Existing comment:
Hardtack and Coffee:
"'Tis the song of the soldier, weary, hungry, and faint,
Hardtack, hardtack, come again no more;
Many days have I chewed you and uttered no complaint..."
-- :Hard Times" -- A Union army ditty.
Army officials prescribed a generous food allowance for Northern citizen-soldiers. But the army supply system occasionally broke down under the stresses of wide-ranging mobile warfare. Local conditions, enemy activity, or movement through a campaign all affected the type and quantity of military fare.
Army rations made lasting impressions on the minds of Wisconsin soldiers. Food packing techniques of the 1860s sometimes failed to preserve meats. Even the tasteless but durable hardtack crackers, which provided the stable of the soldier's died, sometimes spoiled or became infested with insects. Beans and rice provided the vegetable ration, unless troops purchased fresh produce from local vendors or, as became common, they chose to pillage the southern countryside. Sugar was one of life's luxuries, but as one Wisconsin soldier from Racine recalled, "it was our ration of coffee which we wanted more than anything else." |