Reviewed by:

• Friendly Enemies: Soldier Fraternization throughout the American Civil War by Lauren K. Thompson
• Sarah J. Purcell

Lauren K. Thompson's Friendly Enemies: Soldier Fraternization throughout the American Civil War is the kind of book that immediately becomes useful for teaching classes on the U.S. Civil War; scholars and general readers alike will want to be sure to have this volume at hand. Thompson thoroughly explores the topic of fraternization among Union and Confederate soldiers in six briskly written and expertly researched chapters. The author documents many specific moments when Union and Confederate soldiers met and traded newspapers, food, and conversation—all of which she places in specific military contexts. Friendly Enemies is an excellent example of how much texture a tight focus on the soldier experience can add to both the social and the military history of warfare.

Thompson's thorough research provides evidence of Union-Confederate fraternization from the beginning to the end of the Civil War in various battlefield contexts. She is careful to provide details of when and where soldiers met, placing them in circumstances of specific campaigns, even though the chapters are organized by theme rather than strictly by chronology. In the introduction, Thompson asks, "Why … would men risk their standing in the army or even their lives to trade with men they were moments earlier trying to kill?" (p. 2). She answers that essential question by arguing, "Men who fraternized described it as enjoyable, peaceful, and beneficial. … At the heart of all these reasons, however, was the notion of choice. Men fraternized because the military hierarchy and the harsh realities of warfare caused an identity crisis for citizen soldiers" (p. 2). Thompson's extensive evidence is quite persuasive that soldiers sought out cross-regional kinship to help salve this identity crisis and the rigors of war. Specific chapters place soldier fraternization in the context of other types of mid-nineteenth-century masculine, fraternal socialization and stress the exchange of goods, newspapers, and information across enemy lines as an expression of manly agency in an otherwise controlled and frightening existence. The interesting chapter on ceasefires especially illuminates the usefulness of such moments toward the end of the war, and the concluding chapter on memory focuses on how soldiers framed their contacts in their memoirs and on how fraternization may have paved the way for some kinds of fraternal exchange between Union and Confederate veterans.

Thompson's argument that fraternization created moments of common soldier identity among enemies ultimately raises some important historical questions that her own analysis does not resolve. She is very clear from the start of the book that soldier fraternization was reserved for white men: "fraternization was a ritual denied to black men, and would be indicative of race relations in postwar America" (p. 8). She vividly recounts how, for example, white Union infantrymen could tell when Black troops were assigned to picket duty "because the Confederates did not honor the neutral zone and never ceased fire," as they often did when white soldiers approached (p. 133). Thompson suggests repeatedly that fraternization among white troops created a racialized "soldier" [End Page 346] identity that influenced both Reconstruction and the strains of Civil War public memory that downplayed emancipation and the Black war experience. Thompson could enhance the significance of her work if she emphasized this theme even more explicitly throughout and showed directly how wartime experiences set the stage for white men to reconcile on terms that excluded Black veterans and formerly enslaved people after the war.

Ultimately, the fascinating themes, good writing, and evocative quotations Thompson provides will make Friendly Enemies a very useful book. Thompson adds specificity to important questions of white soldier identity formation and to the experience of war.

审核人：

• 友好的敌人：劳伦·汤普森（Lauren K. Thompson）
• 莎拉·珀塞尔（Sarah J.Purcell）

劳伦·汤普森（Lauren K. Thompson）的友善敌人：《美国内战期间的士兵兄弟会》是一本可立即用于教授美国内战课程的书。学者和一般读者都希望确保掌握此书。汤普森（Thompson）在六个轻快地撰写并经过专门研究的章节中，彻底探讨了同盟和同盟国士兵之间的兄弟情谊这一主题。作者记录了工会和同盟国士兵见面并交换报纸，食物和谈话时的许多特定时刻，所有这些时刻她都被置于特定的军事环境中。友善的敌人是一个很好的例子，表明对士兵经验的密切关注可以为战争的社会历史和军事历史增添多少魅力。

汤普森（Thompson）的深入研究提供了从南北战争开始到结束在各种战场环境中联盟与联邦之间的兄弟情谊的证据。她谨慎地提供了士兵们何时何地会面的详细信息，将其置于特定战役的环境中，即使这些章节是按主题而不是按时间顺序排列的。在引言中，汤普森问道：“为什么……男人会冒着身分参战甚至冒着生命危险与早先试图杀死的男人进行交易？” （第2页）。她通过争辩来回答这个重要的问题：“兄弟的人将其描述为令人愉悦，和平与有益。...然而，所有这些原因的核心是选择的概念。

汤普森的论证认为，兄弟会化使敌人之间具有相同的士兵身份时刻，这最终提出了一些重要的历史问题，而她自己的分析并不能解决这些问题。从这本书的开头，她就很清楚地指出，士兵兄弟会是为白人保留的：“兄弟会是黑人不接受的一种仪式，将表明战后美国的种族关系”（第8页）。她生动地讲述了例如白人联盟步兵如何分辨何时将黑人部队分配到纠察队，“因为同盟国没有尊重中立区并且从未停火，就像白人士兵接近时一样（第133页）” 。汤普森（Thompson）反复提出，白人部队之间的兄弟情谊造就了一个种族化的“士兵” [End Page 346]影响重建和内战公共记忆压力的身份，淡化了解放和黑人战争的经历。如果汤普森在整个过程中更加明确地强调这个主题，并直接表明战时经历如何为白人提供调解的条件，那么白人就可以排除黑人，而退伍军人和战后曾被奴役的人则可以增强她的工作意义。

最终，汤普森提供的引人入胜的主题，出色的写作和令人回味的语录将使《友好的敌人》成为一本非常有用的书。汤普森为白人士兵身份形成的重要问题和战争经验增加了特异性。