Arts and Humanities Commons^™

“To Think Of The Subject Unmans Me:” An Exploration Of Grief And Soldiering Through The Letters Of Henry Livermore Abbott, Rebekah N. Oakes

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

“‘To think of the subject unmans me:’ An Exploration of Grief and Soldiering Through the Letters of Henry Livermore Abbott,” explores the challenges to both the Victorian ideals of manliness and the culture of death presented by the American Civil War. The letters of Henry Abbott, a young officer serving with the 20^th Massachusetts, display the tension between his upper class New England world in which gentleman were to operate within an ideal of emotional control and sentimentality, and his new existence on the ground level of the Army of the Potomac. After the death of his brother, this …