ACW-008 Hardtack and Coffee is the latest set in our American Civil War Camp Life Series and features 3 Union soldiers cooking over a campfire.
Everything was given out uncooked so the soldiers were left up to their own ingenuity to prepare their meals. Small groups would often gather together to cook and share their rations and they called the group a “mess.”
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, similar to a large soda cracker. To make the biscuits more palatable the soldiers would often break them up and to use in a soup or fry them in a skillet to soften them enough to make them edible.
Another flour based staple was called “sloosh.” It was made simply by mixing bacon grease and flour and fashioning the dough that formed into a long rope. Twisting it around a ramrod it could then be cooked over an open fire.
Civil War rations consisted mainly of bread and, secondly, coffee. However, many soldiers agreed that coffee was the number one item for consumption. The soldier’s coffee rations were small, but was considered a Godsend to them at all times.
Everything was given out uncooked so the soldiers were left up to their own ingenuity to prepare their meals. Small groups would often gather together to cook and share their rations and they called the group a “mess.”
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, similar to a large soda cracker. To make the biscuits more palatable the soldiers would often break them up and to use in a soup or fry them in a skillet to soften them enough to make them edible.
Another flour based staple was called “sloosh.” It was made simply by mixing bacon grease and flour and fashioning the dough that formed into a long rope. Twisting it around a ramrod it could then be cooked over an open fire.
Civil War rations consisted mainly of bread and, secondly, coffee. However, many soldiers agreed that coffee was the number one item for consumption. The soldier’s coffee rations were small, but was considered a Godsend to them at all times.
