This is a scarce bit of ephemera- a Civil War soldier’s bath chit. This is a small rectangular ticket printed in black on blue cardstock reading “Park Barracks. / ONE BATH.” This is mounted on a white label with note in brown ink: “This is for your especial benefit and is / supposed to be not transferable / GBM.” We take the note to be from a new recruit sending this home as a souvenir to show the folks how the army works, that he is being taken care of, and perhaps assure them he is bathing regularly.

“Park Barracks” is likely not an unusual name since impromptu military facilities were probably set up on the convenient open ground of parks in several major cities to handle new recruits. We find one in Louisville, KY, for instance, but there is a good chance this might be from the Park Barracks in New York City, set up on the grounds of City Hall Park. We show an illustration of it from Harpers, and are aware of at least one stereoview showing part of it.

The ticket or chit, is in good shape with some wear at the edges and vertical crease in the middle with a little loss to some letters and some minor wrinkling as shown, but fully legible.  [sr] [ph:L]

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