Page 19 - Civil War Curriculum Book

items soldiers received, it was this hard bread that they remembered and joked about the
most.
"'Tis the song that is uttered in camp by night and day, 'Tis
the wail that is mingled with each snore; 'Tis the sighing of
the soul for spring chickens far away, 'Oh hard crackers,
come again no more!'

'Tis the song of the soldier, weary, hungry and faint, Hard
crackers, hard crackers, come again no more; Many days
have I chewed you and uttered no complaint, Hard
crackers, hard crackers, come again no more!"

-from a soldiers' parable called "Hard Times"

Hardtack was a simple flour biscuit issued to Union soldiers
throughout the war. Hardtack crackers made up a large portion
of a soldier's daily ration. It was square or sometimes
rectangular in shape with small holes baked into it, and similar
to a large soda cracker and baked in northern factories. If the
hardtack was received soon after leaving the factory, they
were quite tasty and satisfying. Usually, the hardtack did not
get to the soldiers until months after it had been made. By that
time, they were very hard, so hard that soldiers called them
"tooth dullers" and "sheet iron crackers". Sometimes they
were infested with small bugs
the soldiers called weevils, so they referred to the hardtack as "worm castles" because of
the many holes bored through the crackers by these pests. Packed into large wooden
crates, the boxes were stacked outside of tents and warehouses until it was time to issue
them. Soldiers were usually allowed six to eight crackers for a three-day ration. There were
a number of ways to eat them- plain or prepared with other ration items. Soldiers would
crumble them into coffee or soften them in water and fry the hardtack with some bacon
grease. One favorite soldier dish was salted pork fried with hardtack crumbled into the
mixture. Soldiers called this "skillygallee", and it was a common and easily prepared meal.

Would you like to try some hardtack? It's very easy to make and here's the recipe:

2 cups of flour 1/2 to 3/4 cup water 1
tablespoon of Crisco or vegetable fat 6
pinches of salt

Mix the ingredients together into a stiff batter, knead several times, and spread the dough
out flat to a thickness of 1/2 inch on a non-greased cookie sheet. Bake for one-half an hour
at 400 degrees. Remove from oven, cut dough into 3-inch squares, and punch four rows of
holes, four holes per row into the dough. Turn dough over, return to