Trivia 8-31-16 Slang

[Trivia Master]

During the Civil War "bummers" was a term used to describe marauding or foraging soldiers and was often used derogatorily to describe some of Sherman's army as it made its way through the South. "Bummer" was also a term attributed to another branch of service during the War but it was not used to describe foraging or scavenging soldiers. What was the branch of service and what did it describe?

credit: @Copperhead-mi

 

[Copperhead-mi]

credit for question

 

[Legion Para]

The Infantry and the forage cap they wore.

Edit - See edit to post # 29.

 

[MRB1863]

Bummers - (1) Foraging or marauding soldiers in the Civil War. Union Bummers were especially prevalent during Sherman's march to the sea. (2) A person who was safely to the rear of the army or otherwise away from combat. (3) A forage or fatigue cap.

Source: http://www.usa-civil-war.com/Civil_War/definitions.html#B

 

[Mark F. Jenkins]

It was used to refer to mortar boats. (Probable derivation "bomb boat"--> "bomber" --> "bummer").

 

[Reb]

Naval Artillery. More precisely, a Mortar Schooner.

 

[JohnDLittlefield]

According to Spencer Tucker in the Almanac of American Military History, Vol. 1, "bummers" had three meanings
1) Foraging or marauding soldiers in the Civil War. Union Army bummers were especially active during Major General William T. Sherman's March to the Sea
2) A person who was safely to the rear of the Army or otherwise away from combat
3) A forage of fatigue cap

#2 seems to match most closely with the question, but Tucker does not distinguish that this "bummers" were from a different branch of service.

According to"War Slang: American Fighting Words & Phrases Since the Civil War", a bummer was a deserter or a predatory soldier, but eventually came to have a broader meaning to include "the destructive horde of deserters, stragglers, runaway slaves and marauders who helped make life miserable in the war-torn South." There were some specific types of bummers, such as Sherman's Bummers, who robbed pillaged and burned along with Sherman's army in Georgia; and
4) there were hospital bummers, who faked illness to get out of duty and into a military hospital (but again, this does not specify a separate branch of service).
source: http://ironbrigader.com/2014/02/20/civil-war-slang-category-quiz-show-jeopardy/
and The Language of the Civil War by John Wright (p.150)

FINAL ANSWER
5) A slang term used by the Navy (Union sailors) for a mortar boat
source: The Language of the Civil War by John Wright (p. 46)
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id...TBRQ4ChDoAQg-MAY#v=onepage&q= bummer &f=false

For fun:
The term was not shortened to "bum" until around 1870. "War Slang" says "It is almost certainly a modification of the German Bummler (loafer)." The slang meaning of bummer today began with the advent of bad trips from hallucinogenic drugs in the 1960s.While "bummer" was evolving into plain old bum, another term sprang up for former Civil War soldiers which differentiates them from the lazy loafer and common bum. "Weary Willies" were Civil War vets who wandered about the land, setting up makeshift shelters for themselves, existing on handouts. The term at least acknowledges that they had been through an ordeal. The Civil War connection got a bit lost when circus performer Emmett Kelley created his famous "Weary Willie" character during the Great Depression. But the term reconnected with the Civil War in a 1970 episode of the TV Western "Bonanza." The Cartwrights allowed a group of Weary Willies to set up camp on Ponderosa land but the townfolk weren't particularly happy about it.

 

[SD_CivilWarTvlr]

Infantry; foraging or marauding, a person who was in the rear of the army away from combat, or a forage or fatigue hat.

 

[donna]

This is hard one. Looked in many places. Found these definitions:
1.Foraging or marauding soldiers during Civil War.
2. A person who was safely to the rear of the army or otherwise away from combat.
3. a forage or fatigue hat.

I did find this information which maybe what is wanted.
Bummers: Cooks, ambulance nurses, stretcher bearers, shirks and sometimes surgeons who all come under this class name.

 

[1stMN]

The only other bummer I know is a Bummer's hat.
http://www.usa-civil-war.com/Civil_War/definitions.html#B

 

[1950lemans]

Branch of service is Navy, especially the Miss. Flotilla.
Bummers were the mortar barges and towed schooners used especially at New Orleans and Vicksburg.

Edit - Correct, 1950lemans.

Congratulations on getting the correct answer to a very tough question.

Hope you'll come back and play again.

Hoosier

 

[Brenal]

Not sure I'm reading the question right but a bummer was a form of forage cap used by enlisted infantry men.

 

[truthckr]

ARMY A person who was safely to the rear of the army or otherwise away from combat

 

[MajGenl.Meade]

Branch of service: US Navy
It described mortar boats.

Mortars mounted on more seaworthy schooners would also play a key role in the capture of the first major Southern city: New Orleans. Under command of the legendary Admiral David Farragut, the Union Navy bombarded, reduced, and captured two key bastions, Forts Jackson and St. Philip, some 70 miles downstream of New Orleans. Twenty miles upstream from the Head of the Passes, the two forts were the keys to capturing the city, and Farragut used his own touches to do the job. Under the command of his stepbrother, Commodore David Dixon Porter, the mortar schooners (called "bummers" by their crews) were brought into position and began to bombard the two forts on April 18, 1862.
http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/civil-war/civil-war-artillery/

And also shown as definition 2 in "The Language of the Civil War" by John Wright, page 46:

 

[CheathamHill]

https://archive.org/stream/War_Slang/War_Slang_djvu.txt

hospital bummer. One who fakes his
way out of combat and into a military
hospital. See also bummer.

"There is another class called "hospital bummers," who, from being patients, have become convalescent, and are returned, generally at their own request, to lighten the labours of the surgeons and nurses, and do the menial drudgery incident to hospitals and barracks."

https://books.google.com/books?id=fRuJVMYTrywC&pg=PA245&lpg=PA245&dq=hospital+corps+bummers+civil+war&source=bl&ots=bm0rCwvP_P&sig=Zac31R8Y3P25sHjkJLDEaP3fsHs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjMyLi1rezOAhXLox4KHc_QAfw4ChDoAQg0MAQ#v=onepage&q=hospital corps bummers civil war&f=false

 

[UCVRelics]

The term Bummer was used in 2 other areas of the CW. The US Army Hospital Corp used it as a term for one that faked illness but I think the answer you are looking for the Artillery Forage Hat AKA Bummer

 

[Stony]

The Navy forces of both Union and Confederate. They consisted of inland naval vessels-schooners, barges and their crews that used big mortar guns to blast away at the enemy. Sometimes called "Bummer Barges" or bomb schooners.

source-https://books.google.com/books?id=M...ers+civil+war&source=bl&ots=hVJ73Libtz&sig=bO
Two civil wars-The journal of a schoolgirl.

source-https://books.google.com/books?id=h...ews+and+bummers&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiNufHev
A Civil War correpondent in New Orleans.

source-https://books.google.com/books?id=D...mortar+schooner+bummer+crew&source=bl&ots=sPX
History of the Southern Yacht Club.

 

[MaryDee]

A tough one, since Sherman's soldiers seem to have a monopoly on the term, at least for google searches. All I can find is that "bummer," when not referring to Sherman's foragers, or to the 7th Kansas Cavalry (also notorious foragers in the early days of the war): "In the 1850s, it simply denoted a shiftless person, but it acquired its more nefarious meanings during the Civil War. Then it was used to describe a person safe in the rear, such as a cook or member of the medical staff..." http://companyqdispatches.blogspot.com/2012/01/words-coined-around-or-during-civil-war.html

 

[Wallyfish]

I have never seen so many photos of "Bummers" caps in my life.

I couldn't get even close to an answer so the Medical Corps is my guess. They would lag behind the army attending to injured soldiers.

Someone please IM me on how you found the answer.

 

[lelliott19]

Medical Branch

The term "hospital bummer" was used to described men who would fake illness to escape combat.
https://books.google.com/books?id=3aEJZRIxjDAC&pg=PA150&lpg=PA150&dq="hospital+bummer"+"civil+war"&source=bl&ots=gA36uPI32w&sig=ptgeVkNxHrYmbhjMRhuhZSo-yzo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjM77WEje3OAhUB-mMKHSNcCloQ6AEIJTAC#v=onepage&q="hospital bummer" "civil war"&f=false

The term "bummer" was also used to describe non-combatants - surgeons, medical staff, nurses, &c -- basically anyone safely in the rear during battle.

Besides the fighting population of our camps there is a population constitutionally opposed to warfare—cooks, ambulance nurses, stretcher-bearers, shirks, and sometimes surgeons, who all come under the class technically called bummers. These are treated by the fighting men with a sort of cool contempt, no matter whether necessity or inclination keeps them to the rear, and they have a hard time. Frequently the rear of the army is a much more dangerous location than the front line, for the missiles passing over the front line must fall somewhere, and often demoralize whole hosts of "bummers," who build up miniature fortifications to live in and collect together in crowds ; for misery loves company. Any favorable ravine thus peopled immediately becomes denominated "Bummer's Roost." Here they spend their days in cooking for their nurses, if they are cooks, or attending to their own business, if their object be to escape duty and danger.
https://books.google.com/books?id=l0JDAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA666&lpg=PA666&dq=cooks,+ambulance+nurses,+stretcher-bearers,+shirks,+and+sometimes+surgeons,+who+all+come+under+the+class+technically+called+bummers&source=bl&ots=PRuLhwswO7&sig=HYr41WjQib9OnMTCJz_xJo_Jnoo&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiKk5rXj-3OAhWQMx4KHeAMB2wQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=cooks, ambulance nurses, stretcher-bearers, shirks, and sometimes surgeons, who all come under the class technically called bummers&f=false