The Encyclopedia of Civil War Usage: An Illustrated Compendium of the Everyday Language of Soldiers and Civilians - Hardcover

Garrison, Webb B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1581821867 ISBN 13: 9781581821864

Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing, 2001

Synopsis

There are few systematic guides to the language used by the generation that fought the American Civil War. In the 150 years since the great conflict, our language has changed, and as meanings have become obscure or lost, links with this vibrant past have dissolved and much of that which had meaning to our forefathers no longer has the same meaning to us.

What did it mean to cross the bar""? What did it mean ""to see the elephant"" or ""to go South""? Why did the armies have so-called ninety-day men and hundred-day men? What were soldiers supposed to do when their commander shouted, ""Let her go, Gallagher""? How did one ""pay tribute to Neptune""? What was a ""picket pin""? Could one make a passable meal of ""possum beer"" and ""secession bread""? How did one ""vibrate the lines, "" and why would anyone want to attempt such a maneuver?

To address this need, Webb Garrison has pored over his notes from more than thirty years of research and study to produce this dictionary and encyclopedia of words and phrases (including nicknames and slang) commonly used during the war. Where appropriate, examples and anecdotes are included to illustrate meanings. Often overlooked naval terms and esoteric formal and informal military expressions are addressed as well as short descriptions of oceangoing vessels and river craft.

More than 2,500 entries and 250 illustrations cover the terms, equipment, and organization of the three million soldiers who fought in the war.

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About this title

About the Author:

WEBB GARRISON, formerly the associate dean of Emory University and president of McKendree College, was a best-selling author of more fifty books on the Civil War, including The Unknown Civil War, Love, Lust, and Longing in the White House, The Lincoln No One Knows, and Civil War Curiosities. CHERYL GARRISON is a writer and editor who lives in Clyde, North Carolina.

From Publishers Weekly:

Gumps! Wharf lice! Ditch hunters! Though it's reasonably clear that those terms are insults, few people have any idea what they mean. Like much of the language used during the Civil War, they have vanished from everyday speech. The Encyclopedia of Civil War Usage: An Illustrated Compendium of the Everyday Language of Soldiers and Civilians by Webb Garrison (A Treasury of Civil War Tales; Civil War Curiosities) with Cheryl Garrison is the product of more than 30 years of research and writing, and was finished just days before Webb Garrison's death. Compiled from military and naval reports, diaries, letters, memoirs, eyewitness accounts, autobiographies, legislation and government reports, the book covers slang and standard words and phrases used in both the Union and Confederate armies. It should delight linguists amateur and professional as well as Civil War buffs and military historians.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 1581821867
• ISBN 13: 9781581821864
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 286