BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - “Civil War Life: Sex, Lies and Tintypes” is the theme of a gathering next weekend in Baton Rouge.
The Baton Rouge Civil War Round Table’s second symposium includes four speakers and eight living history displays featuring people who will chat with all comers about various aspects of the period.
At least two speakers will touch on sex and violence. Southeastern Louisiana University history Professor Samuel Hyde Jr.’s topic is “The Steamy Side of War: Brothels, Sexual Violence, and the Implications of Civil War Criminal Behavior.” And Terry Jones, professor emeritus at the University of Louisiana-Monroe, will talk about the Louisiana Tigers - a battalion of drunken brawlers whose name eventually was taken to mean all Louisiana troops, and who gave Louisiana State University its nickname.
Louisiana State University Press released Jones’ book “Lee’s Tigers Revisited: The Louisiana Infantry in the Army of Northern Virginia” late last year. It’s a greatly expanded edition of Jones’ first book, which was a History Book Club selection and won an award for the year’s best book about Louisiana history when it was published in 1987.
Jones describes the Tigers as “the premier shock troops of the Army of Northern Virginia,” units which played key roles in many battles. But, he wrote, “The Louisiana Tigers were the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde of the Confederacy. Some were drunken, lawless renegades who plundered homes, businesses, and farms and often posed a greater threat to the South’s civilians than did the Yankees.”
Steven Davis of Atlanta, the book critic for the Civil War News, will speak about “Keeping the Home Fires Burning: Women and Children’s Roles During the Civil War.”
Bill Gurley, a pharmacology professor at the University of Arkansas Medical Sciences in Little Rock will talk about highlights in the medical casebook of Dr. Henry Dye, a Texas surgeon in the Trans Mississippi Department, which he is transcribing and annotating for publication.
His presentation is complemented by living historian Trent James, a retired physician who plays the part of an old country doctor, answering questions about Civil War-era medicines and treatments, said John Potts, program director for the Civil War Round Table.
The symposium April 29 costs $95 or $75 each for groups of five or more. A Sunday tour of Port Hudson costs only the state park’s $4 entry fee.
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