Nicknames of American Civil War Generals

Abstract

AbstractThis study examines the nicknames of American Civil War Generals. Beyond categorizing these names in terms of “external” physical or behavioral characteristics, and “internal” word play, this analysis offers a context and a semantic paradigm for understanding their referential and expressive aspects, and the prevailing cultural values associated with them. Few Generals were given nicknames. Those that did had to have had some characteristic or had to have done something that made them distinctive. A distinction is made between those nicknames that were given by men who had a personal relationship with the nicknamee and those who did not. Examples are given of the way these nicknames affected attitudes toward and the behavior of nicknamees.