Almost always, paternal authority went unchallenged and women were expected to take care of the home and all of the children, at least the white children.
One other aspect of this Southern honor or code of behavior system was service in the military, in this case, service in the Confederate army following the start of the Civil War with the attack on Fort Sumter in South Carolina. For almost all Southern white men under the age of thirty, military service was mandatory and when a young man achieved a high rank in the army, this also affected his immediate family members by providing them with additional honor, such as achieving the rank of captain with perhaps hundreds of soldiers under his command. Although education also played a major role in obtaining "honor," many young men opted for military schooling, such as with the ROTC (Reserve Officer Training...
For instance, Robert E. Lee, the leader of the Confederate armies during the war, attended West Point, along with many other Confederate military leaders, particularly "Stonewall" Jackson, considered by all Southerners as the penultimate symbol of Southern honor and
integrity. By no small coincidence, when these Southern men obtained military honors in the form of medals like the Medal of Honor for bravery on the battlefield, this newly-acquired "honor" filtered down to their families and were thus often seen as outstanding members of their communities, simply because a son had been awarded for his bravery and for outstanding performance on the battlefield.
Clearly, the distinctiveness of "honor" in Southern society came about through a number of processes, such as those mentioned above and through a strict moral code of behavior which mandated all Southern men to behave as "gentlemen" at all times and to protect the "honor" of their families at all costs. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, this familial "honor" was put to the ultimate test, especially considering that the institution of
slavery which had existed for hundreds of years in the Old South, came under extreme pressure from anti-slavery groups in the North, not to mention President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 which banned slavery in the United States. Thus, for Southern whites, their "honor" forced them to fight back so as to preserve old Southern "honor" which ultimately resulted in defeat and humiliation.
