GDG- Pumpkin use during the Civil War

[Bill and Glenna Jo Christen]

>From: Ginny Gage <lewandginny at emailmv.com>
>Subject: GDG- Pumpkin use during the Civil War
>
>The question on the radio this morning was:
>These were used as helmets in the Civil War?
>Know what the answer is??
>(Pumpkins)
>I don¹t think I¹ve ever seen a reenactor with one on his head!
>  
>
That would not be the first time an enactor failed to do something 
historically accurate!  Although, I have not seen a reference to 
pumpkins used as helmets in any period.

The term "pumpkin slinger" has been applied to the US Model 1842 (.69 
caliber smoothbore) musket. Was it a period term?

In the nineteenth-century (and earlier), "pumpkin" was a slang word for 
head and foolish persons were called "pumpkin-heads." Someone who was 
really small potatoes, but thought he was important, may have been 
labeled a "big pumpkin."

Bill Christen