Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 254, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1918 — WHY THEY ARE “DOUGHBOYS” [ARTICLE]

WHY THEY ARE “DOUGHBOYS”

Origin of Nickname Applied to United States Infantrymen Traced to Mexican War, The term “doughboy” as a nickname for the American infantryman is a very old one, dating back to the Mexican war of 1846. In that year the United States regular soldiers firsts made acquaintanceship with the hohses of mud-colored, sun-dried bricks that are seen everywhere, even today, in New Mexico, Arizona nnd the southern part of California. These bricks are called by the Mexican adobes (pronounced “dobies"). a term also applied to the small, squat, flat-roofed houses built with them. When the American Invaders entered what was then Mexican territory, the infantrymen found these dwellings—mostly deserted by their panic-stricken Inhabitants —handy as billets, and promptly occupied them as such. But the cavalrymen, who had to be near their picketed horses out on the open prairie, were unable to avail themselves of similar accommodation, ’ /-ia Partly in envy, and partly in goodnatured chaff, these christened their more fortunate comrades “dobie dodgers,” afterwards shortened to “dobies,” a good, round-sounding nickname that was bound to stick, and which in course of time became corrupted into “doughboys.” •