{"id":41,"date":"2006-12-26T14:26:50","date_gmt":"2006-12-26T19:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/slang-and-the-civil-war\/"},"modified":"2006-12-26T14:26:50","modified_gmt":"2006-12-26T19:26:50","slug":"slang-and-the-civil-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/41\/slang-and-the-civil-war\/","title":{"rendered":"Slang and the Civil War"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"896db7480f66673a7b164fbcd4905391\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-8134560547846945\";\r\n\/* 468x60 tha *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"1487607395\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 468;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 60;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>Slang has always been with us. There is civilian slang and military slang and they are often totally different words for the same things. Here is a collection of common slang terms used by soldiers in the civil war.<\/p>\n<dl>\n<dt>accoutrements- <em>A soldier&#8217;s fighting equipments, made of leather.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>a beat- <em>A lazy soldier who dodges work.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>bombproof- <em>An underground shelter, used also to describe officers who never went to the front.<\/em><\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n<dl>\n<dt><em \/><\/dt>\n<dt>bones- <em>Dice.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dt \/><\/dl>\n<dl>\n<dt>buck and gag- <em>A form of punishment.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>carriage- <em>The wooden mount for artillery, also used to describe a lady&#8217;s shape.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>dogrobber- <em>The soldier of a group who cooks for everyone else.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>dog tent- <em>A small, two-man tent.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>first rate- <em>Feeling well and very happy.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>forage- <em>To search for food from nearby farms.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>Fresh Fish- <em>New recruits.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>greenbacks- <em>Money or script.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>gum blanket- <em>Rubber-coated cloth sheet used as a rain cover.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>haversack- <em>Cloth bag for carrying the rations &#038; utensils.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>homespun- <em>A clothing item made of home-spun cloth.<\/em> \t<\/dt>\n<dt>housewife- <em>A sewing kit.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>horse sense- <em>Smart or to use good sense.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>Johnny- <em>Union soldier&#8217;s term for a Confederate soldier.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>Jonah- <em>A soldier who always brought misfortune and bad luck with him.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>paper collar man- <em>Someone who has money or is financially well off.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>picket- <em>A guard or guard duty.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>sacred soil- <em>Virginia mud.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>sawbones- <em>The surgeon of the regiment.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>seeing the elephant- <em>A man&#8217;s first experience in combat.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>shebang- <em>A temporary shelter of poles &#038; branches.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>shirker- <em>A soldier who would not do his duty on the battlefield.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>smart like a fox- <em>Slick and cunning.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>tough as a knot- <em>In good health.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>top rail- <em>The best place to be.  Number One!<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>vittles- <em>food or rations.<\/em><\/dt>\n<dd>\n<\/dd>\n<dt>Yank- <em>Confederate soldier&#8217;s term for a Union soldier.<\/em><\/dt>\n<\/dl>\n\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thehistoricalarchive.com%2Fhappenings%2F41%2Fslang-and-the-civil-war%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=450&amp;action=like&amp;colorscheme=light\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" allowTransparency=\"true\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px;margin-top:5px;\"><\/iframe>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Slang has always been with us. There is civilian slang and military slang and they are often totally different words for the same things. Here is a collection of common slang terms used by soldiers in the civil war. accoutrements- A soldier&#8217;s fighting equipments, made of leather. a beat- A lazy soldier who dodges work. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thehistoricalarchive.com\/happenings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}