Hardtack and coffee : $b or, the unwritten story of Army life, including chapters on enlisting, life in tents and log huts, jonahs and beats, offences and punishments, raw recruits, foraging, corps and corps badges, the wagon trains, the Army mule, the Engineer Corps, the Signal Corps, etc. — John Shaqi
Hardtack and coffee : $b or, the unwritten story of Army life, including chapters on enlisting, life in tents and log huts, jonahs and beats, offences and punishments, raw recruits, foraging, corps and corps badges, the wagon trains, the Army mule, the Engineer Corps, the Signal Corps, etc.Billings, John Davis
History
Hardtack and coffee : $b or, the unwritten story of Army life, including chapters on enlisting, life in tents and log huts, jonahs and beats, offences and punishments, raw recruits, foraging, corps and corps badges, the wagon trains, the Army mule, the Engineer Corps, the Signal Corps, etc.
Billings, John Davis
Billings, John Davis, 1842-1933; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Personal narratives; United States. Army -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865; United States. Army -- Military life -- History -- 19th century
Four men was the number usually assigned to one of them; but they were
often occupied by five, and sometimes six. When so occupied at night, it
was rather necessary to comfort that all should turn over at the same
time, for six or even five men were a tight fit in the space enclosed,
unless “spooned” together. These tents when stockaded were quite spacious
and comfortable. A word or two just here with regard to stockading. A
stockade proper is an enclosure made with posts set close together. In
stockading a tent the posts were split in halves, and the cleft sides all
turned inward so as to make a clean and comely inside to the hut. But
by far the most common way of logging up a tent was to build the walls
“cob-fashion,” notching them together at the corners. This method took
much less time and material than the other. But whenever I use the word
stockade or stockading in any descriptions I include either method. I
shall speak further of stockading by and by.
The A tents were in quite general use by the State and also by the
general government the first two years of the war, but, like the Sibley,
they required too much wagon transportation to take along for use in the
field, and so they also were turned over to camps of instruction and
to troops permanently located in or near important military centres or
stations.
[Illustration: THE HOSPITAL OR WALL TENT.]
The Hospital or Wall tent is distinguished from those already described
by having four upright sides or walls. To this fact it probably owes
the latter name, and it doubtless gets the former from being used for
hospital purposes in the field. These tents, also, are not of modern
origin. They were certainly used by Napoleon, and probably long before
his day. On account of their walls they are much more comfortable and
convenient to occupy than the two preceding, as one can stand erect or
move about in them with tolerable freedom. They are made of different
sizes. Those used as field hospitals were quite large, accommodating
from six to twenty patients, according to circumstances. It was a common
occurrence to see two or more of these joined, being connected by ripping
the central seam in the two ends that came in contact. By looping back
the flaps thus liberated, the tents were thrown together, and quite
a commodious hospital was in that way opened with a central corridor
running its entire length between a double row of cots. The smaller size
of wall tent was in general use as the tent of commissioned officers, and
so far as I now recall, was used by no one else.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account