“The Intimate Language of Friendship with Men”: Same-Sex Attraction in the Civil War Fiction of S. Weir Mitchell

Philadelphia neurologist Silas Weir Mitchell (1829–1914) is best known for his pioneering research on phantom limb pain and his rest cure for nervous women. But he was also a novelist whose fiction tackled controversial topics such as homosexuality. This essay examines Mitchell’s novel Roland Blake (1886) in the context of nineteenth-century sexology. The novel features two Union Army soldiers, Roland Blake and Philip Francis, whose affectionate bond survives the Civil War and Blake’s marriage to Olivia Wynne. Mitchell’s positive depiction of these soldiers’ homoerotic bond contrasts with the negative view of lesbianism presented in the relationship between Olivia and her cousin, Octopia Darnell. This essay explores the reasons behind Mitchell’s sexual double standard, and speculates about Mitchell’s own sexual orientation.