Civil War cards

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: Civil War cards

On the subject of authentic looking playing cards -- were there ever cards with women on them? The earliest I can find penny cards with women was 1880. Anyone ever seen them in our era?

I'm not sure if you are talking about decks of cards or speciality card decks.

In a copy of The History of Playing Cards (1865) there were several illustrations of women (other than the queen) in decks of cards but they were all from a much earlier time period.

I have reproduction decks of cards with Union and Confederate generals on them and even one deck with flowers on them. I haven't done enough research to know if there are entire decks of cards that have women on them.

There are speciality card decks for games that have some women on the cards, such as Dr. Busby, Single Blessedness (similar to Old Maid), Old Maid, and there may be others but off hand I can't think of the names of the games.

[Virginia Mescher]

Re: Civil War cards

Hello All. Can anyone tell me how old the game of blackjack is? I have played it at events before with my pards but I am not sure wether it is authentic. I do know for a fact that the game originated in the 1700's in France but I don't know if it had made it here by the 1860's. Thanks.

I checked several Hoyle's that I have and the rules for Vingt-Un (Blackjack or Twenty-one) was in them. In the 1857 edition of Hoyle's Games (American edition) there were two pages devoted to the game. In the 1864 edition of The American Hoyle there were 4 pages devoted to the game. I particularly like the first sentence. "For a little gentle gambling - say for trifling stakes of a dime or ten thousand dollars - there is no more easily acquired game than Vingt-un; certainly few more amusing."

Twenty-one could also be played with dice according to the 1864 Hoyles.

[Rob Weaver]

Re: Civil War cards

Hello All. Can anyone tell me how old the game of blackjack is? I have played it at events before with my pards but I am not sure wether it is authentic. I do know for a fact that the game originated in the 1700's in France but I don't know if it had made it here by the 1860's. Thanks.

Blackjack was played, often under its French name "viente-un," "Twenty-One." It may have had minor differences to the rules (I'm not sure if the five-cards-but-still-under-21 hand was played at the time.) Still, it is a period game, playable by those familiar with the modern species.

[KATE1880]

Re: Civil War cards

Hey Guys, well I've really enjoyed reading this post and getting info on card games to play, but my question is more regarding the cards themselves.
I've heard differing opinions and was hoping someone on here would know a good answer.

On the subject of authentic looking playing cards -- were there ever cards with women on them? The earliest I can find penny cards with women was 1880. Anyone ever seen them in our era?

[Custerboy]

Re: Playing Cards

Kind of off the subject of the photo, but what programs do people use to zoom in like that? I would love to be able to do that on my own. And maybe find something worth contributing!

Internet Explorer 7, lower RH corner of screen. Default is set at 100%; click the arrow, enjoy.:)

[YoungCampaigner]

Re: Civil War cards

Hello All. Can anyone tell me how old the game of blackjack is? I have played it at events before with my pards but I am not sure wether it is authentic. I do know for a fact that the game originated in the 1700's in France but I don't know if it had made it here by the 1860's. Thanks.

[DJCasey]

Re: Civil War cards

I found this on the site of the United States Playing Card Company website and have found other sources backing up the idea that they came to be just after the war.

"Americans also invented the Joker. It originated around 1870 and was inscribed as the "Best Bower," the highest card in the game of Euchre. Since the game was sometimes called "Juker," it is thought that the Best Bower card might have been referred to as the "Juker card" which eventually evolved into "Joker." By the 1880s, certainly, the card had come to depict a jocular imp, jester or clown. Many other images were also used, especially as Jokers became vehicles for social satire and commercial advertising."

I know Euchre was popular among soldiers during the war, perhaps the need came from them? Anyone know of people making there own "Best Bower" card for Euchre?

[Eric Wisbith]

Civil War cards

Quick and easy. Did CW era cards have jokers?

[GermanDraftee]

Re: Playing Cards

Going back to the original image, the hanwritten inscription at the top appears to include a date that looks like March (?) 1865. (It was fun enlarging the photo and holding a mirror up to the computer screen.)

John Thielmann

[Poor Private]

Re: Camp Life

And I apologise for not signing the post
Cris Westphal
1st Mich

[Poor Private]

Re: Camp Life

Thank you Kevin this is the kind of info I lookin for and thats the kind of events that are here in my area. So I was trying to fill the down time. Unfortunatly there are not any of the imersion events in this area .

[lhsnj]

Re: Playing Cards

http://www.civilwarphotos.net/files/images/002.jpg

Another image of soldiers playing some cards while enjoying some "down time".



The note from the page I found it on says it is taken around Petersburg, VA.

[Charles Heath]

Re: Camp Life

I am one of those guys who has to do something in camp.

This August 2007 event is in your backyard, and has to potential to keep a fellow busy for the vast majority of the weekend: http://www.fortwayne2007.com/

If you are truly bored at events, take some time to back up a step and re-read the classic foundation works by Fisk, Hinman, Billings, Fletcher, Bull, et al, and maybe a few of the more obscure works dealing with the daily life of the common soldier. Grab pencil and paper to take notes, and study how what they did can be incorporated into what you can do at any given event. Use your imagination.

On the other hand, work to be done is just about always a common thread at any event, and the never ending jobs of the wood and water details are closely followed by helping the village idiot doing the cooking for the company or battalion, as the case may be. Having been that village idiot a number of times, I can tell you without hesitation that any form of help (unless you happen to be Colbi Rosenthal) is greatly appreciated.

How can you help? Glad you asked that. In the absence of KPs, which the powers almighty invariably forget to assign:

1. Learn the scrub the living Hell out of a sheet iron mess kettle with soap water and sand. They don't need to be armory bright, but most of them could use a good scrubbing and scouring. Also learn why this does not work well with tin.

2. Become skilled at sharpening knives, cleavers, axes, and whatever else may be dull as a froe around the cook fire. A small stone or brick and a little work can help a battered tool.

3. Learn to splint wood to the point where the different configurations and types of wood can be used for different types of fires whether baking, boiling, or fulfilling the natural desire for a good Guy Fawkes or Joan D'Arc pyre when the heavens burst forth with a deluge.

4. Create a deer path between the cook fire and the water supply by fetching buckets of water. Once the patch is firmly developed, perfect your ability to Tom Sawyer this never ending task on some unsuspecting soul.

5. Help with food prep. With a minimal amount of training, you too can cut meat for hours at a time, make consistent carrot and potato cubes, quarter cabbages, core apples, jump Sibley tents in a single bound, open tins with a bayonet, and weep over onions so strong they can practically carry water by themselves.

6. Learn to make coffee and help those poor souls wandering around camp in the rain at 3:00 a.m. identify the coffee kettle from the dishwater kettle. Remember, the coffee need not be good, or real coffee, nor does it have to be much different than a strange glow in the dark shade of gray for your fellow participants to enjoy it. Keep them guessing by tossing in some secret ingredients, so they ask purely innocent questions like "was this kettle formerly used to boil rat poison?" To which you sweetly reply, "Why, no, but the captain had us boil up some smegma for use as caulk."

7. Assist young troops, or at least those fellers hailing from the Harpeth River Brownwater Squadron in determining the difference between soap and cheese when both are being issued at the same time. Believe me when I say you won't have any trouble identifying those who receive a no-go for this task.

8. Fill some wag's knapsack with rocks or bricks. Sure, this has nothing to do with cooking, but, man, look at the alibi you'll have while observing the unpleasantly surprised Private Whoathisdangthinggotheavyinahurry attempt to secure his knapsack hook in that triangle thingie.

9. Steal a pie. Some tribes from the Hoosieriania Nation tend to only steal half a pie. Why this is, no one knows. Some cooks put the trash pies out on a board elevated in the middle of camp, and put the good pies under a false bottom in a hardtack box, but I digress. An especially evil cook would bake an apple pie with salt instead of sugar, and leave that out there for the pie pilferers to plunder.

10. Since you mention you don't like whittling, give this a try. Find a big sweet potato, carve the best likeness of a male dog's reproductive organ that you possibly can. (Think Mastiff or Great Dane, and not Pomeranian.) Leave this work of art as the most especial centerpiece for the Officer's Mess table. Even better when enhanced with a circle of wildflowers.

Sure, I'll move this to The Sinks....

[Duke20thSC]

Re: Camp Life

I am one of those guys who has to do something in camp. and since there is so much down time in camp. I can't carve, hate playing chess or chequers (checkers). You can only sleep so much. My other half is into raising sheep and goats, so I was wondering if any weaving was done in the camps and what type and devise or tool was used.

Cris Westphal
1st Mich Vol.

Weaving? Only after an over-indulgence in popskull and then trying perambulate the ole campground.

I believe this presents, in stark example, the difference in our own 21st C frame of reference and the 19th C. You are looking for pre-packaged entertainment. Your stated interest is in weaving wool. How about this? These were soldiers removed from their familiar surroundings. They didn't get to do what they wanted to do. They occupied their time with a plethora of occupations designed to simply fill the time, such as:
Singing. American Idol did not exist and this was done for self-entertainment, not recognition or achievement
Playing cards
Playing dominoes
Writing letters home
Writing memoirs or verse
Reading whatever was available
Whittling. Ever read descriptions of Grant? From all accounts, he never carved anything except twigs into shavings.
Smoking. Ever read descriptions of Grant?
Bible study. Ever read descriptions of Jackson? Or the revivals described by Watkins?
Instrumental play. Harmonica. Fiddle. Spoons.

You can use these as opportunites for self-improvement ...or not. It is self-guided...or not. You can go to events where they tell you what to do every 5 minutes according to some schedule...or not. You can read and apply the fruits of your reading...or not.

People of an earlier age would not ask such questrions because their world did not contain the pre-packaged, subscription entertainment that most of us have become accustomed to at home. I attended an event this past weekend where the older tradition lives on. As I left the event site, I passed bright, banked fires where banjos and guitars were played, songs were sung, not just by the singers, but by all who knew the words within the ring of light. Not all were of our period, to be sure, but old traditions and memories were recounted and passed on to the young'uns. The spirit of "our time" was alive and preserved there, no matter how academically flawed. Reenactors and students of history of future generations will spring forth from that event and its surroundings because a yearning for past honors and past glories was engendered.

[Kevin O'Beirne]

Re: Camp Life

As insinuated by some of the responses already posted on this thread, the extent to which a participant needs to be creative to "fill the time" at an event is a function of the event type, portrayal/scenario, organizers, and the battalion and company leadership. For example, an event that features a lot of marching culiminating in a late-afternoon battle reenactment will probably not have a lot of "down time". On the other hand, an event like a garrison portrayal MAY have increased downtime if you're not assigned to duty such as Guard or fatigue or something else.

If you're talking about the "typical reenactment", where there may be an hour of drill in the morning, followed by four or five hours of "down time" until the afternoon spectator battle, when participants are free to visit the vendors and the wife-and-kids-in-the-civilian camp, well, filling the time at that event may be a bigger challenge, particularly if your company- and battalion-commander are running off from camp themselves and leaving the men to fned for themselves. That I can tell, reenactors often like to be kept occupied, and most so-called "non-authentic" reenactor events have loads of "down time".

First, if you desire a "more military" experience and feel you aren't getting it in the events you attend, consider trying out a "campaigner" event, whether it's a marching event or a more-static (garrison-type) weekend. You'll probably start to see less free time.

I'm involved in a semi-immersion winter-quarters garrson-type event, and the challenge is to provide accurate, period activities for the battalion while not crowding it too much; after all, winter quarters was sort of dull. While we don't wish to reenact, as one person once put it, "authentic boredom", we also don't want to overdo it. What type of stuff do we do at that event?

* Fatigue details including a lot of chopping wood to keep the fires going.
* Camp guard duty.
* Picket duty (sometimes).
* Mail call, organized pre-event. This would be less likely for an event portraying troops in the midst of an active campaign, although even they sometimes received mail, sometimes even just before going into battle.
* Daily inspection of quarters by the Officer of the Day. Quarters that don't measure up to the expected standard of cleanliness have to be cleaned up and re-inspected.
* Paperwork associated with various "scenarios". This keeps busy the clerks, orderly sergeants, and company officers to a large extent.
* The men are encouraged, pre-event, to bring soldier amusements, such as cards and period games, instruments to play, etc. Some guys bring paper and pen and write letters--a very common soldier activity in camp or at stops on the march. At Gettysburg 1998 I was asked by a webzine to write "dispatches" from the reenactment, so I wrote at each stop on our marches or waiting for a "battle", with my knapsack as a desk. My comrades who saw me doing this didn't know I was doing "modern writing"--to them it looked like I was writing a letter home.
* Some of the participants at this event offer needed services. For instance, at the previous edition of this event, one fellow was providing shaves with a straight razor, so I opted for one.
* A few pre-planned "scenarios"; usually low-key stuff like a civilian asking to enter the camp to make a complaint about foraging. Nothing big or dramatic, but enough to give the boys something to talk about, and the Guard detail something to deal with.

There's loads of things, but it's easier to "get into it" when you're in an environment that's supporting more-accurate first-person activities, such as Guard duty and stuff like that.