Students in Mr. Mike Brown’s American History classes at Oak Forest High School touched history last week when two Civil War reenactors visited to portray life during the Civil War. The reenactors were Tyler and Skylar Midden, who are seniors at the University of Illinois and part of the 114th Volunteer Regiment Company K of Sangamon and Cass Counties in Illinois. During the summer, they have worked at the Capitol building in Springfield as soldiers. They came to Mr. Brown’s class to talk about life as soldiers. They brought items that a typical soldier would wear and use as a soldier in the Union Army in 1863.
Junior Megan Nadeau recounted some items that the reenactors brought with them. She said, “I learned that their toothbrushes were made out of pig’s hair and their toothpaste was a powder. Their uniforms, down to their socks, were made out of wool, and the shoes they wore were very new to them because they had a right shoe and a left shoe and the soles were wooden.”
On the battlefield, soldiers would play cards and games, but they would throw them out before entering a battle for fear they would die with the cards or games on them. Cards or games were thought to be a sinful pursuit and if they were killed, they didn’t want their family to be ashamed of them because they had such trivial pastimes on them.
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Junior Carlos Garza thought the muskets the Civil War soldiers brought with them were pretty cool. One thing the classes learned were that soldiers, along with using the musket bayonet with deadly force, also used the bayonet to pick their teeth after dinner. “They also had candy called Necco wafers,” he said. Necco wafers are still made today and the reenactors passed around samples of the sweets that the Civil War soldiers would eat.
The food that Civil War soldiers had to eat was not what present day Americans would call a satisfying dinner. Junior Bryan Besoshek said that part of their daily meal was called “hard tack.” This bread-like substance was so hard that soldiers had to soak it overnight so that it was soft enough to bite through.
