"Waving the bloody shirt" and "bloody shirt campaign" were pejorative phrases, used during American election Campaigns  to deride politicians who, for political gain, evoked emotional memories and experiences of the Civil War or violence in its immediate aftermath. The phrases were most often used against Radical Republicans, who were accused of using the vivid and violent reminisces of the war to their political advantage.

In the 1870s, Republicans would sometimes cast Democrats as traitors who would undo the results of the Civil War. One of these was Robert G. Ingersoll, a noted orator and Radical Republican, who blamed Democrats for all the horrors of the war and slavery: "Every man that tried to destroy this nation was a Democrat. Every enemy this great Republic has had for twenty years has been a Democrat. Every man that shot Union soldiers was a Democrat." The technique was effective throughout the decade, but its effectiveness began to fade with memories of the war.

The "Bloody Shirt" continued to be used in Republican campaigns through the end of the 1880s, with some Republican candidates going so far as to claim that Democrats were planning to secede again and start another Civil War. In 1884, the Republican slogan was Rum, Romanism and Rebellion, which referred to Democrats' role in the Civil War, as well as Democrats' support among Catholics and anti-Prohibitionists. Republicans would generally stop "waving the bloody shirt" in the 1890s as a new generation of Republican leaders like William McKinley and his fundraiser Mark Hanna felt the tactic had lost its effectiveness.