Hard Crackers, Come Again No More

Ever wonder what Civil War-era soldiers sang about ’round the camp fire? I’ll give you a hint:

Let us close our game of poker
Take our tin cups in our hand,
While we gather ’round the cook’s tent door,
Where dry mummies of hard crackers
Are given to each man;
O hard crackers, come again no more!

‘Tis the song and sigh of the hungry,
“Hard crackers, hard crackers, come again no more!
Many days have you lingered upon our stomachs sore,
O hard crackers, come again no more!”

There’s a hungry, thirsty soldier
Who wears his life away,
With torn cloths, whose better days are o’er;
He is sighing now for whisky,
And with throat as dry as hay,
Sings “Hard crackers, come again no more!”

‘Tis the song and sigh of the hungry,
“Hard crackers, hard crackers, come again no more!
Many days have you lingered upon our stomachs sore,
O hard crackers, come again no more!”

‘Tis the song that is uttered
In camp by night and day,
‘Tis the wail that is mingled with each snore,
‘Tis the sighing of the soul
For spring chickens far away,
“O hard crackers, come again no more!”

‘Tis the song and sigh of the hungry,
“Hard crackers, hard crackers, come again no more!
Many days have you lingered upon our stomachs sore,
O hard crackers, come again no more!”

It is the dying wail of the starving
Hard crackers, come agian no more;
You were old and very wormy, but we pass your failings o’er
O hard crackers, come again no more!