The Civil War Era- Haversacks, Housewives, and Poke Sacks

During the Civil War a soldier needed to carry some basic survival items with him at all times.

Different bags were used in carrying these items.

A Haversack was a bag that was used to hold eating utensils- a tin plate, a tin cup, a fork. It was also used to hold food rations - slab bacon or salt pork, coffe beans, rice, dry beans, a deck of cards, etc.. The salt pork or slab bacon were many times wrapped in brown paper to help prevent the grease from getting on the other items.

A "housewife" was a bag kept inside the haversack. The "housewife" was a sewing kit that contained scraps of fabric, brass pins, needles, thread wrapped on a piece of canvas, bone buttons, paper backed tin buttons, a small pair of scissors, and sometimes some matches and a candle.

Poke sacks were smaller bags commonly made of muslin or ticking. These sacks were used to hold some of the items that were placed in the haversack and a haversack would contain may poke sacks as items needed to be seperated Some things placed in the poke sacks were: tobacco, rice, beans, coffee beans, hardtack biscuits, a bar of soap, a toothbrush.
* note- In the Civile War Era toothbrushes were made with wood handles and natural bristles- combs were also made from wood.
I would definitely say this was primitive living!