A Confederate soldier. Also a louse: see quot. 1876, and App. XIV.
1862. Graybacks have invaded our camp and are hard to repel.—‘Southern Hist. Soc. Papers,’ xii. 27 (1884).
1864. The darkies sat grinning and hunting in their rags for greybacks.—Daily Telegraph, March 17. (N.E.D.)
1864. The last thing he is likely to attempt is to send a solitary grayback or an army of graybacks beyond the mountains.—Id., July 7. (N.E.D.)
1876. A short waisted, single breasted jacket usurped the place of the long tail coat. The enemy noticed this peculiarity, and called the Confederates gray jackets, which name was immediately transferred to those lively creatures, which were the constant admirers and inseparable companions of the Boys in Gray and Blue.—‘Southern Hist. Soc. Papers,’ ii. 131.
1882. These insects, which in camp parlance were called graybacks, first made their appearance in the winter of 1861.—Id., x. 510.
