"hudags" in an 1861 Civil War letter

[Laurence Horn]

At 10:50 AM -0500 3/4/03, Beverly Flanigan wrote:
>As in "dag nab it"?  Or where did that phrase come from?

I think that's one of the countless euphemisms for "goddamn it".  I
suppose if "dag" is a development of "dog", which of course is "God"
spelled backward (cf. "doggone it"), and "nab" derives from "damn" by
reversal and substitution of labials for and by coronals, we can get
from "goddamn" to "dagnab".

>
>At 09:52 AM 3/4/2003 -0500, you wrote:
>>In a message dated 3/3/03 10:20:07 PM Eastern Standard Time, gcohen at UMR.EDU
>>writes:
>>
>>>  there was two sent
>>>   in for a trial   <snip>  I took my
>>>   old Musket and got another
>>>
>>>   (3rd page now begins)
>>>
>>>   man and started off [as prisoner guards]
>>>   but did not have any
>>>   adventure as they are but poor
>>>   hudags.
>>
>>My guess is that "dag" is a misspelling of "dog" and "hudag" therefore is
>>some term like "hangdog" or "hound dog"
>>
>>            - Jim Landau