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:

“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.”

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.”

Here is a post with a recipe for hardtack. Try it, you might like it!
 
 
 
 

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