Lauren C. Snead

 Rise before the sun even rose.  Eat small rations of food if there was any.  Would either march on to another camp site/battle site or do drills.  If there was free time, soldiers would write letters home of play games.  Most days could be extremely intense with fighting or with extreme boredom.

Confederate ArmyUnion Army  Most foods were bacon, corn meal, tea, sugar, and molasses.  “Johnnie Cake" that they made in the field from cornmeal, milk and a few other ingredients.  Most foods were uncooked to last longer.  Usually had salt pork, fresh or salted beef, coffee, sugar, salt, vinegar, dried fruit and vegetables.  Bread was hardtack.

 Most uniforms were made by ladies at home.  Not every soldier had one.  Hats were provided for warmth during winter and shade during summer.  Most uniforms were grey.  Footwear was hard to provide so most soldiers marched barefoot.

 Soldiers were issued uniforms.  Officers were expected to purchase their own and had to make sure that they met strict military requirements.  Blue uniforms blue blouse and light-blue pants of wool, worn both winter and summer.  Long overcoats, often with a short cape, were worn in cold and wet weather.  Cavalrymen and some infantry units wore broad- brimmed hats.  High leather boots for cavalry, shorter shoes for the infantry.  Advances in shoe manufacturing meant a good supply of footwear for Union troops.

Confederate ArmyUnion Army  A rifled musket.  Bayonets were sometimes used.  Cavalrymen and officers also used pistols, either single-shot breechloaders or the more modern revolvers.  Swords were carried but rarely used in combat.  The rifled musket was also the standard Confederate weapon.  Lacking the North’s manufacturing capacity, Confederate forces made widespread use of captured Union weapons  As in the Union Army, carbines and pistols were the chief cavalry weapons.

 Most soldiers were very religious.  They tried to attend church services regularly.  Both Union and Confederate armies had a Chaplain at all times.  Most soldiers had a Bible in their pocket so “God would watch over them”.

 More soldiers died from disease than from battle.  Soldiers weren’t paid a lot. Most of them volunteer.