This information was relentlessly compiled by yours truly.
 Glossary of Civil War Slang and Terms |
| Yankee and noted Reb terms. |
|
| "All in Three years" |
Usually said when something went wrong. |
| "Anything to preserve the Union" |
Yankee determination to win the war. |
| "Beehive" |
Knapsack. |
| "Blue Mass" |
Refers to men on sick call; named after blue pill. |
| "Bombproof" |
A shelter from artillery attack; those not exposed to danger. |
| "Bummer" |
A loafer, or forager; person safe in the rear. |
| "Bummer's Cap" |
Regulation fatigue or forage cap. |
| "Camp canard" |
False report believed by many in camp. |
| "carte de visite" |
Photograph on a small card. |
| "Cashier" |
Usually dishonorably dismissal from army. |
| "Copperhead" |
A northerner with southern sympathies; against Lincoln's war policy. |
| "Cracker Line" |
Line for 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 relentlessly in Petersburg seige. |
| "Sound on the goose" |
Refers to Slavery. Southern. |
| "Mudsill" |
Unkind Southern term for a Yankee. A lowlife. |
| "Little Coot" |
Confederate slang for a yankee. |
| "Hayfoot, Strawfoot" |
Command used to teach raw recruits difference between left and right (respectively). |
| "French leave" |
AWOL. |
| "To be mustered out" |
To be killed in action. |
| "Hop, step, jump" |
Early 2-wheeled ambulance. |
| "Horizontal refreshment" |
(blush) Making whoopie. |
| "Fast trick" |
(another blush)Woman of low morals;loose woman. |
| "Pie eater" |
Man from rural area. |
| "Paleface" |
New recruit, fresh fish. |
| "Somebody's Darling" |
Said of a dead body. |
| "Secesh" |
Northern term for seceders. |
| "Robber's Row" |
Sutler's area. |
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