Civil War Slang and Its Meaning



    This page contains a listing of various Civil War Slang with the meaning of each.

    Do you think you would have understood what your ancestors meant by the slang terms they used? Read this list...you might just be surprised!




     


Civil War Slang

Terms

40 Dead Men

Cartridge Box

All In Three Years

Said when something went wrong

Anything to Preserve the Union

The Yankee determination to win the war

Apple Lady

Hard Cider

Arkansas Toothpick

Knife

Artillery

Camp kettles, stoves, posts, tubs, iron foundations

Bark Juice

Liquor or strong adult beverage

Barrel Shirt

Barrel worn by thieves for punishment

Beehive

Knapsack

Been through the mill

Bad day

Blowhard

A big shot or braggart

Blue Jacket

Union sailor

Blue Mass

Refers to men on sick call; named after blue pil

Bluff

Cheater

Bombproofs

A shelter from artillery attacks

Bounty

Monetary sum of money for enlistment in the Army

Bragg's Body Guard

Body lice

Bread bag

Haversack

Bread basket

Stomach

Brevet

Awarded higher rank due to meritous service in combat

Bugger

Officer

Bull Pit

Under-arrest confinement area

Bully

Yeah or Hurrah!

Bumblebee

Sound of flying miniballs

Bummer

A loafer or forager

Bummer's Cap

Regulation fatigue or forage cap

Bust Head

Home-brewed or camp-brewed beer

Buttermilk Cavalry

Term infantry had for cavalry

Butternuts

Yellowish-brown dyed uniforms made of copperas and walnut hulls, when grey coloring was in short stock

Cabbaging

Term for stealing

Camp canard

False report believed by many in camp

Carte de Visite

Photograph on a small card

Cashier

Usually dishonorable dismissal from army

Chicken guts

Officer's gold braiding on his cuff

Chief cook and bottle washer

Person capable of doing many things

Chin Music

Term for conversation

Clink

Jail or prison; originates from a prison in London on Clink Street

Company Q

Term for the sick list

Conscription

To be drafted, not volunteered

Contrabands

Fugitive slaves who sought protection behind Northern lines

Coosh

Term for hard tack to describe when it was soaked in water and fried in bacon grease to make it edible

Copperhead

Northerner with Southern sympathies

Cracker line

Line of transportation of food supplies

Creeper

Soldier's frying pan used early in the war

Devil Fish

Term for fish-shaped Confederate torpedo

the Dictator

Seacoast mortar used during Petersburg siege

Diggings

Term for a Soldier's camp

Dog Collar

Army issued cravat

Dog Robber

Detailed cook from regular ranks

Done to a turn

Something had been completed or accomplished satisfactorily

Dragoon

Cavalry with firearms

Duds

Clothing

Durance Vile

Prison foul

Essence of Coffee

Civil War form of instant coffee

Fairy fleet

Boats carrying trade between sides at Fredericksburg

Fancy girl

Prostitute

Fast trick

Woman known for loose morals

Fighting under the black flag

Soldiers killing lice

Fire and fall back

To vomit

Fit as a fiddle

Healthy, feeling good

Fit to be tied

Angry

Flux

Diarrhea

Forlorn hope

Term for a party selected to begin an attack

French leave

AWOL

Fresh Fish

New recruit

Gal-boy

Term for an effeminate man or homosexual

Gallinippers

Insects or mosquitoes

Ginned cotton

Flower bread

Give the cold shoulder

Serving someone the shoulder of an animal cold to suggest that the house guest had over-extended his/her welcome

Giving the vermin a parole

Throwing away clothes infected with lice

Going down the line

Paying a visit to a brothel

Goober grabbers

Term for Georgia troops

Goober peas

Peanuts

Goobers

Peanuts

Gravel

Condition caused by lack of green vegetables

Greenbacks

Money

Greenhorn

Officer

Grey back

Term used by Northern troops for Confederates meaning lice

Hard case

Tough guy; someone who is rough and tough

Hard knocks

A tough break

Hayfoot, strawfoot

Command used to teach recruits difference between left and right

Here's your mule

Term infantry used to insult the cavalry because they didn't use their feet for their own transportation

Hoof it

To march

Hop, step, jump

Early 2-wheeled ambulance

Horizontal refreshments

Term meaning to have sexual relations with a prostitute

Hornets

Term for bullets as they whizzed past a person's head

Horse collar

Term for a soldier's blanket roll

Horse sense

Smart or on the ball

Hospital rats

Person who fakes an illness

Housewife

Sewing kit

How come you so

Home-brewed or camp-brewed beer or other alcoholic beverages

Hunkey dorey

Everything is great or terrific

Irish shanty

An outhouse

Iron clad possum

Armadillo dinner

I.W.

In the war

Jailbird

A criminal

Jawings

Talking

Jayhawked

Obtained without the knowledge or permission of the owner

Jeff Davis' Pets

Confederate western troop's name for A.N.V.

Jonah

Person who is perceived to be a jinx or carries bad luck with him

Let 'er rip

Go ahead and start

Little coot

Confederate slang for a Federal soldier

Long sweetening

Molasses

Lucifer

Match

Mind your beeswax

Pay attention to your own affairs and not others; beeswax was used to fill pock marks and when it was to hot or the lady was sitting near a fire the beeswax would melt and women were not supposed to call attention to another woman's problems

Mudsill

Unkind Southern term for a Northerner

Mule

Meat

Muster in, Muster out

Enlistment and Discharge

Night blindness

Condition caused by lack of green vegetables

Nob

A person who is superior or acts superior to others

Nokum stiff

Liquor or strong adult beverage

Oh-be-joyful

Home-brewed or camp-brewed beer or strong adult beverage

Oil of gladness

Home-brewed or camp-brewed beer or strong adult beverage

Old scratch

The Devil

Opening of the ball

Units waiting to move into battle

Paleface

A new recruit or fresh fish

Parley

Term for a conference from the French word "parler" meaning "to speak"

Parlor soldier

Insult for soldiers of little merit or worth

Patent Bureau

Knapsack

Peas on a trencher

Breakfast call

Pepperbox

Pistol

Pie eater

Man from a rural area

Possum

A buddy or friend

Pumpkin rinds

Grumpy term for Lieutenants; name comes from their shoulder straps

Quartermaster hunter

Shot or shell that passed overhead and far into the rear

Quick step

Diarrhea

Rag out

To dress well

Red Badge of Courage

Wounded

Riding a Dutch gal

To consort with a prostitute

Rio

Coffee

Roast beef

Noon meal

Rocks

Money

Robber's row

An area in Port Royal, South Carolina, where Southern soldier's went to an area owned by Sutlers, where troops would spend their pay on merchandise and get "robbed"

Salt horse

Pickled beef

Sand happers

Term for South Carolina soldiers

Sardine box

Cap box

Sawbones

Surgeon

Scarse as hen’s teeth

Something rare or scarce

Secesh

A Southern sympathizer or also the Northern term for seceders

Shakes

Malaria

Sham fight

Mock battle

Shebang

A shelter tent or a pup tent

Sheet iron cracker

Term for hard tack

Shin plasters

Term for paper money

Skedaddle

To run away or leave in a hurry

Skunk

Officer

Sleep tight

Term comes from the early rope beds during the Civil War that needed to be tightened with a key to keep tight

Smoked Yanks

Union soldiers cooking over a fire

Snug as a bug

Very comfortable

Soldier’s disease

Opium addiction or withdrawl symptoms of an opium addict because opium was used in hospitals to relieve the pain

Somebody’s darling

Said of a dead body

Sound on the goose

A wealthy or well-off Southerne

Sow belly

Bacon

Sparking

Kissing

Spondulix

Money

Sunday soldiers

Insult for soldiers of little merit

Sutler

Businessmen appointed to be camp vendors, who charged inflated prices on goods

Take an image

Have your picture taken

Tar water

Liquor

Teeth duller

Hard tack

They saw the Elephant

Experience in combat

Tight

Drunk

Toad sticker

Expression for a knife, bayonet or sword

To be mustered out

To be killed in action

Toeing the mark

Doing the job

Top rail

First class

To see the Elephant

Meaning not to receive what you were hoping for; short-changed or cheated

Traps

A soldier's belongings or equipment

Uppity

Term for someone who is conceited or believes himself to be above his status in life

Up the spout

When all cannons were loaded and ready to fire

Vanguard

In the front row of advancing troops

Wallpapered

Drunk

Web feet

Term cavalry had for infantry

Who wouldn’t be a soldier?

Who cares?

Worm Castle

Hard tack

Worth a goober

Something that amounts to a lot

Yellow hammers

Term for Alabama troops

Zu Zu

Zouave soldiers


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