Omaha daily bee., 1890-09-10
ARMY CATCH WORDS.
Some OF the Say ings I'm Vogue with
Confederate Sold icrs.

When man was telling a long yarn,
says the Baltimore Herald, and one that
seemed rather incredible, and any one
thought he was putting it on rather
strong and wished to cali halt, they
would say: 20, there's wool on that. :"
The word was synonymous with the
present much-used chestnut"
Themen who never wentafter water,
but who went round at night elping
themselves from the Canteens of their
comrades, were called shakers"
STANCE stories of moving troops, or of
big victories in different sections of the
country, were known as ''canteen dis
patches.
The fruit Of the big revival in the
armyof northern Virginia in 1868 was
called Madison Run Christians" 1t is
apleasure to note that many of themare
today live, active workers in the Chris
tan church.
The vile stuff mixed upwith simply
water, flour and salt, with which the
sold iers were fed AT times, was known as
putty bread"
The men who had soft snaps and fol
lowed the army without getting into
fights, We're called 'bOmbproofs."
If a man was especially nimble in
getting away with other peoples prop.
erty, it was said ofhim that ''he would
steal anything buta red hot stove, and
he would take that if he could get a wet
blanket"
Some one asked one of the Elliott
Grays if he had read Victor Hugo's Les
Miserables. - The reply was mo; | see
too many thousands ofthem arOundhere
every day to- read about them.
Hugo also wrote book called o"Fan-
al al Uni in =
| was one of the worst OF the many bad
| confederate attempts at punnng. Wet
Measure Harding g wasa noted man in
| the Sixth Virginia He bought some
| meal somew here, and undertook to clear
| expenses by retailing part of it to his
comrades He had only a tin or wine
quart measure. One OF the men objected
to having his meal measured in
that way. Says he: Meal is sold 10y
| dry measure, and you have only a'wet'
measure, and that amt right"
Harding replied: You fool, can't
take my measure to the fire and dry it il
it is wetS"
After that he was known as "Wet
Measure Harding"
The dried beefissucd out at the last o
tn g warwa known as mule meat" and
the salt pork as Nassau bacon"
lI WIS Ollt ullIic tlNiu SUlle "
the people of Poland Were coming ovel
to help the Confederacy. After that one
of the jokes was: ''Have you heard any
thing from that load of POleSY
The Virginia troops were called botl
"Gray backs and ''Nlossb backs" but why
no fellow could every find out. W,
called ourselves The Cavaliers" an(
1.-The Knights OF theGolden Horseshoe.
| The North CarOlinianS were known a
Tar Heels" The Georgians we're called
"Gophers." " The South Caroinians re
joiced in the name "Palmettoes. >" The
Iouisianians were called Sugar Cane
and the Mississippians Crackers
ON one OCCASION when Zeb Vance was
candidate for governor of North Caro-
Ii ma, he came up to the army and ad
dressed a mass meeting of the Nortl
Carolinians He began his speech as
follows Fellow wcitizens-no, can't 8a,
that, for you are soldiers. Fellow sol
dicrs--no, that will not do, for I am no
IA soldier. But | will say fellow tar
heels, for that term embraces ever,
man, woman, and child in tn,
old north state" That took the boy
and Zeb Vance got ninety out of ever,
hundred OF the soldiers votes in tn
army of Northern Virginia.
When the troops first went to the iai
grounds, the cadets from Lexington
were the instructors. They were so ac
curate and precise that they were know
as little tin soldiers" Ever after that
when man tried to put on any extr
frills in the manual or in the compan
drill, he would be called "a little I'll
| Snll iar -