Civil War "Doughboys"

Library of Congress

       Most people associate the term "doughboys" is with American soldiers in the First World War. However, there are indications that the term was used in America as a reference to soldiers at least as far back as the Mexican War (1846-48).

     This link provides excellent information for the term as well as various references to "doughboys" in the 19th century.

      In late 1918, in the final month of World War I, James E. Sayers of Waynesburg, a veteran of the 85th Pennsylvania regiment,  wrote the following letter to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Sayers was 73 years old at the time and was a prominent attorney in Greene County, PA. 

      Sayers had enlisted into the 85th Pennsylvania as an 18-year old and was with the regiment through the end of the war at Appomattox Court House. [The author used Sayers' diary as a source in his book about the regiment called, "Such Hard and Severe Service: The 85th Pennsylvania in the Civil War," published by Monongahela Books] 

       In his letter, Sayers notes that the term "doughboys" was used during the Civil War and explains the origin of the term.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette
October 23, 1918

                       Sayers' reference to the soil "kneaded into mud ('dough') by the infantry" undoubtedly was a reference to the "Mud March" in late January of 1863. This followed Burnside's disastrous loss at Fredericksburg, Virginia the previous month, [NOTE: The 85th Pennsylvania did not take part in the Battle of Fredericksburg. They were in North Carolina on the Goldsboro Expedition trying to created a diversion for the attack on Fredericksburg.] Burnside planned a winter offensive towards Richmond. But a heavy rainstorm quickly turned Burnside's planned river crossing of men and wagons into a muddy quagmire. The offensive was abandoned. 

Harper's Weekly
December 13, 1864

James E. Sayers
Greene Connections

    The following article from 1865, which appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper near the close of the war, confirms Sayers' version of "doughboys."

Philadelphia Inquirer
April 3, 1865

.     The article below from 1863 during the Civil War uses the term in the same way it was used in World War I as a reference to all infantrymen.

Buffalo Courier
May 23, 1863

 
           In any event, Sayers' premise is confirmed by the Civil War era newspapers that the term '"doughboys," although not used as extensively as it was later used in the First World War, was used to refer to soldiers during the Civil War more than 50 years earlier.