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Martial Music, War of the Rebellion: Hard Crackers LbNA #66177

Owner:Connfederate
Plant date:Nov 5, 2013
Location: Hop River Rail Trail
City:Manchester
County:Hartford
State:Connecticut
Boxes:1
Found by: Nairon
Last found:Jul 7, 2020
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFOF
Last edited:Nov 5, 2013
Martial Music, The War of the Rebellion:
Hard Crackers, Come Again No More

(One in an occasionally expanding series…)


More Humor in Uniform

“Hard Crackers, Come Again No More”
Circa 1861-62

Words: Anonymous
Music by: Stephen Collins Foster
“Hard Times Come Again No More”


Let us close our game of poker, take our tin cups in our hand
As we all stand by the cook's tent door
As dried monies of hard crackers are handed to each man.
O, hard tack, come again no more!

CHORUS: 'Tis the song, the sigh of the hungry:
"Hard tack, hard tack, come again no more."
Many days you have lingered upon our stomachs sore.
O, hard tack, come again no more!

'Tis a hungry, thirsty soldier who wears his life away
In torn clothes--his better days are o'er.
And he's sighing now for whiskey in a voice as dry as hay,
"O, hard tack, come again no more!"--CHORUS

'Tis the wail that is heard in camp both night and day,
'Tis the murmur that's mingled with each snore.
'Tis the sighing of the soul for spring chickens far away,
"O, hard tack, come again no more!"--CHORUS

But to all these cries and murmurs, there comes a sudden hush
As frail forms are fainting by the door,
For they feed us now on horse feed that the cooks call mush!
O, hard tack, come again once more!

FINAL CHORUS: 'Tis the dying wail of the starving:
"O, hard tack, hard tack, come again once more!"
You were old and very wormy, but we pass your failings o'er.
O, hard tack, come again once more!

From the website of Poetry and Music of the War Between the States: http://www.civilwarpoetry.org/union/songs/battle_hymn.html
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"Civil War rations generally consisted of 12 ounces of pork or bacon or one pound of fresh or salt beef; beans or peas; rice or hominy; sugar; coffee or tea; and hard biscuits or crackers known as Hardtack. Hardtack was usually square or rectangular in shape with small holes baked into it, similar to the soda crackers we are familiar with today.

According to historians, factories in the north “baked thousands of hardtack crackers every day, packed them in crates, and shipped them out by wagon or rail.” Sometimes the hardtack didn't get to the soldiers until weeks, or even months, after they had been made. By then, the crackers were so hard that soldiers called them "tooth dullers" or "sheet iron crackers."

Older crackers were often infested with maggots or weevils and so soldiers referred to them as "worm castles" because of “the many holes bored through them by these tiny pests..

.. Despite the bad rap that Hardtack got, soldiers prepared it in a number of ways. Some would crumble it into coffee or tea or soften it in water and fry it in bacon grease. Others made a popular dish called "skillygallee" by crumbling the crackers into [fried salt pork]. ”

From the History Chef’s website: http://lincolnslunch.blogspot.com/2011/06/civil-war-rations-and-hard-tack.html

One of the factories that supplied hardtack is the G. H. Bent Cookie Company in Milton, Mass. And, they still produce hardtack! http://www.bentscookiefactory.com/hardtack.html
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BYOInk: bring a brown stamp pad or marker.

Letterbox Difficulty Rating:
Difficulty Rating = 2.0
Terrain Rating = 2.0
Thanx to Silent Doug; see: www.letterboxing.info/rating/

All directions are magnetic and a pace equals two (2) steps.
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Clues:

Trailhead parking for the Hop River Rail Trail is on Colonial Rd. at Parker St. in Manchester, Conn.

From the parking area, head East. Passing the ¼ mile post and a nice little bench, look ahead approx. 40 yards for a “Sewer” cover painted bright green. Don’t worry if snow, et c. obscures the sewer plate, there is a metal pole with a green rectangular metal plate at the left edge of the trail adjacent. From here, look ahead on the right side of the trail for another sewer cover and pole/plate marker. Stop at this second sewer cover.

Look left across the trail for two small white birches. Your sheet iron cracker can be found at the base of the second birch (sitting slightly further back off the trail than the first). It sits behind a rail tie and under a hollow piece of another tie.

This can be a busy place! Please be discreet when retrieving and replacing the ‘box; it could very easily be muggled and go missing.
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Please stamp in away from the hiding place, and carefully avoid making or at least try to conceal social trails to the letterbox--especially in mud or snow! Kindly reseal the Lock-n-Lock type box, and re-hide the letterbox exactly where it was placed, covering it well and contact the placer if you find any problems.

Thank you, Connfederate