Johnny Reb is the national personification of the common soldier of the Confederacy. During the American Civil War and afterwards, Johnny Reb and his Union counterpart Billy Yank were used in speech and literature to symbolize the common soldiers who fought in the Civil War in the 1860s. The symbolic image of Johnny Reb in Southern culture has been represented in its novels, poems, art, public statuary, photography, and written history. According to the historian Bell I. Wiley, who wrote about the common soldiers of the Northern and the Southern armies, the name appears to have its origins in the habit of Union soldiers calling out, “Hello, Johnny” or “Howdy, Reb” to Confederate soldiers on the other side of the picket line. Johnny Reb has been used as a nickname for veteran Confederate soldiers, as well as to refer to white natives of the states that formerly belonged to the Confederacy. Johnny Reb is often pictured as a Confederate Soldier in gray wool uniform with the typical kepi-style forage cap made of wool broadcloth or cotton jean cloth with a rounded, flat top, cotton lining, and leather visor. He is often shown as well with his weapons or with the Confederate flag, sometimes both.
Appearance List Johnny Reb and Billy Yank (Novel, 1904), Johnny Reb and Billy Yank (Sunday comic strip by Frank Giacoia, November 18, 1956 to May 24, 1959), Men in Action #1, Fightin’ Army #24, Master Comics #40, 42
Sample Read Johnny Reb and Billy Yank (comic strip) [All Things Ger]
Description Johnny Reb is the national personification of the common soldier of the Confederacy. During the American Civil War and afterwards, Johnny Reb and his Union counterpart Billy Yank were used in speech and literature to symbolize the common soldiers who fought in the Civil War in the 1860s. The symbolic image of Johnny Reb in Southern culture has been represented in its novels, poems, art, public statuary, photography, and written history. According to the historian Bell I. Wiley, who wrote about the common soldiers of the Northern and the Southern armies, the name appears to have its origins in the habit of Union soldiers calling out, “Hello, Johnny” or “Howdy, Reb” to Confederate soldiers on the other side of the picket line. Johnny Reb has been used as a nickname for veteran Confederate soldiers, as well as to refer to white natives of the states that formerly belonged to the Confederacy. Johnny Reb is often pictured as a Confederate Soldier in gray wool uniform with the typical kepi-style forage cap made of wool broadcloth or cotton jean cloth with a rounded, flat top, cotton lining, and leather visor. He is often shown as well with his weapons or with the Confederate flag, sometimes both.
