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

Gumps! Wharf lice! Ditch hunters! Though it's reasonably clear that those terms are insults, few people have any idea what they mean. Like much of the language used during the Civil War, they have vanished from everyday speech. The Encyclopedia of Civil War Usage: An Illustrated Compendium of the Everyday Language of Soldiers and Civilians by Webb Garrison (A Treasury of Civil War Tales; Civil War Curiosities) with Cheryl Garrison is the product of more than 30 years of research and writing, and was finished just days before Webb Garrison's death. Compiled from military and naval reports, diaries, letters, memoirs, eyewitness accounts, autobiographies, legislation and government reports, the book covers slang and standard words and phrases used in both the Union and Confederate armies. It should delight linguists amateur and professional as well as Civil War buffs and military historians. ( May)