" The Sight Of Lovers Feedeth...", Soldiers' 1864 Contagious Bridal Disease

JPK Huson 1863

Brev. Brig. Gen'l
Joined
Feb 14, 2012
Location
Central Pennsylvania
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And we thought this a mere Godey's illustration, selling wedding dresses? Well it is. According to a ' study ', published in Feb. 1864, it could have been any Saturday that year and entitled " Waiting our turn in the minister's parlor. "

" The sight of lovers feedeth those in love.” —William Shakespeare, As You Like It (Act 3, Scene 4) , would be the rest. So it seemed, as war rounded it's final bend, towards a Home stretch.

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LOVE this soldier. Who needs the bride in the photograph?

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Truncated this article a little. The usual early Victorian, straying off topic made it a little hard to read. 1864 was before anyone invented moderators.

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Before anyone goes up a wall, that last sentence was just journalistic snark- both sides indulged themselves. If Southern women married Union soldiers, well, perhaps it was not so much a mark of disloyalty as a sign of plain, old Hope.

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From Ebay, a favorite ' blue ' wedding, meaning no one felt compelled to wear white and whipped cream, as it were. Not a soldier ( that we know ), just charming.

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Another flock of bridal birds, waiting to nest in post war homes, hatched in Godey's.
 

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Do I dare show this to my Baby Girl! She would roll her eyes and scoff! Way too independent for such! It is going to really take a special fella! I wait patiently for grandbabies!
Maybe the dresses would woo her to the idea?!


My daughter pulled off both, it can be done! She was a fall-down riot, too. Least contentious wedding ever planned, and in the middle of grad school, tell your daughter. Kept her name, which I guess is normal now, especially when one is in a field where it matters, papers, etc. following careers. Pretty smitten with this generation, Ashley! They seem to have picked what works for them from deep tradition, pitched the rest and it all works extremely well. Well, except we'll all be around 75 before being grandmothers.

Feel for you- four grown kids, one grandchild- and they moved to Scotland. Like they were independent or something. What's that Bard quote? " How sharper than a serpent's tooth? " :angel:
 
Love those dresses! Marriage was very different back in those days. Not always for love, frequently for convenience. (My G-grandma). Modern women can’t imagine just marrying someone because you wanted to “be settled” before you were too old..you know, 23...:nah disagree:


Ha! You know, that may be alive and financed, in 2018. Noticed a ' thing ', in past years- not for security but perhaps diving in for the wedding? Honest to goodness. Just had word of yet another- gorgeous, beautiful, ( amazingly expensive ) wedding, divorce after one year, true story. Hopefully these over-the-top weddings are becoming a thing of the past- some cost more than a couple's first house. It is a kind of ' thing ', though, where a wedding like that is ' it ', the marriage, an also-ran? Ouch.
 
Such wonderful dresses. Many didn't marry for love but then grew to love each other. Many did marry for love, examples Nathan and Mary Ann Forrest, John Hunt Morgan and Maddie Ready Morgan, U.S. Grant and Julia Dent Grant and Abraham Lincoln and Mary Todd Lincoln, to name a few.


If we look at the era ' ladies ' books, ' companions ', magazines and periodicals, romance is hugely highlighted, in the frothiest, cupidiest, riding-into-the-sunsetiest, way. I'm not saying no one married for security- heck, just posted the case where a man went shopping at the poor house for his bride, but at least marrying for love seems to have been the ideal? Unsurprising to see your famous love matches, Donna!
 
Lovely gowns! One has to wonder if, unbeknownst to these couples, some primitive gene for survival didn't kick in, after all those war deaths, and a need to marry and create more babies to replace souls lost. Then, that universal hunger for love and healing was greatest, after so much hate and violence. Love does conquer all.
 
Lovely gowns! One has to wonder if, unbeknownst to these couples, some primitive gene for survival didn't kick in, after all those war deaths, and a need to marry and create more babies to replace souls lost. Then, that universal hunger for love and healing was greatest, after so much hate and violence. Love does conquer all.


This poked one of those memory banks in my head that keeps getting more elusive the longer you chase it. Something in this, I think? May have been college and 19too-long-ago-to-admit, which also means it'd be archaic in 2018. Some study on the reasons behind the baby boom, beyond service men and women all starting life t the same time. Memory has vanished now but the hole in my head says it was there! :angel:
 
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The usual early Victorian, straying off topic made it a little hard to read. 1864 was before anyone invented moderators.
:laugh:

Love this:

"On patriotic grounds the results are eminently satisfactory, as tending to abate the animosity of the feminine haters of our country's cause. We take it that the best way to conciliate these Dixie damsels is to furnish them with good Union husbands"

:D
 
Lovely gowns! One has to wonder if, unbeknownst to these couples, some primitive gene for survival didn't kick in, after all those war deaths, and a need to marry and create more babies to replace souls lost. Then, that universal hunger for love and healing was greatest, after so much hate and violence. Love does conquer all.

This poked one of those memory banks in my head that keeps getting more elusive the longer you chase it. Something in this, I think? May have been college and 19too-long-ago-to-admit, which also means it'd be archaic in 2018. Some study on the reasons behind the baby boom, beyond service men and women all starting life t the same time. Memory has vanished now but the hole in my head says it was there! :angel:

My Nanny used to say this! She would notice if there were a lot of pregnant women around from time to time and say the men were returning from battle or even that war was coming. She would tell me to watch for these things.
Interesting! I had forgotten this until I reread the thread this morning!
 
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