Most histories of the Civil War focus on battles and top brass. Hardtack and Coffee is one of the few to give a vivid, detailed picture of what ordinary soldiers endured every day—in camp, on the march, at the edge of a booming, smoking hell. John D. Billings of Massachusetts enlisted in the Army of the Potomac and curvived the conditions he recorded. The authenticity of his book is heightened by the many drawings that a comrade, Charles W. Reed, made in the field. This is the story of how the Civil War soldier was recruited, provisioned, and disciplined. Described here are the types of men found in any outfit; their not very uniform uniforms; crowded tents and makeshift shelters; difficulties in keeping clean, warm, and dry; their pleasure in a cup of coffee; food rations, dominated by salt pork and the versatile cracker or hardtack; their brave pastimes in the face of death; punishments for various offenses; treatment in sick bay; firearms and signals and modes of transportation. Comprehensive and anecdotal, Hardtack and Coffee is striking for the pulse of life that runs through it.

Hardtack and Coffee or, The Unwritten Story of Army Life

Biographies & Memoirs

John D. Billings

Leaders & Notable People

Bison Books

Hard Tack and Coffee

History

Americas

Corner House Pub

Originally published in 1888, Hard Tack and Coffee became an immediate best seller. Its author, John Billings, had served with the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War. Writing from his own experience, the author's unadorned style carries the reader right into the everyday life of the ordinary soldier in the Union Army.

Hard Tack and Coffee: Soldier's Life in the Civil War

Konecky&Konecky

Four clothbound volumes in a beautiful slipcase--*Hardtack and Coffee by John D. Billings*Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant by Ulysses S. Grant*Recollections and Letters of General Robert E. Lee by his son Captain Robert E. Lee*From Manassas to Appomattox by James Longstreet

The Civil War Experience (4 Volume Box Set)

Ulysses S. Grant

Robert E. Lee

James Longstreet

JG Press

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Books by John D. Billings