Guard-house" once = "jail / gaol"?

[Wilson Gray]

As a WAG, it could be the case that there was no need to distinguish a
guardhouse from a stockade or other actual jail until after there
developed a distinction between a slick-sleeve pulling guard duty only
because his name has happened to come up on a duty roster and a
(semi-)professional military policeman trained to maintain order and
otherwise to act as a "peace officer."

Even though "guard house" used as an informal term for a military jail
in the U.S. Army may predate WWI, this use was totally obsolete in the
post-Korea "black-shoe" Army. Otherwise, I would never have wondered
how a term that didn't exist in the military had come to be so
prevalent among civilians. Nevertheless, I blush (take my word for it)
to admit that, not until I found myself for the first time in an
actual guard house, preparing for guard duty, did it occur to me that
"guard house" was not military jargon for "jail."

-Wilson

On 4/2/07, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Guard-house" once = "jail / gaol"?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I agree with Jon that the citations do not distinguish the two
> senses.  As for a prison, might it have been used in that way only
> for military personnel?
>
> In my reading of 18th c. colonial newspapers, and a little of other
> writings of the same time and place, I do not recall
> "guard-house".  There is gaol, goal, and prison, and bridewell.
>
> Joel
>
> At 4/2/2007 06:02 PM, you wrote:
> >OED distinguishes the two definitions, but the block of citations
> >(from 1592) is not very helpful. Most or all look like "a building
> >for the accommodation of a (military) guard" (def. a) rather than "a
> >building in which prisoners are detained under guard" (def. b).
> >
> >   The "place of confinement" sense has been/ was common - if
> > informal - in the U.S. army since before WWI at least.  I recall an
> > overseas song from the immediate post-Kipling era of about 1900
> > (you young whelps) with the words
> >
> >   "Now I'm in the guard-house a-waiting my discharge.
> >   To hell with the sergeant and the corporal of the guard !"
> >
> >   I'm less certain about usage during the Civil War, but my
> > impression is that "guard house" was more frequent then than
> > "stockade," which suggests to me something more elaborate.
> >
> >   Here's an ex. ref. to the Mexican War of 1846-48:
> >
> >   1847, in J. Jacob Oswandel _Notes of the Mexican War_  (Phila.:
> > [pvtly. ptd.], 1885) 174: Sunday, May 30, 1847.- This morning a
> > non-commissioned officer was put in the
> >   guard-house for passing soldiers on spurious passes.
> >
> >   I believe that this sort of "guard-house" was originally just the
> > guards' quarters enlarged to include a common cell for prisoners
> > awaiting trial.  This obvious set-up could easily date back to the 16th C.
> >
> >   JL
> >
> >Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> >   ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> >Sender: American Dialect Society
> >Poster: Wilson Gray
> >Subject: Guard-house" once = "jail / gaol"?
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >Jon Lighter posted;
> >
> >ex., from 1814 :
> >
> >http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/facsimiles/1810s/181407060006.html
> >
> >"_A_....The other man, I saw the blow coming, I stooped my head, and
> >in stooping
> >I fell. Ashton directly collared me; he called me a b - y sod, and
> >said he would take me to the _guard-house_.
> >"_Q._ He called you a sod; did you know what he meaned by that
> >expression - _A_. I know now; I did not at that time. He said he would
> >take me to the _guard-house_."
> >
> >I've long wondered why it is that civilians often refer to the what we
> >(ex-)GI's know as the "stockade" as the "guard(-)house." Making a WAG
> >on the basis of Jon's evidence, I'd say that, once upon a time,
> >"guard(-)house" was simply another term for "jail / gaol." In the
> >current military - rather, when I was in the military a half-century
> >ago - the guard house was the building or, sometimes, just a room, in
> >which the privates of the guard were confined, for the convenience of
> >the sergeant of the guard, when they were not actively engaged in
> >guarding: "walking their posts from flank to flank and deferring to
> >anyone above their rank." The equivalent of a civilian jail or prison
> >is / was? the stockade.
> >
> >-Wilson
> >--
> >All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> >come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >-----
> >-Sam'l Clemens
> >
> >Dope wil get you through times of no money better than money will get
> >you through times of no dope.
> >-----
> >-Free-Wheeling Franklin
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> >
> >
> >---------------------------------
> >Don't get soaked.  Take a quick peek at the forecast
> >  with theYahoo! Search weather shortcut.
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


--
All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
-----
                                                      -Sam'l Clemens

Dope wil get you through times of no money better than money will get
you through times of no dope.
-----
                                         -Free-Wheeling Franklin

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org