Red Rover

From Woody:

"Dear Ask Rabenstrange,

I was recently reading a post on "Polka Dotted Pickles" blog, and she was talking about the game "Red Rover" My question for you, is where in the world did they get the name for it?"

Well Woody, I've looked into it and found several theories about the possible origin of the game's name. Here is the one I found most likely:

In 1863, during the Civil War, volunteers from the Sisters of the Holy Cross, a Catholic Order, borded a hospital ship. This ship and the Sisters aboard gave medical aid to the wounded on both sides during the remainder of the war. The name of the ship was the Red Rover.

It may be that the game received the name Red Rover as a sort of joking reference to giving medical attention to both sides.

My guess is that the above theory isn't accurate but I couldn't find anything that sounded more probable.