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Camp and bunks If you were a Union solider in the Civil War you would probably start your day at five AM in the summer and six AM in the winter. As soon as you were up there was role call followed by breakfast. After breakfast you got ready for as many as five sweaty, exhausting and difficult drills. The type of living quarters you had depended on the seasons. In warmer months you would live in a canvas tent (like the Sibley tent) but in winter if you could you would want to make a crude log hut with pine needles as a mattress. All Sibley tents were able to hold is about 12 men comfortably, however many people were forced to fit up to 20 people in one tent. If you were lucky enough to have free time you would most likely write letters to home, eat and especially sleep! picture of log hut from http://www.kidport.com/RefLib/USaHistory/CivilWar/CampLife.htm
Drill at camp Drills were every day of the week except on Sundays but even then they still had to inspect tools and do jobs like clean up camp, dig trenches for toilets, make new roads, gather wood for fires and much more. During drills you would learn how to do maneuvers and use weapons. All drills lasted about two hrs. each and for most was very tedious. For drills you had to follow your superior’s instructions! All this terribly tough work paid off because the North showed better teamwork and eventually won the war. Picture from http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Bunker/1163/drill.html
To learn more about Civil War Camp life click here!
Camp Life As a Union Soldier.
Food rations for soldiers The food you would usually be supplied with as a soldier is 20 oz. of fresh or salted beef or 12 oz. of salted pork, over one lb. of flour, and vegetables mostly beans. They also were given other food items like salt, sugar, vinegar and soldier’s favorite, coffee. Food was only limited when traveling were the trains couldn’t go because of lack of tracks. Sometimes the food supplied to the soldiers had health hazards such as weevils and maggots getting into there biscuit like stuff called hardtack, and there were also outbreaks of scurvy when no fruits or vegetables were available. Picture of hardtack from http://www.nps.gov/archive/gett/gettkidz/hardtack.htm
Some of soldier’s pastimes When soldiers had time to there self’s one pastime was to write many letters to home. Another was to play with a pet. Many people owned dogs, cats, squirrels, raccoons and other wildlife. One person had a pet eagle named Old Abe and on the confederate side General Lee had a pet chicken that provided him with eggs every morning. Picture of Old Abe from http://oha.alexandriava.gov/fortward/special-sections/mascots/
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