Memphis  "Bee Hive Of Women Of Ill Fame"

Memphis, located in the southwestern corner of Tennessee, is an old Mississippi River town that was founded in 1819 on the site of an old Chickasaw Indian village. Because of its excellent river and railroad communications, Memphis was an important military center throughout the Civil War. All of western and central Tennessee was strongly pro-Confederate, and the vast cotton-growing regions around Memphis provided many soldiers for the Confederate armies. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest was one of the most prominent of the Southern leaders whose home was in Memphis.

On the morning of June 6, 1862, thousands of Memphis civilians in a holiday mood gathered on the riverbank to cheer Rebel ironclads in a battle against the Union navy. They were staggered when all but one of the eight Confederate ships were sunk or captured and the city was immediately forced to surrender to Union forces. From then until the end of the war, Memphis remained in Union hands. It was an important supply depot and staging area for Union operations in the war's western theater, and its streets were thronged with Yankee soldiers.

Occupation by thousands of Union soldiers changed the Southern city dramatically. A Memphis newspaper reported in April 1863: "our city... is a perfect bee hive of of women of ill fame. The public conveyances have become theirs by right of conquest." The next month the paper observed: "When a woman could 'ply her vocation' no longer in St. Louis, Chicago, or Cincinnati, she was fitted up in her best attire and shipped to Memphis, and in more cases than one to prevent the 'package' from being miscarried, was accompanied by gentlemen (heaven save the mark) with the insignia of rank." The problem became so bad that the local population threatened to rise up against the soldiers and their prostitutes. Responding to complaints, the provost marshal closed all houses of ill repute. The order was only briefly enforced, however, and in a few months the houses were in full operation again.

Fascinating Fact:  A Union officer from Ohio wrote: "Memphis... can boast of being one of the first places of female prostitution on the continent. Virtue is scarcely known within the limits of the city."


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