Confederate Sympathies

Same-Sex Romance, Disunion, and Reunion in the Civil War Era

By Andrew Donnelly

Confederate Sympathies

296 pp., 6.125 x 9.25, 19 halftones, notes, bibl., index, 89,448 words

  • Paperback ISBN: 978-1-4696-8559-5
    Published: April 2025
  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-8558-8
    Published: April 2025

Gender and American Culture

Paperback Available April 2025, but pre-order your copy today!

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The archive of the Civil War era is filled with depictions of men's same-sex affections and intimacies. Across antebellum campaign biographies, proslavery fiction, published memoirs of Confederate veterans and Union prisoners of war, Civil War novels, newspaper accounts, and the war's historiography, homoerotic symbolism and narratives shaped the era's politics, as well as the meaning and memory of the war. The Civil War, in turn, shaped the development of homosexuality in the United States. In a book full of surprising insights, Andrew Donnelly uncovers this deeply consequential queer history at the heart of nineteenth-century national culture.

Donnelly's sharp analytical eye particularly focuses on the ways Northern white men imagined their relationship with white Southerners through narratives of same-sex affection. Assessing the cultural work of these narratives, Donnelly argues that male homoeroticism enabled proslavery coalition building among antebellum Democrats, fostered sympathy for the national retreat from Reconstruction, and contributed to the victories of Lost Cause ideology. Linking the era's political and cultural history to the history of homosexuality, Donnelly reveals that male homoeroticism was not inherently radical but rather cultivated political sympathy for slavery, the Confederacy, and white supremacy.

About the Author

Andrew Donnelly is assistant professor of English at the University of Memphis.
For more information about Andrew Donnelly, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"From memoirs to dime novels to Henry James's canonical writings, Donnelly excavates compelling evidence of same-sex desire during a period that most historians have rendered silent. Confederate Sympathies is a major contribution to both Civil War history and sexuality studies."– Jim Downs, Gettysburg College

“With wit and striking originality, Confederate Sympathies reveals the tangled connections between same-sex friendship, homoeroticism, white supremacy, and partisan politics during and after the Civil War. Donnelly’s genuinely impressive research reinterprets familiar texts and introduces us to new ones, tracing an alternative history of masculinity in the mid-nineteenth century. The book greatly enriches our understanding of same-sex desire and the racial politics of the Civil War era.”--Sarah E. Chinn, Hunter College, CUNY