'Forsaking All Others': Impact of Wives' Social Classes on U.S. Military Officers' Political Loyalties in 1860-1861

Abstract

This thesis examines how the social classes of military wives influenced U.S. officers’ loyalty decisions prior to the beginning of the Civil War in 1861. The scholarship concludes that these loyalty decisions were made independently by the husband, and primarily based on how an officer’s home state voted on the secession question. It considers a wife’s social class to be no more important than other random, secondary factors that might have entered into a man’s decision-making process. This thesis attempts to show how a woman’s social class was an avenue for her to develop a particular type of marital partnership that rested on a foundation of sacramental loyalty. U.S. military officers generally allowed themselves to be bound by this loyalty, regardless of their oaths to faithfully serve their country.