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
© 2005-2012 Diane Siniard