Civil War soldiers were more than willing to illustrate the hardships of army life by sending home or bringing home after discharge souvenir hardtack- the hard bread staple of army field rations that were the subject of many complaints by new recruits and humorous stories and  jokes by experienced veterans, as well as at least one comic song, and half the title for Billings’ classic account of Civil War army life, “Hardtack and Coffee.”

This is a good example of one of those durable army crackers, measuring 3 ¼” square and 3/8” at its thickest. This is stable, though there is a partial crack across one side, partially visible on the other. One side shows two darker spots near one corner where the surface chipped, and ½” surface chip on an another, along with some small chips. The other side shows off better with one ½” surface chip and the hairline crack about 1” long.

This would display well with an issue canteen, haversack, and mess gear. Usually softened in water, coffee, etc., these were often daunting to soldiers on their first encounter. One of the more popular army jokes was a veteran announcing to a new recruit sitting beside him and contemplating his rations that he had bitten into something soft in his hardtack. To the worried question of whether it was a worm, the veteran replied, “No, a nail.”   [sr][ph:L]

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