Manning the Fort

The life of Civil War soldiers in camp was one of boredom, fear, mischief, disease and even death. Thousands of young men, many of whom had never before left their family farms or urban neighborhoods, were crowded into the makeshift camps. Disease could run rampant, and sanitary conditions were often inadequate. Most men lived in tents year-round, though the Confederates built crude wooden huts during the winter of 1861-1862.

Much of the soldier's day was spent learning military drill. They also searched for clean water, mended clothes, dug trenches for latrines, and gathered wood for cooking and heating. The men subsisted mostly on salt pork, dried beans, corn bread, and hardtack (a dense cracker baked to the consistency of wood). At times soldiers received food sent from home. By far, the most important staple was coffee.

Despite their heavy workload, soldiers always had time for recreation. Almost every unit had at least one boy who could strum a guitar or banjo, or play a fiddle. The soldiers also read, wrote letters to their loved ones, partook in religious reflection, and played any game they could devise, including baseball, cards, boxing matches, and cockfights. They bet on anything that would move, from lice dropped onto heated plates, to pushing comrades seated in wheelbarrows. They used cannon balls for bowling at ten-pins, whittled sticks, carved pipes from soapstone, and talked about the nature of war and the hope of returning home.

Marker can be reached from the intersection of Battery Heights Boulevard and Quarry Road, on the right when traveling south.

Courtesy hmdb.org

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