Reconstructing the Self and the American: Civil War Veterans in Egypt

Tarık Tansu Yiğit

Yiğit's work will provide a window into the network of ex-Confederate and Union veterans who served in the Egyptian army in the 1870s as mercenaries. Concerned about financial and professional anxieties during Reconstruction, these officers found a common cause far from home. Egyptian sojourn provided them with stability and opportunity to restore their dignity as fathers, husbands, or soldiers. The American version of the “Arabian Nights” proves that Reconstruction extended far beyond the US borders.