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

by Webb Garrison and Cheryl Garrison

Book Overview

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...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1581821867
• ISBN13: 9781581821864
• Release Date: April 2001
• Publisher: Cumberland House Publishing
• Length: 286 Pages
• Weight: 1.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Civil War Usage

I purchased this book to help me understand the terms used during the Civil War for a history project I am working on. The book is easy to read and the terms that I needed where easy to find as well as suggestions for terms that went along with what I was looking for. It will be a great addition to my history part of my home library and the price was reasonable. The book has also spurred my interest in other subjects connected to some of the terms I found in the book. Great book for anyone working on the Civil War.

CW Encyclopedia

A helpful guide to words & phrases current in the Civil War. Entries, alphabetically arranged, are brief and concise, sometimes overly so. Military ceremonies are mainly ignored, and in one case not quite correct. Still, very useful to explain those obscure references one finds in diaries and newspaper accounts.

The Encyclopedia of Civil War usage

An invaluable tool to help you understand change in word usage--excellent for reinactors, writers and scholars of the Civil War era.

The supreme reference tool for the American Civil War

This is undoubtedly one of the greatest reference works about the American Civil War, written by one of the most renowned scholars in this field. The 2,500 entries range from 'A1' and 'abaft' to 'Zouave'. There is a rich collection of slang terms that represent the speech of both sides in the War as well as entries that refer to weapons and machines. There are also many nicknames of generals and high-ranking military officers (for which there are useful biographies provided)and eponymous phrases such as 'Sherman's neckties' and 'Sherman's sentinels' etc. There is also a great deal of information about places, battles, prisoner of war camps etc. This book will be enjoyed both by the historian and the linguist. Here one can find practically every term or phrase associated with this period of history. Admittedly if one scanned carefully in the Civil War section of Paul Dickson's excellent work 'War Slang' or in Robert Hendrickson's books 'Whistlin' Dixie' and 'Yankee Talk' then one may well come across the odd entry not incluuded here. However, this work constitutes the greatest colletion in a single volume. As a non-American the American Civil War has always both interested me and bewildered me. It seems that popular opinion has often simplified the causes of the war. In the entry on 'Slavery' the authors declare that this was "not the only issue dividing the north from the south". Indeed, there were many other political and economic reasons. It is a fallacy to go on believing that the South was the side of the baddies who wanted slaves while the North were the goodies who wanted to free the slaves. The Americans had fought bravely to secure their own independence. It does not seem illogical why an extremely large section of the states should want to form their own country (that would have been analogous with Canada). If this was their wish they should have been allowed to do so. Perhaps the feeling between North and South would have been a lot different today if the South looked on the North as just a friendly neighbour (in the same way that Canada does) rather than holding a grievance. In the war both sides displayed heroism and both sides committed atrocities. The total cost in terms of human life makes the American Civil War one of the greatest tragedies of world history. As for the pretext about the slaves, this was just a pretext. If this had been such a vital issue then why in the aftermath of the war was there no legislation to make former slaves equal citizens. Even almost a century later the Afro-American (for whom this war was supposedly waged) was still treated as a second class citizen. In the 1950's there was still a system comparable with the South African 'apartheid' with black people not allowed to travel in the same bus compartment as whites. Even those black soldiers drafted in W.W.1. and W.W.2 were kept seperate in their own regiments. In the Vietnam war a disproportionately high percentage of black people were enlisted an

Give'm the bulge! Bully for Garrison!

If my above mentioned words didn't offer what this book is about I don't know what will. Cheryl and Webb Garrison have assembled a great book featuring Civil War slang, lingo and material names. Words such as chinch (bed bug), hardware (weapon), leg case (desertion) pop-skull (whiskey) and yaller dog (coward). These are just a small few of the many words in this great book on Civil War era language. This book would be great for reenactors or anyone studying the war and learning more about how people communicated or gobble talked!