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Hardtack and Coffee

by John BILLINGS (1842 - 1933)

Introduction and Chapter 1 - The Tocsin of War

Hard Tack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life (1887) is a memoir by John D. Billings, a veteran of the 10th Massachusetts Volunteer Light Artillery Battery in the American Civil War. Hard Tack and Coffee is not about battles, but rather about how the common Union soldiers of the Civil War lived in camp and on the march. It covers the details of regular soldier life, including enlisting, how soldiers were sheltered, Army rations, offenses and punishments, a day in camp, boxes from home, foraging , the army mule, hospitals and ambulances, clothing, breaking camp and marching, and other similar topics. Billings has been described as a skillful writer, both humorous and informative. The historian Henry Steele Commager called the work "one of the most entertaining of all civil war books". - Summary by Wikipedia

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Listen next episodes of Hardtack and Coffee:
Chapter 10 - Raw Recruits , Chapter 11 - Special Rations - Boxes From Home - Sutlers , Chapter 12 - Foraging , Chapter 13 - Corps and Corps Badges , Chapter 14 - Some Inventions and Devices of the War , Chapter 15 - The Army Mule , Chapter 16 - Hospitals and Ambulances , Chapter 17 - Scattering Shots , Chapter 18 - Breaking Camp - On the March , Chapter 19 - Army Wagon Trains , Chapter 2 - Enlisting , Chapter 20 - Army Road and Bridge Builders , Chapter 21 - Talking Flags and Torches , Chapter 3 - How the Soldiers Were Sheltered , Chapter 4 - Life in Tents , Chapter 5 - Life in Log Huts , Chapter 6 - Jonahs and Beats , Chapter 7 - Army Rations , Chapter 8 - Offences and Punishments , Chapter 9 - A Day in Camp