Popular Items in Camp

[Pollaco]

We all know a soldier who happened to own a frying pan or some other item that most soldiers didn't posses like a sewing kit or a file was popular guy in camp. What "gift from home" would have been popular with the guys? It didn't have to necessarily be a gift from home, it may be something he found (stole) in a farm house.

 

[Tom Elmore]

Captain Samuel T. Buchanan of Company D, 48th Virginia, included this comment in a letter that he wrote home on August 30, 1863: "Dale in our company found two or three dozen of knives. He gave me two, one that had a spoon and fork attached to it."

Another popular fellow in camp was a soldier who gave shaves and haircuts to his comrades. On July 16, 1863, John C. Shaler of the Hampton Battery (F, Pennsylvania) wrote: "I saw today that the Yankee will make money no matter where situated. It was a chap going about from camp to camp, a rough barber stool on his back and other necessaries in a haversack, giving a shave and a cut for 15 cents each or 25 cents for both. He was filling his pockets, too, for customers were plenty."

 

[Pollaco]

Captain Samuel T. Buchanan of Company D, 48th Virginia, included this comment in a letter that he wrote home on August 30, 1863: "Dale in our company found two or three dozen of knives. He gave me two, one that had a spoon and fork attached to it."

Another popular fellow in camp was a soldier who gave shaves and haircuts to his comrades. On July 16, 1863, John C. Shaler of the Hampton Battery (F, Pennsylvania) wrote: "I saw today that the Yankee will make money no matter where situated. It was a chap going about from camp to camp, a rough barber stool on his back and other necessaries in a haversack, giving a shave and a cut for 15 cents each or 25 cents for both. He was filling his pockets, too, for customers were plenty."

Does it mention where Dale "found" those two or three dozen knives?

 

[lupaglupa]

Captain Samuel T. Buchanan of Company D, 48th Virginia, included this comment in a letter that he wrote home on August 30, 1863: "Dale in our company found two or three dozen of knives. He gave me two, one that had a spoon and fork attached to it."

Another popular fellow in camp was a soldier who gave shaves and haircuts to his comrades. On July 16, 1863, John C. Shaler of the Hampton Battery (F, Pennsylvania) wrote: "I saw today that the Yankee will make money no matter where situated. It was a chap going about from camp to camp, a rough barber stool on his back and other necessaries in a haversack, giving a shave and a cut for 15 cents each or 25 cents for both. He was filling his pockets, too, for customers were plenty."

Talk about earning an honest buck! This guy had something people wanted and needed and the ability to give it to them. Let's hope he didn't price gouge.

 

[JOHN42768]

25 cent for a shave and haircut where he even came to the customer, most likely in a field camp, fair by any standard.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

Lt. J.A.H. Foster of the 155th Pennsylvania Volunteers was a jeweler and when he could, he made decent money repairing watches for soldiers and officers. He was always writing home to his wife and asking her to send him hands, springs, etc. The only time he couldn't make money was when they were entrenched, hadn't been paid for months, or was with a group of "low-class" conscripts (you certainly could tell what he thought of them) and they didn't have watches to begin with!

He also made bone rings for his wife, son, and family and friends. I think he'd be shocked to realize what they go for now at The Horse Soldier!

 

[Tom Elmore]

Talk about earning an honest buck! This guy had something people wanted and needed and the ability to give it to them. Let's hope he didn't price gouge.

Around this same period, Private Jacob Thomas Zehrung of the 73rd Ohio recorded in his diary that on June 15, 1863 he "shaved to the amount of $1.70" and the following day "shaved in the afternoon to the amount of $1.50," which presumably is what he earned shaving his comrades. Not bad for two days' work considering his base pay was $13 a month.

 

[Tom Elmore]

Does it mention where Dale "found" those two or three dozen knives?

No, but I would guess during his sojourn into Pennsylvania.

 

[Pollaco]

I recall my Dad telling us that He had an old iron and was in demand for pressing wrinkled uniforms.This was before wrinkle-free and perma press.

 

[lupaglupa]

I imagine having the tools to darn socks (and the knowledge to use them) would have been quite handy.

 

[Pollaco]

It would probably easy to lose possession of some of the smaller items, like a whetstone.You loan it to someone or have it stolen is what I mean.

 

[NH Civil War Gal]

It would probably easy to lose possession of some of the smaller items, like a whetstone.You loan it to someone or have it stolen is what I mean.

North or South, any number of diaries talk about the terrible and I mean TERRIBLE thieving in camp. Soldiers with good morals certainly didn't expect it from others and had their eyes opened wide with it. Enlisted and officers were both thieved equally. Not one thing could be left around and it was terrible to know that people you lived with would do that, and never quite know who it was.

 

[Pollaco]

Anyone who has ever been the victim in a theft just has to wonder "Are there really people like that"?

 

[7thWisconsin]

You realize there´s only one thief in the army. Everybody else is just trying to get their stuff back.

 

[lupaglupa]

North or South, any number of diaries talk about the terrible and I mean TERRIBLE thieving in camp. Soldiers with good morals certainly didn't expect it from others and had their eyes opened wide with it. Enlisted and officers were both thieved equally. Not one thing could be left around and it was terrible to know that people you lived with would do that, and never quite know who it was.

It seems the general coarseness of army life (on both sides) was hard for a lot of recruits. I've seen a number of letters and diaries where men express surprise at the swearing, gambling, lack of religion, etc. Men from the country seem especially taken aback by city boys.

 

[Sheltowee]

I would think a cobbler could be a good guy to have in your mess.

 

[Trout and Apples]

North or South, any number of diaries talk about the terrible and I mean TERRIBLE thieving in camp. Soldiers with good morals certainly didn't expect it from others and had their eyes opened wide with it. Enlisted and officers were both thieved equally. Not one thing could be left around and it was terrible to know that people you lived with would do that, and never quite know who it was.

When I was a kid and start to collect coins, my parents asked some WW2 veteran friends of theirs if they had a few coins from the countries that they had "visited" that they would give to me. Several said yes and I was excited at the prospect that I would be able to add them to my little collection.
I was surprised and a little disappointed to see that every single coin had one or more holes drilled through it.
As one marine who had served in the Pacific explained, it was necessary to wear them on a string around his neck because everything that wasn't nailed down quickly "disappeared," even the small denomination coins (practically worthless) that he gave me from the Philippines.

 

[Stone in the wall]

You can bet when the driver of the U S Commission Coffee Wagon pulled into camp a Union soldiers face lite right up. For the time being they wouldn't have to roast and grind their own beans, what a luxury. Pattened in March 1863 and mounted on a caisson bringing along roasted and ground beans, the multiple boiler wagon could make up to 108 gallons an hour.

 

[LSBusch]

I was going to mention musical instruments, but this is what my gg-grandfather wrote in his diary (see my signature) about one on July 17, 1863:

"It has got quite warm today and the soldiers is mostly laying in their tents some writing some cleaning their guns some reading some few playing on their violins. At least one man that I was unlucky anough to get my tent in rather close proximity to that of his for me to get out of the squeak of that miserable instrument for any lenght [sic] of time. He is a man that belongs to Co[mpany] K. I dont know his name nor do I wish to."

He then mentioned a "more favorable soldiers instrument" would be the game of euchre, so I imagine a deck of cards would have been a popular item to have in camp.

 

[Pollaco]

I've read somewhere that it was "a sight" when a bullet struck those decks of cards.It was almost like snowfall or confetti. I can almost picture it.