This expression was used by children playing “hide and seek” or “kick the can” to declare that all those who are “out” can come in without risk. Wikipedia speculates that the expression is close to the German phrase “Alle alle ach sind frei, meaning everyone is also free.” There are other versions of the expression, such as “all-y all-y in come free,” which lends credibility to the Wikipedia version of the origin.
Author Archives: Advocate
To Die In Chicago, Confederate Prisoners at Camp Douglas 1862-1865
I recently reviewed “Andersonville Journey,” about the Union prisoners of war held at that “death camp,” and decided I should read about treatment of Confederate prisoners of war. The book by George Levy provides a wealth of information about Camp Douglas, named after a deceased Senator Stephen Douglas, but it is certainly not fun to read. The occasional quotes from prisoners are interesting. I was much less interested in the discussions of budgeting, construction, sanitation, security, and command and control. Chapter 15 is titled “Social Life Among the Prisoners,” and that sounded interesting. The chapter begins with discussions of scurvy, reinforcing the stockade, the commandant, organization of the fire department, favoritism among prisoners, the water supply to the bath houses and for flushing the sinks (latrines), deaths from freezing, the value of tobacco, sadistic guards and punishments, numbers of new arrivals, prisoner of war Confederate General Beall arranging the sale of cotton (the North needed cotton and the South needed money), and meal cooking arrangements. The social activities of the prisoners are discussed in a few short paragraphs (including arts, crafts, gambling, and entertainment) fifteen pages into the chapter.
The camp was constructed to house Union units being trained to fight in the Civil War, so there were decent barracks and other facilities. Supplies of food were often described as at least adequate, and sutlers sold fruits, vegetables, and other supplies to the prisoners. Occasionally the commandants would cut that off, and prisoners would develop scurvy. By comparison, Andersonville was a stockade with no shelter, didn’t have an adequate water supply, didn’t have a way to dispose of wastes, and food supplies were grossly inadequate for both prisoners and guards. The only advantage prisoners had at Andersonville was that they didn’t have to contend with the winter cold. Like Andersonville, Douglas was a serious mistake because of the unanticipated numbers of prisoners, parolees (Union prisoners exchanged for Confederates), guards, and soldiers in the many units that used the place. The early days of the camp were marked by a lack of discipline. There were 1037 men court martialed between January and August 1862 for drunkenness, insubordination, fighting, theft, destruction of property, desertion, shooting an officer, and “…playing cards with prisoners.” Continue reading
Andy Andy Over
I recall playing this game as a small child, which means it was more than six decades ago. The Dictionary of American Regional English says the game was played primarily in the Appalachians, and involved throwing a ball over a building to players on the other side. Someone catching the ball had the “…right to run around to the other side and touch them (and) they had to come to our side.” If the ball wasn’t caught, someone would yell “pigtail” and throw the ball back while yelling “Andy Andy Over” again. An article titled “Before We Lived in Castles We Played Andy Andy Over” says that the game lost favor when we began living in three story homes (castles).
Other names for the game were Andrew-over, Andy-over, Annie-over, Antony-over, anti-over, ankety-over, and probably several other possible variations.
Killing Lincoln, the Shocking Assassination that Changed America Forever
This book by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard (tell people the second author if you don’t want to admit reading a book by O’Reilly) have written an excellent book. The Prologue begins with Lincoln’s oath of office for his second term. Andrew Johnson gave a drunken speech followed by Lincoln appealing for reunification. He said, “With malice toward none and charity for all…to bind up the nation’s wounds, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace…” John Wilkes Booth was standing only a few feet from Lincoln. He actually lunged at Lincoln, was restrained by Officer John Westfall, and explains he stumbled.
Lincoln was on the decks of the steamboat River Queen about four weeks later watching “the rolling thunder of heavy metal” as Union artillery pounded the Confederate defenses at Petersburg. The book elegantly describes the horrors of war as the Union Army works to drive Lee and the Confederates out of Petersburg after a long and brutal siege. Lee abandons the city and begins a retreat with Grant’s huge army in pursuit. There is a description of Lincoln riding through what had just recently been a battlefield “…littered with hundreds of dead soldiers, their unburied bodies swollen by death, and sometimes stripped bare by scavengers.” Continue reading
Escape by the Skin of Your Teeth
I posted a review of Killing Lincoln today, and thought this idiom was an appropriate selection because of J. Wilkes Booth’s escape from Washington after assassinating President Lincoln. The Phrase Finder describes the meaning as narrowly or barely, and it is usually “…used in regard to a narrow escape from a disaster.” “The phrase first appears in English in the Geneva Bible, 1560, in Job 19:20…’I haue escaped with the skinne of my tethe’.” Escaping by the skin of your teeth means there is no margin for error.
Andersonville Journey, The Civil War’s Greatest Tragedy
Any book on this subject is disturbing, and this one is no exception. Much of the book is about the commandant of the horrid prison where Union prisoners of war died by the thousands. Captain Henry Wirz was tried and executed after the war after a sham trial. The story of the prison is a disgrace as evidenced by the nearly 13,000 marble headstones nearly touching one another at the Andersonville National Historic Site. There were more than 33,000 prisoners of war crowded into the eighteen acre filthy log stockade with no shelter. The men made tents out of anything they could find. Some dug caves in the red clay. The only water for the first several months was an inadequate stream. The rations consisted mostly of corn ground with the cobs and shucks to give it bulk and rancid raw pork. The same food was issued to Confederate guards, since Confederate law required that prisoners and soldiers would be given the same rations.
Henry Wirz was born in Switzerland Heinrich Hartman Wirz. He “got in over his head” in some financial deals, was convicted of the crime of being in debt, and was exiled by the Swiss government. He immigrated to America, changed his name to Henry, and worked in a variety of jobs. He worked for a doctor for a time and learned enough about health care to move to Kentucky and opened a practice as a homeopathic physician. When the Civil War began he enlisted as a private in a Louisiana Confederate infantry unit. He was a sergeant by the time he fought at the Battle of Seven Pines and was wounded by minie balls in his right arm and shoulder. He was commissioned as a captain and was assigned to a variety of administrative duties. He was assigned to Andersonville in March 1864. Continue reading