Vigo County Historical Society

Hardtack biscuits made up large portion of soldier’s rations during wars

Visiting the Vigo County Historical Museum in the 1960s with a group of Girl Scout brownies, I observed a packet of hardtack biscuits from the Spanish-American War.

I have through often about those cracker-like wafers for more than 30 years. Could they have ridden up San Juan Hill next to the main Rough Rider of them all, the future president, Mr. Teddy Roosevelt? What stories food from the different wars could have told.

My great-uncle Andrew Stroup, while a prisoner at the infamous Andersonville Prison during the Civil War, lost more than 100 pounds due to a diet of ground-up corn cobs and a very had kernel corn which made holes in the soldiers’ intestines. My father, Fred Stroup, subsisted during World War I on oatmeal with watery milk. In World War II, my husband was fed canned fruit cocktail for 31 days and made a vow never to eat another can of it. He kept his word for more than 50 years.

But the Civil War and the Spanish-American War were famous for their hardtack. Hardtack crackers or biscuits made up a large portion of a soldier’s ration.

When first baked, they were fresh and tasty. By the time they got to the soldiers, they were hard and have been called tooth dullers (you could lose a tooth).

It is said that hardtack was too hard to be eaten whole, so it was generally broken up with a rock or rifle butt, placed in the cheek pocket and softened with saliva enough to be chewed and swallowed.

Food during the Spanish-American War was not very fancy. They didn’t have the conveniences to preserve food like we have today. Most people soaked their wafer in hot coffee.

Another big problem came about because of the amount of time it took to get supplies to the men. Since hardtack was packed in wooden cases, when it rained the inside of the case became wet and the hardtack was soon moldy.

Following is a soldier’s parable called Hard Times

Just for fun, I have found a recipe for hardtack and am going to try to make some.

The good news, I’m told, is these crackers can last up to 10,000 years. If that is true, the hardtack biscuits may be on display for many years, along with the many, many other artifacts in the museum.