Is it for real?

[fahtz]

Re: Is it for real?

I am with Curt, the color black strikes me as odd. It could be mold, but that would have destroyed everything. In the few pieces I have seen or handled, all but one (the piece in a private collection in Kansas City) were shellacked. They were all the color one expects hardtack to be, brown-tan-off white, with a reasonable amount of yellowing from the shellac. When I first started collecting original civil war items one would come across a piece every now and then, and through the years hardtack has become more and more scarce, all though you can still find a piece if you want one for a decent price.

[Dale Beasley]

Re: Is it for real?

Some of you may have been in the Shop in the French Quarter. I am no expert, but there were somethings there that made me wonder. I will try to get the name of the shop next month when I am back there. Again, thanks for the answers, it just would not get out of my mind until I asked.

P.S.....doing well John, thanks for asking.

[Abrams]

Re: Is it for real?

I wonder if the hardtack had got moist, molded up a little, then dried out completely, allowing the mold to rot, if that might impart a black coloring to it.

I had several pieces of bread left over in a drybox after a float trip, when discovered the next spring, it was mainly black, with some white and green in it. Allowed to dry out completely, I could see it retaining a black color.

Just a thought.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Is it for real?

Hallo!

I am not discounting the "black" entirely as there are bread, fruit, etc.,molds that do produce black growths such as Rhizopus stolonifer (nigricans) for example.

However, molds and fungi tend to break down the organic material they feed upon. And the "damage" tends to grow from where the spores "root" and the "colony" grows outwards so that the breakdown is often unven being worse where it has started and been the longest. An all black, intact, "hardtack' is an oddity, IMHO.

Maybe someone was out of shellac or varnish and only had black paint? ;) :)

Curt

[Cpt Boone]

Re: Is it for real?

Dale,

Was it the La Petite Toy Soldier Shop or Cohens Historical Weapons (Not sure the right name, just know it is Cohens)? They are just down the block from each other on Royal St. I believe.

[Dale Beasley]

Re: Is it for real?

Dale,

Was it the La Petite Toy Soldier Shop or Cohens Historical Weapons (Not sure the right name, just know it is Cohens)? They are just down the block from each other on Royal St. I believe.

It was the La'Petite Toy Shop...you are correct. What do you think about them?...the man that was behind the counter...well, I just don't know.

[47thNYReb]

Re: Is it for real?

About fifteenyears ago, I saw a dealer in north Florida (Jacksonville) selling a handful of hardtack pieces that were black as coal. He claimed to have dug them himself while searching a Vicksburg trash pit site. I did a lot of business with him and do not doubt his word. His knowledge sometimes, but not his word.
Would burning the hardtack create a carbonization effect that could somehow help to preserve it? Also, the pieces that I saw were thinner than what I have usually seen (aprox. 3/16" - 1-4"). Were you able to determine the thickness on the pieces that you saw for sale? Hope that this information is of some help.

[Bob McDonald]

Re: Is it for real?

Thomas has the answer precisely. As early as the Centennial, I recall seeing pure black hardtack, usually in partial crackers and broken pieces thereof, being accidently found by metal detectorists working the winter camps around Fred'burg/Falmouth. Digging out hut fire pits and adjacent trash pits would at times yield these really toasted delights. Examples continued to show up from time to time across the next 30 years at the CW collecters' show, and I'd expect they still do, albeit now quite rarely. And, indeed, they come out of the camp fire pits more akin to hunks of asphalt or black linoleum than the original delectable.


Cheers,

Bob McDonald

[BishopLynch]

Re: Is it for real?

The Onondaga War Memorial in Syracuse New York has an original piece of hardbread in its collection.

[JimCarrol]

Re: Is it for real?

I have some hardtack that I just found in the trunk of my car... that ha not been driven in 3 years.. Still tastes ok...

[lthull3rdla]

Re: Is it for real?

years ago when excavating a trash pit in a federal camp north of vicksburg, in addition to various cans and such rubbish we found several chunks of hardtack that were totally intact! Yes they had turned black. I have also heard of it excavated at Port Hudson.

I sold my pieces to a fellow named Frank McAneny ( deceased ) and it still resides in h is collection which will be up for public viewing in the next few years we hope. Currently all his stuff ( and his collection was HUGE) is owned by the city of Shreveport.

so in answer to your question, yes, it can still be intact after all this time. Of course, the type of earth it is in probably has lots to do with it. For instance, I found a complete CS single cartridge box tin IN Vicksburg that was in great shape and even still has lots of the plating on it. Also had 4 rounds in it. BUT, I also found a similiar CS cartridge box tin at Bovina, MS that was almost totally rotted out. Different earth I guess..

sure wish I had kept that hardtack!

Ronnie - Shreveport

[fortdonelsonrelics]

Re: Is it for real?

The hardtack you saw mostlikely was real and all of the hardtack I have seen either dug in water or soil was black.

I have seen and owned examples of non-dug specimens that were covered in shellac. If Im not mistaken there was a large lot found many years ago which may account for some of the specimens being available in the market, however these were all non-dug.

The link below is from the 'raise the gunboats' website which is a non profit organization looking to raise the boats at Johnsonville Depot along the Tennessee River.

Scroll down to the bottom and you will see 'hardtack' fresh out of the water.

John Walsh

http://panamconsultants.com/PAGE/archy.html