With the beginning of the war, the Democratic party split into two factions: the Peace Democrats and the War Democrats The former were opposed to the Republican (Lincoln's party) scheme to crush the South, and they gained power in 1861 and 1862, when northern hopes for quick victory were dim The War Democrats, some of them having become Republicans, and many of them having accused Peace Democrats of virtual treason, won out in the end Peace Democrats, or Copperheads as they were known for the copper pennies they sometimes wore as badges, were likened in the press to a venomous snake They were mostly midwestern Democrats opposed to emancipation and sympathetic to the South They sought to convince northerners that the war should be ended by a negotiated settlement
a poisonous yellow and brown North American snake. Term used during the American Civil War to describe a Northerner who opposed the war policy and favoured a negotiated settlement with the South. The term was first used in 1861 by the New York Tribune, referring to the copperhead snake that strikes without warning. Most Copperheads (also called Peace Democrats) were from the Midwest, where agrarian interests distrusted the growing federal power. The movement's leaders included Clement Vallandigham. Though the movement was unable to influence the conduct of the war, Republicans used the Copperhead label to discredit the Democratic Party. Any of several unrelated species of snake named for their reddish head. The North American copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), also called the highland moccasin, is a pit viper of swampy, rocky, and wooded regions of the central and eastern U.S. It is usually less than 3 ft (1 m) long and is pinkish or reddish with a copper-coloured head and reddish brown, often hourglass-shaped crossbands on its back. Its venom is relatively weak, and a bite is rarely fatal to humans. The Australian copperhead is an elapid, and the Indian copperhead is a rat snake
A very small piece of protection with a small malleable head made of copper or aluminum that is used in aid climbing The climber pounds the head into slight cracks in the wall and prays it will hold his body weight until he can get his next piece in
A poisonous American serpent (Ancistrodon conotortrix), closely allied to the rattlesnake, but without rattles; called also copper-belly, and red viper