OHS EXTRA! from Oklahoma Historical Society

Hard Tack: Diet of Frontier Soldiers

Editor's Note: This material was taken from the Teachers Guide that accompanies our education trunk on Forts in Oklahoma. Trunks on various subjects containing a wide range of items related to the trunk's subject are available to schools throughout Oklahoma.

The chief staple for soldiers on the march was a diet of hard bread, known as hard tack or hard crackers. Without proper food storage during the 1800s, spoilage was common. Hard tack made of unleavened flour became the logical solution, since this type of "bread" had an infinite "shelf life". In fact, Civil War baked hard tack was still issued to American troops during the Spanish-American War in 1898. Thirty-three years after the end of the Civil War!

The United States government was able to issued hard tack in tremendous quantities and so was a frequent staple to the soldier's larder. In 1864, Frontier Soldier

Napoleon Bartlett wrote, "For breakfast we have coffee & hardtack for Dinner we sometimes have beans & sometimes Peas & hardtack for supper we have coffee & meat with the hardtack." In letters home, soldier often listed the food eaten and hard tack is almost always listed first.

Despite the emphasis on hard in hard tack, the crackers were often infested with bugs and worms. The soldiers gave colorful names to hard tack based on these two "qualities". Often soldiers felt that the only way to break up the hard tack was a well-placed blow by fist or musket. Another soldier, John Billings, wrote "They could not be soaked soft, but after a time took on the elasticity of gutta-percha." Gutta-percha was a hard rubber used in small Union cases or picture frames. Names given by both sides included: sheet-iron crackers, breastplates, and bullet stoppers.

A second problem with hard tack concerned the presence of various bugs, mostly weevils and maggots. One soldier wrote home telling his brother about their food by saying "our diet has been principally bacon and crackers or as the boys say sow belly and maggots. Some say the crackers have maggots in them, but I don't look for them." The name "worm castle" reflected the amount of maggots found in hard tack and in fact a song was dedicated to the worms and was sung to the tune of "John Brown's Body".

Worms eat hardy in the commissary store.
Worms eat hardy in the commissary store.
Worms eat hardy in the commissary store.
As we go starving on.

At a fort, the food was often better and more varied compared to being on the march, which would require food to be not only easily carried, but easily prepared.

Many forts had bake ovens to prepare fresh baked bread, which was a welcome change to hardtack eaten on the march. Fort Gibson still holds a bake day each Spring and Fall.

In the January 1869, a young officer stationed at Ft. Gibson decided to throw a dinner for the other officers at the post to get to know them better and show his hospitality. The menu ranged from stuffed turkey and apple sauce to "green" ham and roast opossum. One of the most interesting parts of his letter is a diagram of the table, with labels for the dishes.