Cards and Gambling in the Armies

Tom Elmore

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-Perhaps nine tenths of the soldiers played some game of cards, and about three-fourths indulged in gambling. As soon as the men stacked their arms for the midday meal, the gamblers would set up their roulette, chuck-a-luck and faro spreads, which they had lugged under the burning summer sun. … At Chambersburg [June 1863] I lent a gambler $20 who said he was in a game. … No doubt the spirit of gambling that permeates womens’ clubs, social clubs, and infests the towns with games and disreputable characters owes something to the demoralization of war times. The blockade runners brought over fresh supplies of cards, which were generally plentiful in camp. (Two Boys in the American Civil War, Houghton brothers, 2nd and 15th Georgia)

[Comment: Chuck-a-luck is a game that uses three dice; bets are placed as to which number will appear after each throw. The more times the number appears, the greater the payoff. The money is lost if the number does not show. Faro was reportedly played in the U.S. for nearly two centuries; it was last played in a Nevada casino in 1985.]

-H. R. Clem of Company A always carried an outfit for chuck-a-luck and keno. Crossing the Potomac [June 1863] he stumbled, lost his gun and ruined his [gambling] outfit. (L. L. Cochran, The Tenth Georgia at Gettysburg, Atlanta Journal, February 23, 1901)

-While we were lying behind Dearing’s [artillery battalion] during the artillery duel [July 3 at Gettysburg], I felt an old deck of cards in my pocket that had afforded [Brig.] Gen. [Richard B.] Garnett, Col. [Eppa Hunton], my brothers and myself considerable enjoyment around the campfires at night, and not relishing the thought of the enemy’s finding them on my dead body, I dug a hole and placed them in it and covered them with a stone, almost shedding tears at the obsequies. (Major Edmund Berkeley, 8th Virginia, Supplement to the Official Records)

-In November 1863, one furlough was drawn by a “woe-be-gone” soldier, who then sold it to a comrade named Jim for $1,000. Jim was a slick poker player and he had the cash. (A Private in Gray, Thomas Benton Reed, Company A, 9th Louisiana)

-June 18, 1863, gambling predominates to an alarming extent in our regiment. Some have won as high as 60 or 80 dollars today, while others of course have lost correspondingly. Chuck-a-luck and a game called twenty-one, with poker, are the principal games played. (Diary of Edwin B. Weist, 20th Indiana) [At the time a month’s pay for a Federal private was $13]

-June 21, 1863, an order from acting brigade commander Col. [Hiram] Berdan suppressing gambling, was published today. There has been a great deal of gambling carried on, lately, in our midst. (Diary of Sgt. Thomas White Stephens, Company K, 20th Indiana)

-C. W. Bardeen of the 16th Massachusetts expounded at great length about gaming and gambling and its effects in his book, A Little Fifers’ War Diary. He devoted six pages to the topic. Players, as always, had to be on guard against cheats who stacked the deck or improved the odds in their favor in other devious ways. It was tough to beat cold-blooded professionals. Bardeen observed that poker could be enjoyable among friends with stake and time limits, but such an ideal was hard to maintain, so the games often resulted in bickering and hard feelings that could negatively impact morale within the unit. (https://archive.org/details/littlefiferswar00bardrich/page/176/mode/2up, pp. 177-182)

-Prior to the cannonade on July 3 [at Gettysburg], just under the shadow of a rock, four fellows were having a game of cards. (William L. Stork, Personal Recollections of the Civil War, The Lutheran Observer, December 9, 1904, Company I, 29th Pennsylvania)

-Card playing was done extensively for stakes. This was always more or less under ban. Sometimes it would be done quite openly and nothing was said about it. Then a descent would be made on a knot of gamblers. The money, if it could be seized, was confiscated and the men punished in some way, but gambling went on, all the same. (Twenty-Seventh Indiana Volunteer Infantry in the War of the Rebellion 1861-1865, by Edmund Randolph Brown)

-Some writing letters, good many reading, some playing cards, playing on fifes, etc. (July 17, 1863 letter of William Clark McLean, 123rd New York, to his mother)
 
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Great Thread. It reminds me that gambling was prohibited in US Army barracks during my years in the Army. One of the funniest things that I had happen was a incident while I was stationed in Germany. I had the brigade CQ duty and was doing my rounds and caught some soldiers playing cards with a pile of Germany marks in the middle of the bunk. When I questioned them about gambling a Sargent told me they were not gambling. When I ask about the marks he told me that was how they kept score. All I could do was laugh and walk away. One of the major reasons it was outlawed but not always reinforced was it was a relief but on the other hand you had young guys that didn't play well and were taken advantage of which in turn made for some big fights.
 
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