George F Hayes, aka "Gabby"

But Ol Gabby would have said "Diddly Dadburn it". 

 

http://artofmanliness.com/2008/09/25/are-you-hep-to-the-jive-the-cab-calloway-hepster-dictionary/ - http://artofmanliness.com/2008/09/25/are-you-hep-to-the-jive-the-cab-calloway-hepster-dictionary/

 

 

 

 

 

Never ceased... to my chagrin, as a necessity. Either half way through a 25 mile forced, dismounted road march, a 60 mile movement in a Tank or APC (20 minutes after we had started), or after two hours in a helo while conducting Scout/Reconn ops.

 

This is the life of a Trooper.

 

To be in ie. a recipient of a  'dry gulch'...sucks and requires a stout heart and immediate implementation of the battle drills required to overcome it. These vary as to types of ambushes and one's position within the element......

 

but always always.....

 

1. report contact

2. assume a position to provide cover and concealment if possible

 

AND

 

3. Return fire.

 

Hopefully this tidbit will never prove necessary but ...now ya know.

 

I have always liked the slang term "galvanized Yankee".  The term came from galvanized metal (a very thin coat of blue coloring that could easily be scratched off a metal object).

 

Galvanized Yankees remained culturally southeren, had mixed motivations, varying degrees of devotion and were usually distrusted by federal commanders.  Some unionist regiments fought with great distinction as either main force regiments (1st TN infantry) or as counter insurgency troops (1st Arkansas cavalry).

 

Many other galvanized yankee regiments, however, did not have a good reputation.  Mountain recruits could be more interested in pursuing local feuds while wearing partial blue uniforms than in fighting rebels. Some regiments were formed with alot of conditions (90 day TN union regiments, garrisson of home counties only, no active combat), some were disbanded after they turned into bandits (1st Georgia Infantry), some were deemed unfit for line combat, later declared unfit for even garrisson duty, and deteriorated into a clan based militia (6 TN Cavalry). 

'It depends on which rebels caught him:

 

CSA mainforce commanders  had threatned to execute galvanized Yankees captured from the 1st Alabama (regiment had an acceptable reputation).  That order was later retracted after the Union threatned retaliation with confederate POWS from union states.  

  

CSA mainforce commanders did execute 40 galvanized Yankees with out federal retaliation because the men had deserted from confederate regiments and then joined what was promised to  be a "garisson only" union regiment.  But.... the promise was broken and they found themselves on the front line.

 

On another occasion, scores of galvanized yankees from a TN garrisson regiment were massacared at Fort Pillow, TN by mainforce Confederate units on a raid.   The were many reasons for the massacare (union surrender delays resulting in avoidable CSA casualties, assaulting force included CSA TN regiments, galvanized yankee defenders,  CSA general slow to get troops back under control etc).

Originally posted by Nick1986 It would also be interesting to find out how they were treated after the war: how many were murdered or forced to leave by vengeful neighbors?

During the war, many were killed, but the murders went both ways. In the Appalachian mountains, a favorite tactic of pro CSA and pro union guerilla groups was to murder soldiers serving on the wrong side in their homes.  The guerillas also murdered alot of civilians due to real and imagined, direct or indirect support of the wrong side.  Both CSA and Union sponsored viscious home guards anti guerilla units whose definition of "guerilla" could be "anybody with stuff I want to loot, icluding women".

 

After the war, the tit for tat killings continued as part of family blood feuds.  For example, the Hatfields and McCoys served on different sides.  On another occasion in North Georgia, 7 wedding guests were gunned down by a rival family that had served on the other side.