Civil War Time: Temporality and Identity in America, 1861-1865 (review)

According to Cheryl Wells, the Civil War changed American society from the perspective of "time." This richly researched and well-written study adds to the historiography of "time scholars" and further develops arguments by previous historians dedicated to symbols of a modern societies; for Wells, it is well represented by capturing the importance of time, along with her subjects who attempted to gain control over it in their increasingly regimented lives—who were reminded of it by clock towers, work bells, and personal timepieces. Wells argues that the path of Northern and Southern antebellum societies had been emerging toward modernity but was temporarily interrupted by war, their course coming to a proverbial standstill as "battle time" began to rule the day. Before, one's day was represented with different types of time that vied for control, such as "clock times, natural times, God's time, and personal time" (1). However, the initiation of battle time upset the natural order of traditional timekeeping. In so doing, battle time might result in less time for sleep, leisure, and the Sabbath but longer time dedicated because of the exigencies of war or perhaps new forms of employment. It might challenge gender roles, where women saw such a shift in hospitals or perhaps in prisons, where time control extended incarceration of captives.

Wells writes that the Civil War was a "new complicated time to the American people, as events on the battlefields impinged on, overrode, and rearranged antebellum schedules. Clocks and watches, modernity's symbols, lost some of the authority they had increasingly possessed in the antebellum era. . . . However, booming cannons superseded watches' and clocks' ability to order society, and God's time became increasingly secular in the face of battle" (5). The author allows cotemporaries to clarify the fog of battle by placing battle time in context with examinations of First Bull Run and Gettysburg. In Virginia, Yankee generals hoped the clock might regulate coordinated attacks, but it only led to failure, while in Pennsylvania, Confederate subordinate commanders met similar circumstances—at the same time, civilians had been dramatically affected by battle time, well represented in the story of Jenny Wade.

Next, Wells moves away from the battlefield and goes behind the lines. A strict adherence to the clock during the monotonous camp life might be interrupted occasionally by elements, the Sabbath, or battle time. Indeed, Wells explains that battle time might dominate God's time, indicated at Bull Run, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, Spotsylvania, and Appomattox. Moreover, time in battle and its aftermath disrupted the natural order of the clock not only from hospitals being crowded with incoming patients but also with the evacuation of those convalescing before the fight. Gender roles were complicated in hospitals with women gaining more authority, only to be relegated to their antebellum status after the conflict. Although their lives were altered, it was still better than the author's next topic, the plight of the prisoner of war.

After detailing the rehabilitative nature of prewar prisons and penitentiary systems, the author admits that Civil War prisons "fulfilled a different function" (92). Here, battle time again dominated natural time, mechanical time, and religious time as the consequences of battle (after the prisoner exchange breakdown) inundated prisons. The drudgery of prison routine is well highlighted, although Wells does miss out on the importance of the varieties of employment by prison administrators and how that "time" functioned within their specific prison communities. In addition, Wells had an opportunity to investigate prison escapes, with some plans set on "clock time," leading to the importance of the timepiece for coordinated break outs. Despite overlooking such matters, Wells has put together an important work that investigates battle time and its subsequent aftermath. Indeed, as she sums up...