Came across a Maryland Public TV program on Prostitution
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/maryland-public-tv-the-dig-civil-war-medical-issues.138413/
Got my curious, since I've seen many Consolidated Military Service Records noting soldiers' incapacitation due to syphilis or other unpleasant social maladies.
Found this first -
According to the 1860 U.S. Census, Nashville was home to 198 white prostitutes and nine referred to as “mulatto.” The city’s red-light district was a two-block area known as “Smoky Row,” where women engaged in the sex trade entertained farmers and merchants in town on business.
By 1862, though, the number of “public women” in Nashville had increased to nearly 1,500, and they were always busy. Union troops a long way from home handed their meager paychecks over to brothel keepers and street walkers with abandon, and by the spring of 1863, Rosecrans and his staff were in a frenzy over the potential impact of all that cavorting. But Rosencrans, a Catholic, wasn’t worried about mortal sin. He was worried about disease.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-curious-case-of-nashvilles-frail-sisterhood-7766757/
Related pre-existing threads, for additional edification
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-nashville-experiment-prostitution.125069/#post-1343290
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/promiscuity-and-immorality-during-the-civil-war.123450/
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/ladies-of-the-night-during-the-american-civil-war.120742/
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/me...il-war-crimes-and-trials.126022/#post-1364898
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/maryland-public-tv-the-dig-civil-war-medical-issues.138413/
Got my curious, since I've seen many Consolidated Military Service Records noting soldiers' incapacitation due to syphilis or other unpleasant social maladies.
Found this first -
According to the 1860 U.S. Census, Nashville was home to 198 white prostitutes and nine referred to as “mulatto.” The city’s red-light district was a two-block area known as “Smoky Row,” where women engaged in the sex trade entertained farmers and merchants in town on business.
By 1862, though, the number of “public women” in Nashville had increased to nearly 1,500, and they were always busy. Union troops a long way from home handed their meager paychecks over to brothel keepers and street walkers with abandon, and by the spring of 1863, Rosecrans and his staff were in a frenzy over the potential impact of all that cavorting. But Rosencrans, a Catholic, wasn’t worried about mortal sin. He was worried about disease.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-curious-case-of-nashvilles-frail-sisterhood-7766757/
Related pre-existing threads, for additional edification
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/the-nashville-experiment-prostitution.125069/#post-1343290
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/promiscuity-and-immorality-during-the-civil-war.123450/
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/ladies-of-the-night-during-the-american-civil-war.120742/
https://civilwartalk.com/threads/me...il-war-crimes-and-trials.126022/#post-1364898