Located 2.2 miles west-southwest of Kennesaw and roughly 20 miles northwest of downtown Atlanta, Camp McDonald was the largest Civil War training camp in Georgia during the first three years of the war. It encompassed 60 acres near a fresh water supply and the Georgia Military Institute, making it an ideal location to house and train troops.

Some soldiers lived in barracks, although most slept in one of three kinds of tents: sibley, wedge, or wall. Wedge tents were the simplest, with a canvas draped over a 6-foot-tall pole. Sibley tents were larger. The Confederacy phased out both in 1862 because they were too cumbersome. Wall tents had four distinct walls, allowing them to hold up to twenty men and to function as field hospital tents.

In camp, soldiers played card games like euchre and cribbage. Many soldiers sent letters back home (nationwide, soldiers sent over 90,000 letters per day). Soldiers also entertained themselves with music, plays, dances, and sports such as baseball. The soldiers played baseball with different rules than we have today: runners would be called out if a ball was caught on a single bounce, the ball had to be pitched underhand as opposed to thrown overhand, and the bat was much larger than it is today.

Soldiers’ pay ranged from $13 a month for privates and corporals to $24 for first sergeants. Many soldiers had the money sent straight to their families. Since this money was often the family’s only income, soldiers wrote to their loved ones to confirm that they received the money.

Food was a constant dilemma for the soldiers on both sides of the battlefield. The Union troops were lucky to have coffee throughout the war, while the Confederates were unable to import it through the Union’s blockade of their ports. The most common foodstuff was hardtack, a cracker often deemed inedible by soldiers, which could be made more palatable by methods such as cooking in bacon grease or adding other ingredients.

Credits and Sources:

Researched and written by Andrew Shackelford, Jason Ceto, and Philip Stith, students at the Westminster Schools.

Soldier Life. Richmond: Time-Life Books, 1996. Stillwell, Leander. The Story of a Common Soldier of Army Life in the Civil War, 1861-1865. 2nd ed. Kansas City: Franklin Hudson, 1920.

Van Doren Stern, Philip. Soldier Life in the Union and Confederate Armies. New York: Bonanza Books, 1961.

Vintage Baseball Association. "1860's Beadle's Dime Base-Ball Player." Vintage Baseball Association. Accessed January 22, 2015. http://vbba.org/Rules/Beadles%201860.htm.

Wall text. Camp McDonald. The Southern Museum of the Civil War and Locomotive History, Kennesaw, GA.

Webb, Robert R. Robert R. Webb to Elizabeth A. Nash. Letter. From Atlanta History Center, Webb Family Letters, 1861-1888, 1908. Accessed January 14, 2015. http://ahc.galileo.usg.edu/ahc/view?docId=ead/ahc.MSS452f-ead.xml;query=camp%20mcdonald;brand=default.