-- Nathan Bedford Forrest
Southern States Secede
Secession
fever hit the South after Abraham Lincoln was elected president. The
South considered Lincoln's Republican party victory in the 1860
presidential election as a sign that the North was now going to end the
"peculiar institution" of slavery. For the South, the time of talk and
compromise had ended. In December, 1860 South Carolina became the first
state to secede from the Union. Secession of the rest of the states that
would make up the Confederate States of America occurred in two waves.
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Hardtack Described
For both Billy Yanks and Johnny Rebs, a common food was hardtack. Hardtack was a quarter-inch thick square cracker or biscuit baked from unleavened flour, water, and salt. It was inexpensive and durable, qualities making it suitable for military campaigning.
Although hardtack was often a source of energy and sustenance during the Civil War, it usually was a target of scorn for the soldiers. Here on August 1, 1863 Sergeant Lawrence Van Alstyne, of the 128th New York Infantry U.S.A., describes hardtack in an entry from his diary:
| Barnes&Noble: Baking Recipes of Civil War… |
"A year ago to-day I cradled rye for Theron Wilson, and I remember we had chicken pie for dinner with home-made beer to wash it down, To-day I have hard-tack. Have I ever described hard-tack to you? … In size they are about like a common soda cracker, and in thickness about like two of them…. But… The cracker eats easy, almost melts in the mouth, while hard-tack is harder and tougher than so much wood. I don’t know what the word "tack" means, but the "hard" I have long understood….. Very often they are mouldy, and most always wormy. We knock them together and jar out the worms, and the mould we cut or scrape off. Sometimes we soak them until soft and then fry them in pork grease, but generally we smash them up in pieces and grind away until either the teeth or the hard-tack gives up. I know why Dr. Cole examined our teeth so carefully when we passed through the medical mill at Hudson." |
Here is a post with a recipe for hardtack. Try it, you might like it!
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Preserved hardtack from U.S. Civil War, Wentworth Museum, Pensacola, Florida. |
Civil War hardtack from 1862.  |
The caption of the hardtack picture reads:
Hardtack from Atlanta area, 1862.
T.T. Wentworth, Jr. Collection
The standard Army ration of bread was issued as hardtack, which was supposed to have a longer shelf life than regular bread. The crackers were often so wormy that soldiers nicknamed them "wormcastles."
Suggested Posts to Learn More...
- Civil War Speech
- Hardtack Recipe
- Jennie Wade, Gettysburg Bread Baker
- Seeing the Elephant
- Gettysburg, The Third Day
- Civil War Army Organization and Order of Rank
- Civil War Casualties
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