"The men have behaved themselves the best I saw them either home or abroad. Every man has seemed to be on his good behavior since we entered Atlanta. The women have been dressed up waiting for our men to commence raping but they have waited in vain. There has not been a single outrage commited in this city, a circumstance that the people say they cannot say for the rebel army." - William Dunn, Surgeon, U.S. Army.
The soldiers "..blew out the parlor and passage lights, broke up the furniture, scattered the shrieking women like New York Zouaves before the bristling bayonets of North Carolina infantry, and to crown their unfortunate exploits, committed, it is alleged, an outrage upon the person of a "phrail phair one" named Eliza Liggon" - "The Richmond Examiner, June 13/18 1861, reporting on a visit of a detachment of McCulloch rangers of New Orleans, in the establishment of Clara Coleman at Richmond. Three men were held for rape
A statement of fact. As presented above, the Confederacy codified rape as an offense (previously prosecuted under civilian law as per the 1806 "Articles of War") in 1862. With that law in place there are still "0" courts-martial for the offense of rape perpetrated by a Confederate soldier.
Eleven soldiers belonging to the 159th New York Regiment were tried for marauding and committing outrages too gross for public mention. Of these, two were perhaps 25 years of age, and the others were mere boys, varying from 17 to 20. One of the youngest of these boys turned State’s witness and pointed out those of his companions who were engaged in the outrage; the part he took being simply that of stealing fowls of which he obtained about fifteen.
According to the story of this witness, the young men went to the plantation of Mr. R. D. Darden, in Lafourche, and while he and another of his companions were engaged in stealing chickens from the negro cabins, some of the crowd broke into one of the cabins. Who broke the door in he did not know and what was done therein he did not witness. The inmates of the cabin were a negro of about 40 years in age, his wife, and his daughter, a dusky damsel of 18 or 20 summers.
For the credit of humanity we will suppose that illegal foraging was all that they first intended. When the negro found that his hen house was being despoiled of his pretty chickens, he mustered up a sufficiency of courage to put his head out of the window and beg that a few at least of the brood should be spared to him for breed. Thereupon he was assailed by foul speeches and rude threats; brickbats were sent flying against his windows, and some of them threatened to enter the house and kill the old son of _____ .
Finding that there was a movement to carry these threats into execution, the old negro climbed up into his loft where he could look down on them, as he said, “like a eagle looking down on carrion.” About the time that he got up on the loft the door was burst open and a demand was made for the man who had spoken to them from the window. The women, to shield husband and father, declared that there was no man there.
In an instant the cabin was filled, a light was struck, and as the man was no where to be seen, a purpose more fiendish than that which had induced them to enter the dwelling, took possession of the marauders. The girl was at once seized, and with violence, alike criminal and brutal, they accomplished their fiendish purposes, one after another, in the presence of the father and the mother.
They then stripped the girl of her jewelry, ear rings, finger rings, a bracelet, and some of her choicest articles of apparel, as trophies of their diabolical achievement, and having done so, left.
The Judge, in disposing of the case, said that the ringleader, one H. B. Hopkins, should be drawn and quartered, but he would only sentence him to Tortugas for life, there to labor with ball and chain; Jordan M. Lee, a youth who took an active part in the proceedings and stood at the girl’s head with the bayonet at her throat, was sent to Tortugas for ten years; the others were all sent to the same place for three years each. Their names are Henry Dennis, James Lee, D. Rafften, John Thorpe, R. Wheeler, R. Coons, J Horan and H. C. Nelson. J Reil, the boy who turned State’s witness, and G. W. Scoefield, who was proved not to have been in the crowd, were sent back to their regiments.
You argued in your post that when a leadership had no respect for the law, that opinion was sure to trickle down to the lower ranks. Given that the Northern leadership basically waged war on civilians, it is perhaps not surprising that Northern soldiers raped. The other posters may well be correct that rapes by Northern soldiers far outnumbered those by Southern soldiers. You appear to have identified the cause.
"...they visited a second time the house of Lieut. White, and after abusing the family, took his daughter, an accomplished young lady of seventeen years. After having her hands tied in front of her and the rope thrown over her shoulders, she was driven by a big negro, with curses and abuse, in front of the command toward Norfolk. Within two miles of Norfolk, they met a regiment of New York white infantry, who, with its colonel at its head, knocked over the negro driver and rescued Miss White from the negro guard, and sent her to Norfolk in a carriage."
Rape was not involved here, or at least not reported. But could it be far behind if this sort of stuff happened when troops, black or white, were allowed to ravage the civilian population, as the Federal troops apparently were in situation after situation?
That is not to say that Southerners were all pure and virtuous. I imagine that a number of female slaves had been attacked by the lower sorts of masters. Set up a bad situation, like slavery or army attacks on civilians, and you reap the consequences.