Quotes About Hardtack

to the door. Blankets, supplies, hardtack.

It was not referred to as hardtack until 1861. Tack is a contemptuous term for food. It was merely a thick, virtually imperishable square cracker made of flour and water. When fresh, it is not unappetizing, but when boxes of hardtack sat on railroad platforms or in warehouses for months at a time before being issued to the men, the foodstuff hardened and often became insect-infested.

Because the hardtack was packaged in boxes marked "B. C." (probably for "brigade commissary"), the men took to saying that the crackers were so hard that they must have been baked "before Christ.