is being supplemented with archaeologically-recovered materials from CSS Alabama and USS Tulip to determine whether the socio-economic and cultural characteristics of the United States, Confederacy, or the vessel’s nation of manufacture were reflected in their shipboard living conditions and associated personal effects.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Papers in Naval Archaeology: Privateers; Civil War Harbor Defenses, Ships and Men; and the Rise of Submarines in the Last Century   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 184