My wife asked me what doughboy meant. I told her it meant an American soldier in World War I. Then I looked it up to see if I was right. I was. Sort of.
Doughboy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doughboy
Doughboy
is an informal term for a member of the United States Army or Marine
Corps, especially members of the American Expeditionary Forces in World
War ...
Wikipedia
Doughboy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other uses, see Doughboy (disambiguation).
The term was used sparingly during World War II, gradually being replaced by "G.I.". It was still used in popular songs of the day, as in the 1942 song "Johnny Doughboy found a Rose in Ireland."[1] It dropped out of popular use soon after World War II.[2]
Etymology
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Look up doughboy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
An often cited explanation is that the term first came about during the Mexican–American War, after observers noticed U.S. infantry forces were constantly covered with chalky dust from marching through the dry terrain of northern Mexico, giving the men the appearance of unbaked dough.[5] Another suggestion also arises from the Mexican–American War, and the dust-covered infantry men resembled the commonly used mud bricks of the area known as adobes.[5] Another suggestion is that doughboys were so named because of their method of cooking field rations of the 1840s and 1850s, usually doughy flour and rice concoctions baked in the ashes of a camp fire, although this does not explain why only infantryman received the appellation.[5]
See also
- American Expeditionary Forces - the formal name
- Dogface (military)
- Frank Buckles - longest-living doughboy[6]
- Poilu - equivalent term for French soldiers of World War I
- Tommy Atkins - equivalent term for British soldiers of World War I
- Digger - equivalent for Australian soldiers, originated in World War I
References
- In 1942 two infantry soldiers wrote The Dogface Soldier, later officially adopted as the song of the U.S. 3rd Infantry Division. The Dogface Soldier
- George, John B. (Lt. Col), Shots Fired In Anger, Samworth Press (1948), pp. xi, xii, 21: Lt. John George, an Army officer writing a World War II autobiographical postwar combat memoir in May 1947, freely used the term to describe himself and his fellow U.S. Army infantrymen.
- Dana, Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh (Lt), Monterrey Is Ours! The Mexican War Letters of Lieutenant N.J.T. Dana, 1845-1847, University of Kentucky Press (1990), ISBN 0-8131-1703-8, ISBN 978-0-8131-1703-4: Lt. Dana, an infantryman in the Mexican-American War, wrote in a letter posted during the campaign, "We 'doughboys' had to wait for the artillery to get their carriages over."
- Chamberlain, Samuel, My Confessions: Recollections of a Rogue, Austin: Texas State Historical Association (1965): Chamberlain, a horse-mounted Dragoon in the Mexican-American War, wrote in his memoirs years later, "No man of any spirit and ambition would join the 'Doughboys' and go afoot."
- Hanlon, Michael E., The Origins of Doughboy, 16 June 2003, Origin of Term Doughboy
- Last "Doughboy" dies at 110 from knoxnews.com
Further reading
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- Faulstich, Edith. M. "The Siberian Sojourn" Yonkers, N.Y. (1972–1977)
- Gawne, Jonathan. Over There!: The American Soldier in World War I (1999)- 83 pages, heavily illustrated
- Grotelueschen, Mark Ethan. The AEF Way of War: The American Army and Combat in World War I (2006) excerpt and text search
- Hallas, James H. Doughboy War: The American Expeditionary Force in World War I (2nd ed. 2009) online edition; includes many primary sources from soldiers
- Hoff, Thomas. US Doughboy 1916-19 (2005)
- Kennedy, David M. Over Here: The First World War and American Society (1980) excerpt and text search
- Nelson, James Carl. The Remains of Company D:A Story of the Great War (2009)
- Rubin, Richard The Last of the Doughboys: the forgotten generation and their forgotten world war ISBN 9780547554433 plus online webcast presentation of book
- Schafer, Ronald. America in the Great War (1991)
- Skilman, Willis Rowland. The A.E.F.: Who They Were, what They Did, how They Did it (1920) 231 pp; full text online
- Smith, Gene. Until the Last Trumpet Sounds: The Life of General of the Armies John J. Pershing (1999), popular biography.
- Snell, Mark A. Unknown Soldiers: The American Expeditionary Forces in Memory and Remembrance (2008)
- Thomas, Shipley. The History of the A. E. F. (1920), 540pp; full text online
- Votow, John. The American Expeditionary Forces in World War I (2005) - 96 pp; excerpt and text search
- Werner, Bret. Uniforms, Equipment And Weapons of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I (2006)
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Doughboy. |
- Doughboy Center stories from the AEF
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