Description
Many sold sex as a means of survival. Soldiers left home for a cause, but many also sought adventure that led to prostitutes. Peer pressure and a sense of new found freedom brought many soldiers to are trying to find out sex workers. Without an official policy regulating prostitution for either the Union army or the Confederate army, officers relied on their own beliefs or priorities in crafting orders on the subject of prostitution. The sex trade also came under the scrutiny of moral reformers and military doctors.
Whilst prostitution and the spread of venereal diseases likely did not have an effect on the duration of the war, the sex trade made a significant affect at the short term social status and long term health of thousands of people.