Within the camp, it is hoped that children and civilian adults alike will address women as "Ma’am" and men as "Sir". In polite usage, those terms are usual and customary, and form part of the framework of polite society. Rules of polite speech in civilian society are not mandatory, but certainly are nice. Within military society, however, such language is not only a polite form, but also a required form.

As a matter of military courtesy, when speaking to a superior there are two differing forms of address, based on whether the superior is a non-commissioned or a commissioned officer. When addressing a non-commissioned officer, a positive response to a command from a Sergeant Major would be "Yes, Sergeant Major!". The proper positive response to the same command from a First Lieutenant would be "Yes, sir!" or "Yes sir, Lieutenant!". The supposed difference between a non-commissioned officer and an officer is that of education, which is equated with social status as well as working class. When a non-commissioned officer receives the response "Yes, sir!" to a command, he is more apt than not to remind the soldier that he, the non-commissioned officer, is a "working man, not an officer".

The matter of military language in re-enacting circles is frankly difficult to discuss in terms of absolutes, especially when dealing with the Confederate army. Rather than try to establish a "hard and fast" rule of language, we will recommend some principles by which most should operate.

Civility in manner of addressing a superior should be routine. Some would advocate the more proper and formal modes of address, such as a lieutenant saying "Does the Major want me to summon the men?" instead of "Major, do you want me to summon the men?", but we do not advocate such. An exception to this would be when the impression is perhaps a first-person impression, and the persona involved is supposed to have had either military training or has a social background which would be consistent with such good manners. For most of us, though, the second form is both more natural and more likely to have come from the lips of most of the soldiers of that day.