"chamber-lye"

[Jonathan Lighter]

OED has nothing on this since 1877 and, apparently, nothing from the U.S.:

  2000 Steven Harvey _Bound for Shady Grove_ (Athens: U. of Georgia Press) 51:
  Fill up the gallon glass jug with chamber-lye from your bed pot.

  The curious should have little trouble discovering the once infamous verses written on the subject during the Civil War.

  JL


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