Why Women Riding Horses Bothered Confederate Veterans So Much 50 Years After The Civil War

In the years following the Civil War, the memory of the great conflict became a significant part of the identity of the country and those who had participated. Veterans gathered annually for reunions and kept nostalgia alive for as long as there were still those around who remembered. It wasn’t all just swapping stories and reliving youth, as the groups sometimes addressed issues that spoke to them. This included Confederate soldiers being bothered by the unusual topic of how women rode horses, and doing something about it nearly 50 years after the war. In 1911, 46 years had passed since the final battles of the Civil War. That year, Confederate veterans gathered in Nashville, Tennessee for a reunion. The ranks were abuzz with <a href="https://www.newspapers.com/image/566183198/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">controversy</a> that had just occurred at a veteran gathering that had taken place in Little Rock, Arkansas. There, it was noted that several girls had ridden horses in a celebratory parade honoring the old soldiers. However, the fact that they rode their mounts fully astride rather than side saddle shocked many. <a href="https://historianandrew.medium.com/why-women-riding-horses-bothered-confederate-veterans-so-much-50-years-after-the-civil-war-153989f78446">Read More</a>