The Plain People of the Confederacy Quotes

“Rebs sometimes purloined one another’s letters. Discovery of a sugary missive from some indiscreet sweetheart would immediately lead to a broadcasting of the contents and the taunting of the recipient. Private J.W. Rabb one day received a poetically endearing letter from his sister Bet. When this note was discovered by Rabb’s comrades they jumped to the conclusion that Bet was his sweetheart; and they proceeded to tease him roundly. Rabb’s barely decipherable narration of this incident to his sister gives a significant insight into the bantering, fun-loving character of the common soldier: “You roate me such a good long letter,” he observed, “i like it so much for the boys all thought that it was from my jularky and one little fellow develed me so much about Fly home to thy native home gentle dove he sayed that I looked more like a paterage.”
― Bell Irvin Wiley, The Plain People of the Confederacy

“There is not a man in the army, officer or private that does not have from a Battalion to a Brigade of Body lice on him,” wrote one Reb in 1863; and others dubbed the pests with such military names as “graybacks,” “Zouaves,” “tigers,” and “Bragg’s body-guard.” Killing lice was referred to as fighting under the black flag; throwing away an infested shirt was called giving the vermin a parole; and evading them by turning a garment wrong side out became “the execution of a flank movement.” One sardonic Reb when about to go to bed was seen to assume a prayerful pose and to recite:

Now I lay me down to sleep,
While gray-backs o’er my body creep;
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord their jaws to break.”
― Bell Irvin Wiley, The Plain People of the Confederacy

“In June, 1864, a Texan summed up with striking aptness the Rebel clothing situation. “In this army,” he wrote from near Atlanta, “one hole in the seat of the breeches indicates a captain, two holes a lieutenant, and the seat of the pants all out indicates that the individual is a private.”
― Bell Irvin Wiley, The Plain People of the Confederacy

“The mainstays of diet after the first year of war were cornbread and meat, and of these the Rebs became exceedingly tired. “If the war closes and I get to come home I never intend to chew any more cornbread,” wrote a Mississippian in 1863; and about the same time a comrade scribbled poetically in his diary:

Oh what a wonder day is this
When our rations a little more than meal do consist;
I’d give a great deal for some turkey or Beef
To comfort our stomachs and give them relief.

Just prior to Lee’s surrender a Louisianian said “If any person offers me cornbread after this war comes to a close I shall probably tell him to—go to hell.”
― Bell Irvin Wiley, The Plain People of the Confederacy