“Don't Fear My Manhood”: Rank and Station in the Civil War Era

Using a court transcript from the murder trial of veteran George W. Cole to look backwards into the American Civil War, this paper examines how white men in the Union army measured themselves not only through rank but by the distance they traveled from the bottom. In other words, while their highest rank mattered dearly, the imagined lowliness of their beginnings was a key part of the equation. In an era of so-called “self-made manhood” Cole and his comrades found the African-American army a particularly advantageous place to obtain promotions. But among the USCTs they immediately collided with companies of ex-slaves who calibrated manhood to a different worldview. Through court records, pension files, and regimental papers, this paper will flesh out this roily world of rank hungry men, race, promotion, and the making and unmaking of manhood.