Bushwhackers.—Webster defines the word bushwhacker as meaning "One accustomed to beat about or travel through bushes, one who lives in or frequents the woods; applied specifically by the Federal troops in the Civil war to irregular troops of the Confederate states engaged in guerrilla warfare. Hence a guerrilla or bushfighter.'

Although this definition makes the words "bushwhacker" and "guerrilla" synonymous, there is really a distinction between them. The true bushwhacker generally fights under cover, while the guerilla frequently has sufficient courage to come out into the open. (See Guerillas.)