A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War by Amanda Foreman
drill—Formal training received by a recruit, including how to march in formation.
gunboat—A vessel designed to carry one or more guns, usually used in shallow water or on rivers.
hardtack—A flour-and-water wafer, usually three inches square; cheap and durable, it was a staple of military campaigns.
housewife—A sewing kit that also contained toiletries and personal items.
howitzer—A short-barreled artillery piece designed to propel projectiles at relatively high trajectories.
ironclad—A warship clad with iron or steel plates to protect it from explosive or incendiary shells.
mess—A group of soldiers who cooked and ate together; the place where food was prepared and eaten.
minié ball—A conical bullet whose hollow base expanded when fired, forcing its sides into the rifling and making it spin, assuring greater accuracy.
monitor—A class of Federal ironclad warships with revolving gun turrets, named after the design of USS Monitor, launched in 1862.
mortar—Heavy artillery designed to fire projectiles, usually balls, with a high angle of fire into enemy positions. Mostly used in siege, garrison, and coastal warfare.
musket—A muzzle-loading shoulder gun with a long barrel.
parole—The pledge of a soldier released from captivity not to take up arms until formally exchanged for an enemy POW of equal rank.
Parrott gun—A muzzle-loading rifled artillery weapon patented by West Point graduate and former U.S. Army officer Robert Parrott in 1861.
percussion cap—A small copper cylinder containing shock-sensitive explosive; the cap was placed over the hollow metal “nipple” at the rear of a gun barrel. Pulling the trigger released the hammer, which struck and ignited the cap. The flame passed through the nipple to ignite the main powder charge. Caps enabled muzzle-loading guns to fire reliably in any weather.
picket—Soldiers on guard to protect a larger military unit from enemy attack.
pontoon bridge—A portable bridge supported by floating pontoons.
provost guard—Soldiers acting as military police under the authority of a provost marshal.
quartermaster—An officer in charge of procuring food, equipment, and clothing for troops.
ram—A ship built with an iron prow designed to pierce and sink enemy vessels.
rifle pit—A shallow trench dug to protect soldiers from enemy fire while shooting weapons.
round shot—A solid spherical projectile fired from artillery; also called solid shot or cannonball.
shrapnel—A hollow cast-iron projectile filled with metal balls packed around an explosive charge, designed to explode in midair, showering the enemy with smaller projectiles.
smoothbore—A firearm or cannon with an unrifled barrel.
solid shot—A solid projectile with no explosive, designed to be used against cavalry, buildings, or troops in a column.
Springfield rifle—An American-made rifle, the most prevalent in the war. The second most popular was the Enfield, which was manufactured in England and exported by the hundreds of thousands. Both were single-shot muzzle-loading rifles with an accuracy that was excellent at 300 yards and passable at 500. Compared to the maximum range of 200 yards for a Napoleonic-era rifle, Civil War rifles were killing machines.
sutler—A merchant licensed to sell provisions to troops in an army camp or on the field.
torpedo—A stationary underwater mine that exploded upon contact with a ship. Some torpedoes could be detonated electronically from the shore.
Zouaves—Northern or Confederate regiments that modeled themselves on the original elite North African corps in the French army, distinguished by their colorful uniforms.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
AMANDA FOREMAN is a Visiting Research Fellow at Queen Mary, University of London. She won the Whitbread Prize for Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire, which was adapted for the screen as The Duchess. Educated as an undergraduate at Sarah Lawrence College and with master’s and doctorate degrees in history from Oxford University, she is now married with five children and lives in New York.
Amanda Foreman, A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War