John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life

Soldier's letter, nary red,
Hardtack and no soft bread,
Postmaster, please put it through,
I've nary cent, but six months due.

There were a large number of fanciful envelopes got up during the war. I heard of a young man who had a collection of more than seven thousand such, all of different designs. I have several in my possession which I found among the numerous letters written home during war-time. One is bordered by thirty-four red stars-the number of States then in the Union--each star bearing the abbreviated name of a State. At the left end of the envelope hovers an eagle holding a shield and streamer, with this motto, “Love one another.” Another one bears a representation of the earth in space, with “United States” marked on it in large letters, and the American eagle above it. Enclosing all is the inscription, “What God has joined, let no man put asunder.” A third has a medallion portrait of Washington, under which is, “A Southern man with Union Principles.” A fourth displays a man sitting among money-bags, on horseback, and driving at headlong speed. Underneath is the inscription, “Floyd off for the South. All that the Seceding States ask is to be let alone.” Another has a negro standing grinning, a hoe in his hand. He is represented as saying, “Massa can't have dis chile, dat's what's de matter” ; and beneath is the title, “The latest contraband of war.” Then there are many bearing the portraits of early Union generals. On others Jeff Davis is represented as hanged; while the national colors appear in a hundred or more ways on a number-all of which, in a degree at least, expressed some phase of the sentiments popular at the North, The Christian Commission also furnished envelopes