Editing Henry Ward Beecher (section)

=== Marriage===
[[File:Henry Ward Beecher Chaplain.jpg|thumb|Henry Ward Beecher, circa 1878, the year he was appointed chaplain of the [[New York Army National Guard|New York National Guard]]'s 13th Regiment]]
Beecher married Eunice Bullard in 1837 after a five-year engagement. Their marriage was not a happy one; as Applegate writes, "within a year of their wedding they embarked on the classic marital cycle of neglect and nagging", marked by Henry's prolonged absences from home.{{sfn|Applegate|2006|p=158}} The couple also suffered the deaths of four of their eight children.<ref name=EGS>{{cite web|url=http://www.egs.edu/library/henry-ward-beecher/biography/ |title=Henry Ward Beecher – Biography |publisher=The European Graduate School |access-date=May 22, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130225225345/http://www.egs.edu/library/henry-ward-beecher/biography/ |archive-date=February 25, 2013 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

Beecher enjoyed the company of women, and rumors of extramarital affairs circulated as early as his Indiana days, when he was believed to have had an affair with a young member of his congregation.{{sfn|Applegate|2006|pp=197–98}} In 1858, the ''[[Brooklyn Eagle]]'' wrote a story accusing him of an affair with another young church member who had later become a prostitute.{{sfn|Applegate|2006|pp=197–98}} The wife of Beecher's patron and editor, Henry Bowen, confessed on her deathbed to her husband of an affair with Beecher; Bowen concealed the incident during his lifetime.{{sfn|McDougall|2009|pp=548–49}}

Several members of Beecher's circle reported that Beecher had had an affair with [[Edna Dean Proctor]], an author with whom he was collaborating on a book of his sermons. The couple's first encounter was the subject of dispute: Beecher reportedly told friends that it had been consensual, while Proctor reportedly told Henry Bowen that Beecher had raped her. Regardless of the initial circumstances, Beecher and Proctor allegedly then carried on their affair for more than a year.{{sfn|Applegate|2006|pp=302–05}} According to historian [[Barry Werth]], "it was standard gossip that 'Beecher preaches to seven or eight of his mistresses every Sunday evening.'"{{sfn|Werth|2009|p=20}}