Slang Expressions During The Civil War

This is not necessarily slang but amusing anyway; from civil war time and after.

Major Ransom once described a man that he arrested in 1863 Missouri as, "a scoundrel of the deepest dye." Also, "a double dyed conspirator and villain."

After the war he once described the more pointed toed boots as, "peaked-toed breeders of corns and bunions."

Those are wonderful!!! From now on I am going to try and incorporate "a scoundrel of the deepest dye" into my conversations! That's fantastic!

Honeybee :bee:
 
It is actually an indoor outhouse/privy. Here is a picture of one: www.jldr.com/ohcloset.html. (take out the period at the end - keeps putting it there). I heard they would put chunks of clay in the pot to absorb the "contributions". There is a plumbing engineer (not an oxymoron) in this house so I have an unusual amount of potty talk fun facts. :D

Wow, that is an awesome "potty!" I had to chuckle though... "indoor outhouse!" :giggle: Funny!

You know, now that I think of it... my grandma always had a way of thinking that if someone was "high falutin" then she'd say "some people" w/ a roll of her eyes. :rolleyes: Maybe her take on the earth closet was folks who had them were "high flautin!" Sadly, I'll never know... she passed away 10 years ago.

I am wondering... just a thought... my grandma was born in 1911, and her father (my great-grandfather) was in his 50's when she was born. My great- grandfather was NINE years old when the Civil War ended! Maybe some of these old sayings/slang were carried over from him to my grandma. (BTW, I am 45 and it blows my mind my great-grandfather was alive during the Civil War! Sorry I digressed so much!:redface: I just love this site!)

Honeybee:bee:
 
Wow, that is an awesome "potty!" I had to chuckle though... "indoor outhouse!" :giggle: Funny!

You know, now that I think of it... my grandma always had a way of thinking that if someone was "high falutin" then she'd say "some people" w/ a roll of her eyes. :rolleyes: Maybe her take on the earth closet was folks who had them were "high flautin!" Sadly, I'll never know... she passed away 10 years ago.

I am wondering... just a thought... my grandma was born in 1911, and her father (my great-grandfather) was in his 50's when she was born. My great- grandfather was NINE years old when the Civil War ended! Maybe some of these old sayings/slang were carried over from him to my grandma. (BTW, I am 45 and it blows my mind my great-grandfather was alive during the Civil War! Sorry I digressed so much!:redface: I just love this site!)

Honeybee:bee:
Ok now your freaking me out!! I never looked at it that way before! one of my g,grandfather was born in 1857 he was 34 years older then my g grandmother hows that for scary!!! just what in the heck was she thinking???
 
Ok now your freaking me out!! I never looked at it that way before! one of my g,grandfather was born in 1857 he was 34 years older then my g grandmother hows that for scary!!! just what in the heck was she thinking???


I know, right??? I think my great-grandma was 18 when she ran off and married my great-grandfather... he MUST have been between 49-52. Wow! I know that young girls admire older fellas... but wow! Your g.grandfather was born in 1857! Isn't that CRAZY!
 
I know, right??? I think my great-grandma was 18 when she ran off and married my great-grandfather... he MUST have been between 49-52. Wow! I know that young girls admire older fellas... but wow! Your g.grandfather was born in 1857! Isn't that CRAZY!
YA I would love to go back and talk to her!!! she had 7 kids by him, it creeps me out, just to picture it, makes me go blind!!!
 
' Red up the room ', is PA Dutch, for a quick pick-up of things, without a full cleaning. Generally you can track these things down to the German word which was the genesis- despite an awful lot of high school German, did not remember enough to catch this one.Someone with a better German vocabulary would no doubt come up with a good guess. ( off topic, someone asked about this a few posts back, 'scuse )
 
Wow, that is amazing about your grandparents! It reminds me of that book The World's Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, where she had married an old man when she was young. Amazing you are 45 with a grand parent!
 
Some of my ACW Era ancestors married first and second cousins, which was no big deal back then. Somewhere along the way, the saying "kissin' cousins" came about. It meant that the cousins were not too closely related, so they could potentially marry each other.
 
Wow, that is amazing about your grandparents! It reminds me of that book The World's Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, where she had married an old man when she was young. Amazing you are 45 with a grand parent!
my g,grandma was born 1891 who married him. he was 63 and she 29 when they had their last kid.my grandma was born 1911. What did they call that? A winter spring marriage?
 
YA I would love to go back and talk to her!!! she had 7 kids by him, it creeps me out, just to picture it, makes me go blind!!!

LOL... makes me go blind! LOL!!!! Mine had 5 kids... so they must have gotten on well together. Oh, my. Actually, I'm not positive about this (no pictures of my g-grandparents on my dad's/grandma's side exist) but according to all accounts my g-grandfather was handsome and a bit of a dandy. When he passed in the 1940's he had snow white hair and dressed like a movie star. His second wife was also quite young when she married him and she claimed they were "close" right up until he died. Oookkkaaayyy! Too much info!

I know that for most folks they think isn't not that big of a deal, but I can't get over that my g-grandfather knew of the Civil War, Abe. Lincoln getting killed, WWI & II, all the different presidents, etc... blows my mind. I'm 45, and while not young, I can't believe I had a close relative who experienced it all.

Way off topic... now for some slang...

Not sure if this is A.C.W. or what but grandma and everyone on that side of the family used to say,
"Well, I am fit to be tied!" Hubby never heard that before! Where, oh where did my husband get raised!
 
What does "three cheers and a tiger" mean?

Reading on a relatives mounted infantry regiment they mention this more than once. End of the war they were in Macon, Georgia. They rode all the way to Nashville before catching a train to Indianapolis. But as they rode through northern Georgia they came upon a brand new regiment that was garrisoning a small town. The commander there lined his men up on both sides of the street at present arms as the veteran regiment passed through....they gave the newbies "three cheers and a tiger."

Is a "tiger" a growl or something?
 
A couple of phrases I run into a lot in period diaries and writings...

"On the qui vive" ... on the look-out

"We went on our way rejoicing," or variants such as "he went on his way rejoicing." I didn't think much of it the first time I saw it, but I've seen it in quite a few places, by different writers-- if it's something specific they're alluding to, I don't know the reference.
 
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