Hardtack and coffee

The Four Parties—Their Candidates—Freedom of Speech Abridged—Secession Decreed—Lincoln Elected—Oh, for Andrew Jackson! Exit Buchanan—“Long-heeled Abolitionists” and “Black Repub...

The President’s Error—“Three Years Unless Sooner Discharged”—How Volunteer Companies were Raised—Filling the Quotas—What General Sherman Says—Recruiting Offices—Advertisements f...

The Distinction Noted Between the Militia and the U. S. Volunteers—The Oath of Muster—Barracks Described—Sibley or Bell Tents—A or Wedge Tents—Spooning—Stockading—Hospital or Wa...

Life in a Sibley—The Stove—The Pastimes—Postage Stamps as Money—Soldier’s Letter—“Nary Red”—Illustrated Envelopes—Army Reading—The Recluse—Evenings of Sociability—Pipe and Ring...

The Plan of a Camp—Inside a Stockade—The Bunks—The Arrangement of the Furniture—Æsthetic Dish-washing—Lighting by Candles and Slush Lamps—Candlesticks—Night-Gowns and Night-Caps...

The Jonah as a Guardsman—A Midnight Uproar—“Put him in the Guard-house”—The Jonah Spills Pea-Soup, and Coffee, and Ink—Always Cooking—Steps on the Rails—Tableau—Jonah as a Wood-...

Were They Adequate?—Their Quality—A List of Them—What was Included in a Single Ration—What was a Marching Ration?—Officers’ Allowance—The “Company Fund”—“Hardtack” Described—Its...

The Offences Enumerated—“Back Talk”—Absence from Camp without Leave—The Punishments—The Guard Tent—The Black List—Its Occupations—Buck and Gag—The Barrel and its Uses—The Crucif...

How the Men Came into Line—A Canteen Wash—The Shirks—“I Can’t Get ’Em Up”—“All Present or Accounted For”—“Stable Call”—Kingly Cannoneers and Spare Horses—“Breakfast Call”—“Sick...

A Scrap of Personal History—A Parent’s Certificate—The Lot of a Recruit—Abused by the Old Hands—Flush with Money—A Practical Joke—Two Classes of Recruits—The Matter-of-fact Recr...

Sending for a Box—A Specimen Address—A Typical List of Contents—Impatience at its Non-arrival—Its Inspection at Headquarters—Its Reception at Camp—The Opening—Box-packing as an...

Strictly Prohibited at First—Two Reasons Why—The Right and Wrong of It—Innocent Sufferers—Unauthorized Foragers—The Destitution of Some Families—The Family Turnout—Wantonness at...

What was an Army Corps?—How the Army of the Potomac was Organized—Brigade and Division Formations—“All quiet along the Potomac”—“Why don’t the Army move?”—How Corps were Compose...

Improvements in Firearms—In War Vessels—Catch-penny Devices for the Soldiers—Combination Knife, Fork, and Spoon—Water Filterers—Armor Vests and Greaves—Havelocks—Revolvers and D...

Where Raised—Where the Government Obtained Them—What They were Used for—Compared with Horses—Mule Fodder—How a Mule Team was Composed—How it was Driven—How Mules were Obtained f...

The First General Hospitals—The First Medical Director—Army Regulations Insufficient—Verdancy of Regimental Surgeons—Hospital Tents—The Origin of Field Hospitals in Tents—Their...

The Allowance—The Losses of Infantry—Clothing of Garrisons—First Maine Heavy Artillery—Their First Active Campaigning.—ARMY CATTLE—The Kind Referred to—Where They Came from—Wade...

Marching Orders—When They Came—What was Done at Once—The Survival of the Fittest—“Waverly” Correspondents—The Night in Camp after Marching Orders Came—Camp Fires and Hilarity—“T...

Grant’s Military Railroad—The Impedimenta—An Army Wagon—An Army Minstrel Troupe—The Transportation of a Regiment—What They Originally Carried—Baggage Trains on the Peninsula—Cha...

The Engineer Corps—Their Duties—Corduroying—Trestle Bridges—Slashing—Making of Gabions, etc.—As Pontoniers—Xerxes as an Early Pontonier—His Bridge over the Hellespont Described—...

Old Glory—Signal Flags—The Signal Corps—Its Use—Its Origin—The Kit—The Talking—The Code—A Signal Party—Sending a Message—Receiving a Message—The Torch—General Corse’s Despatch—S...

And yet they keep gathering and marching away! Has the nation turned soldier—and all in a day? There’s the father and son! While the miller takes gun With the dust of the wheat...

O, did you see him in the street dressed up in army blue, When drums and trumpets into town their storm of music threw— A louder tune than all the winds could muster in the air,...

The heath this night must be my bed, The bracken curtain for my head, My lullaby the warder’s tread, Far, far from love and thee, Mary. To-morrow eve, more stilly laid, My couch...

bottom. Sibley tents went out of field service in 1862, partly because they were too expensive, but principally on account of being so cumbrous. They increased the amount of imp...

In the last chapter I described quite fully the principal varieties of shelter that our troops used in the war. In this I wish to detail their daily life in those tents when the...

The camp of a regiment or battery was supposed to be laid out in regular order as definitely prescribed by Army Regulations. These, I may state in a general way, provided that e...

“Good people, I’ll sing you a ditty, So bear with me all ye who can; I make an appeal to your pity, For I’m a most unlucky man. ’Twas under an unlucky planet That I a poor morta...

“Fall in for your rations, Company A!” My theme is Army Rations. And while what I have to say on this subject may be applicable to all of the armies of the Union in large measur...

They braced my aunt against a board, To make her straight and tall; They laced her up, they starved her down, To make her light and small; They pinched her feet, they singed her...

could find no traces of disease about him, and so returned him for duty. Still the man persistently refused to do duty, claiming that he was not able, and continued to report at...

“I hear the bugle sound the calls For _Réveillé_ and _Drill_, For _Water_, _Stable_, and _Tattoo_. For _Taps_—and all was still. I hear it sound the _Sick-Call_ grim, And see th...

She asked for men, and up he spoke, my handsome and hearty Sam, “_I’ll_ die for the dear old Union, if she’ll take me as I am”; And if a better man than he there’s mother that c...

Can we all forget the bills on Sutler’s ledger haply yet, Which we feared he would remember, and we hoped he would forget? May we not recall the morning when the foe were threat...

Can we all forget the foraging the boys were prone to do, As with problematic rations we were marching Dixie through; And the dulcet screech of chanticleer or soothing squeal of...

What was an army corps? The name is one adopted into the English language from the French, and retains essentially its original meaning. It has been customary since the time of...

That “necessity is the mother of invention” nothing can more clearly and fully demonstrate than war. I will devote this chapter to presenting some facts from the last war which...

“Two teamsters have paused, in the shade of the pool, Rehearsing the tricks of the old army mule; They have little to say Of the blue and the gray, Which they wore when the garm...

The sketch embodied in this chapter is an attempt in a limited space to give the public a more adequate idea of the medical department of the army, what it was, how it grew up,...

Forty-two dollars was the sum allowed by the government to clothe the private soldier for the space of one year. The articles included in his outfit were a cap or hat (usually t...

“And now comes ‘boots and saddles!’ Oh! there’s hurrying to and fro, And saddling up in busy haste—for what, we do not know. Sometimes ’twas but a false alarm, sometimes it mean...

“That every man who swears once drove a mule Is not believed by any but a fool; But whosoe’er drove mules and did not swear Can be relied on for an honest prayer.”

If there is one class of men in this country who more than all others should appreciate spacious and well graded highways, or ready means of transit from one section into anothe...

Yes, there were flags in the army which talked for the soldiers, and I cannot furnish a more entertaining chapter than one which will describe _how_ they did it, _when_ they did...