SPANISH AMERICAN WAR SOUVENIR HARDTACK WITH A GENTEEL PRESENTATION

SPANISH AMERICAN WAR SOUVENIR HARDTACK WITH A GENTEEL PRESENTATION

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Item Code: 2026-9474

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Civil War soldiers and veterans in later life were fond of illustrating the hardships of army life by sending or bringing home souvenir hardtack- the hard bread staple of army field rations that were the subject of many complaints by new recruits and humorous stories and jokes by experienced veterans, as well as at least one comic song, and half the title for Billings’ classic account of Civil War army life, “Hardtack and Coffee.” These were intended to be strong and resilient- one standing joke went that a soldier commented to a friend that he had found something soft in his hardtack- a nail. In any case, sons and nephews of Civil War veterans were not to be left out of the act in the Spanish-American War as illustrated by this round piece of “sea biscuit” stamped by the maker “BENT&CO” and inscribed in ink on one side: “SEA BISCUIT / BOUGHT FOR / BATTLESHIP TEXAS / DELIVERED TO SOLDIERS / AT CAMP MCKENZIE / MARCH 1st 1898.” and on the other side: “Spanish American War March 10th 1898 Augusta, Ga. / Compliments / of / ‘CORPORAL S.W. Guise.’” We are not sure why he put his name in quotation marks, but rather like the humor involved in using “compliments of” as if a formal, or at least polite and genteel, presentation of a cracker. The donor would appear to be Corporal Samuel W. Guise, Co. G, 13th Pennsylvania.

The 13th Pennsylvania Volunteers was formed from the 13th Pennsylvania National Guard and mustered into service May 12-13, 1898, with 36 officers and 604 enlisted men. On May 19 they were ordered to Camp Alger, Virginia, where it became part of the 2nd Army Corps, and poor conditions led to the deaths of 15 men from fever. A change of location provided some relief, and the unit remained there until the end of August when it was sent to Camp Meade, lnear Middletown. While there the fighting ended in mid-August and the regiment took part in the Philadelphia Peace Jubilee in October. Then were ordered south to Camp Mackenzie near Augusta in November and, still part of the 2nd Corps, were held in reserve for the occupation of Cuba, but never left the continental U.S. Much of its duty at that camp was simply clearing the ground and it reportedly adopted the nickname of  the “13th Pennsylvania Land Improvement Association,” so it looks like a sense of humor was not limited to Corporal Guise. They mustered out at Scranton in March 1899, having lost 1 officer and 21 men to disease. Records indicate Guise had been born in 1867 and died in October 1925 at Wilkes Barre. We show his obituary in the listing.  [sr][ph:m]

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