Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1883-08-29

llAED-TACK.- | write, there lies
before me on nv table an innocent looking
cracker, which have faithfully preserved
for years. Ii is about he size and has the
appearance OF an ordinary soda biscuit. II
you take it in your hand, you will find ii
some what heavier than an ordinary biscuit
and if you bite it-but, no; Will not let
you bite il, tor.I wish TO see how long |
can keep it. Bat if you We're to reduce ii
to Il fine powder, you would find that it
would absorb Il greater quantity OF water
than an equal weight OF ordinary II Jur.
You would also observe that it is very
hard. This you may, perhaps, think is to
be attributed to its great age But if you
imagine that its age is to be measured
only by the years which have elapsed
since the war, you are greatly mistaken !;
for there was Il common belief among the
boys that our hard-tack had been baked
long before the commencement Of the
Christian era. This opinion was based
upon the fact that the letters b {. were
stamped on many, II not, indeed, all ofthe
cracker boxes. To be sure, there were
some skeptcs who shook their teads, and
maintained that these my sterous letters
were the initials of the name Of some
army co tractor Or inspector OF supplies,
but the belief WIS widespread and deep
seated that they were certainly intended
to set forth the era in which our bread
had been baked.
For our hard tack were very hard. 1t
was difficult to break them with the teeth.
Some OF them you could not fracture with
your fist. Still, there was IN immense
amount of nourishment in them-when
once you had learned how to get at it. 1t
required some experience and no little
hunger to enable one to appreciate hard
tt ok Alright, and it demanued no small
amount OF inventive power to understand
how to cook bareback rs they ought 10 be
cooked. If | remember correctly, in our
section of the army we had not less than
fifteen different ways OF preparing them.
In other parts, | understand, they had
discovered one OF two more ways; but
with US, fifteen was the limit for the culr-
any art when han d tack was on the board.
Ou the march they were usually not
cooked at all, but eaten in the raw state. In
order, however, TO make them somewhat
more palatable, you simply cut down a
slice OF nice fat pork, lad the pork on
} 1oui u siNhNi, t'L " SPSo'iei Vi biO"h
sugar on top of the pork, and you had a
dish fit for a-soldier. Of course the pork
had Just come out of the pickle, and was
quite raw. When we halted
for coffee, we sometimes had fricasseed
hard, tack-prepAred by toasting them
before the hot Goals. When us was gen
orally the case on II march, our hard tack |
had been broken into small pieces in our |
haverSacks, we soaked these IN water and |
fried them in pork tat, stirring well, and
seasoning with salt and suffers pepper,
hus making what was commonly known
rs 'hshy hashy,' or "hotti fired stew
Thus you see what vast and unsuspec
ed possibilities reside in this innocent
ooking three and half inch square hard
ack lying here on my table before me.
Three like this specimen made meal,
md nine were Il ration; aud this IS what
ought the battles for the union.-From
: Recoliections of u Drummer b0y,' bY
larry NJ. Kitter, IN 81. Nicholas tor Sep
ember.