Soldiers Games

[Ofcalipka]

I have been reading "Three Years a Soldier" lately and have been intrigued by the mentions of differrent games he would play in camp. Since the majority of the events I do here are living history displays I like to usually show the kids items that were part of camp life as well as the uniform and equipment. I thought a good list of proper period games might have been listed here but I did not find much with the search engine. So far the games I have come accross reading the afore mentioned book were quiots and bluff.

Quiots is like horse shoes but played with metal rings. See: Traditional American Quiots Rules (http://www.usqa.org/rules/rules.htm) for more information.

Bluff is Liars Dice like seen in the Pirates of the Caribean movie: The best description I have found so far of how to play is here: Bluff description (http://www.diva-girl-parties-and-stuff.com/liars-dice.html)

Of course there are dominos, checkers, and chess made in many different ways as well as card and dice games. But what would be the proper names and rules for proper period card and dice games? I know "Shut the box" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shut_the_Box) was around well before the revolution so it probably was a gambling game played at camps still yet.

I also know of this website: http://www.raggedsoldier.com/games.html

What other period games were there? I'm hoping this thread can become an easy to reference listing of these games for those who wish to do period correct camp activities with their displays.

[hanktrent]

But what would be the proper names and rules for proper period card and dice games?

As far as card games, this online copy of Hoyle's 1864 edition (http://books.google.com/books?id=NRsXAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=html) might be good for looking up the rules of any games you find mentioned.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Ofcalipka]

Thank you, Very interesting reading. It looks as though bluff was also a name for poker.

[mmescher]

Quoits were indeed like horseshoes. The rules for quoits can be found in _The American Boy's Book of Sports and Games_. And in the Winslow Homer painting "Pitching Quoits", there is the image of a group of zouaves playing quoits with what look like horseshoes. You would need to use real horseshoes, however, and not the lawn game shoes commonly sold in stores.

Milton Bradley marketed a collection of games under the title "Games for the Soldiers." He promoted it as something to purchase and send to your soldier in the army, "Expressly designed for the Knapsack". It consisted of "Nine Standard Games in One Package." The games were chess, checkers, Checkered Game of Life (a game Milton Bradley invented), backgammon, and five games of dominoes (including the Russian Game, newly introduced to this country). The whole set came in a box (my memory tells me it was about 3 1/2 inches by about 6 inches but I can't find the pictures right now with the ruler included in the picture) and sold for $1.00, postpaid. The boards for the four board games were on two sheets of tissue paper weight paper and the dominoes must have been printed on cardboard because they refer to "cards" in discussing the rules.

If you live in New England, the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum in Springfield, MA, has a box, boards, and rules but, alas, no counters or dominoes. But it is well worth making an appointment to go see it. Unfortunately, no one is reproducing this game collection.

And of course there were cards and dice. Hank's recommendation of the period Hoyle's can give you ideas of some of the games they played.

I can't say I've seen any documentation for "Shut the Box" and until I found some primary documentation I would be cautious about playing it. The link on an earlier post to Wikipedia has "citation needed" on the references to early time periods. Curiously, in the cited "Pub Games of England" there is mention of the game starting in 1958. It sounds like brick tea which, as closely as we've been able to determine, seems to have gotten started with a vendor selling it to reenactors and attributing it to 18th or 19th century America. It may be that the game's ancient roots may be a case of one modern writer copying the text of another modern author.

I'd also like to see primary documentation for "Bluff" as a dice game before playing it at a reenactment. In the Hoyle's that Hank mentioned, Bluff is another name for the card game of poker.

Michael Mescher

[Ross L. Lamoreaux]

Go to www.raggedsoldier.com, the Mescher's fine site for 19th century books, games, and much more. Click on the left side's Articles, Virginia's Veranda, and there you'll find some excellent research articles on period games, much of it for kids, but also some games that soldiers would know and play around the camps.

[Jim of the SRR]

Euchre was a very popular card game and Chuck-A-Luck was a popular dice game.

Jim Butler

[Ofcalipka]

Here is what the 1860 Checkered game of life looked like.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/CheckeredGameofLife.jpg
It was played with a teetotem as dice were thought of as too much like gambling. I'm still not sure of the original rules but it doesn't look too hard to play.

[Mint Julep]

That suicide block seems a little harsh ...

[Blair]

Now here is a twist, I thought the "Matrimony" block to be a little on the harsh side.
I guess it is all in your individual prospective of things.

[Artillery 1861]

Shouldn't the Congress and the Crime blocks be the same...

[Ofcalipka]

Shouldn't the Congress and the Crime blocks be the same...

Thought from that time about congress:
Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself. -- Mark Twain (1835 - 1910)

I don't mind what Congress does, as long as they don't do it in the streets and frighten the horses. -- Victor Hugo (1802 - 1885)

I was wondering too why you get 5 points for congress. I suppose Milton Bradley was thinking the glass was half full when he put this one together. I wish I could find the original rules. This would be an easy game to reproduce and probably fun to play. It was one of the best sellers during the 1860's.

[harley_davis]

Now here is a twist, I thought the "Matrimony" block to be a little on the harsh side.
I guess it is all in your individual prospective of things.
In retrospect, my first time "around the block" (is this game where the term comes from????) was both of these blocks in one. I do miss my ex..............however, my aim is getting better.

But to the original post, if weather, space and participants permits, how about a good game of baseball? I encourage the young lads to play baseball since it takes their energy level down a notch (plum knocks us old farts out) and hence, they are less likely to get into mischief later in the evening.

Regards,

[mmescher]

Baseball is possible but should use period rules and period equipment. The ball should be a hard ball with quandrant seams instead of the double key seams of modern baseballs. And no gloves to help catch the ball.

The Checkered Game of Life has been reproduced (I believe that occurred in the 1980's) and can sometimes be purchased on ebay. The last time I picked up a game, the price was in the $25 - 30 range. Rules are usually included. If you want an original, depending on the condition, it can run somewhere from $200 - $400. I haven't tried reproducing it in the form of the Games for the Soldiers because I'm not certain about how it would sell. There is a joke about how you make a small fortune in publishing -- start with a large fortune.

Michael Mescher

[hiplainsyank]

I thought the "50: Happy Old Age" square was funny...

[DulcimerPlayer]

Having played cribbage for years I can attest that it is a good two,three, or four player game.

Boards are small and compact, you can bet on the game if desired, and easy to pick up and learn.

Rules have not changed since the 1864 addition.

[hiplainsyank]

Regarding cribbage, the one time I played it I was taught that the rules used during the Civil War were different than the modern rules...

[DulcimerPlayer]

They might have been thinking of five card cribbage, which is a much more complex game. The 1864 Hoyle book linked in this post points out that 6 card cribbage "is the game most popular in this country" but does pose that it is a inferior game in both "skill and scientific arrangements". Looking at the rules listed for 6 card they seem the same as how my father taught me.

[DulcimerPlayer]

The Smithsonian Magazine did a great article a few years back about the men that recreate and play the original forms of baseball. They did mention that the start of the season was the worst until your hands get toughened up to catching the balls barehanded. Broken fingers seem to be a given for the games.

[harley_davis]

Some of my lads got into a game of baseball against a team of period players last year at an event. The "old boys" from the Halsey Hall Quicksteps http://halseyhall.org/quicksteps.html handed the pups a real leasson in humility. It aint like modern baseball and the young lads of Co. C learned it aint so easy to catch a line drive without a glove!!!

For in camp life demonstrations tho, the boys have a period correct ball & bat and 4 or 5 of the them will play catch and practice their batting skills. Great piece of conversation with the guests. Some time back, there was a thread on the Forum with some good baseball history. For my part, I was no good at baseball as a 16yr old sprat and the 39 years hence have not improved my game!!!!

[Rob Weaver]

Our vivandiere carries a ball in her pack and it frequently comes out for catch and batting with a chunk of firewood. We've played some pick up games but they were pretty simple. I don't know about anyone else, but I rarely have time for much more than a simple and short game at any event I've been at. Daylight hours tend to be fairly full, and many games are hard to play in growing darkness. I do have a deck of cards that we break out during breaks n the march. Percussion caps are great chips.

[pvt_jb]

If anyone has The Checkered Game of Life that would like to sell I would be interested. Repro or not.

Thanks!

[Poor Private]

If your talking "ball" games don't forget cricket. Thjis game has been around for a long time also. Imported here in the 1800's. Rules are about the same then as now. A couple of years ago the 1st MIchigan got it hat handed to them by the Amish in northern Indiana at a place called Bonneyville Mills. There is a feller touring the country teaching period cricket at events. He does the whole deally, has the history, can tell what cricket clubs were formed and where and the time frame. Once you understand the rules you know why the scores are like 1 zillion to 1 billion.

[vmescher]

If anyone has The Checkered Game of Life that would like to sell I would be interested. Repro or not.

Thanks!

An original complete game would be extremely difficult to locate. We have been lucky to find two original game boards but they did not come with the boxes, counters, spinners or rules. An original could cost you anywhere from $400 upwards.

The reproductions of Checkered Game of Life may be found fairly regularly on Ebay for varying prices but not usually over $20. They usually come in the original box (original for the reproduction), complete with the game pieces, spinners, counters, and rules.

I think your best best would be to keep checking on Ebay and try your luck there for a reproduction. Just be patient and you will be able to find one eventually.

[Quickstep]

Quoits were indeed like horseshoes. The rules for quoits can be found in _The American Boy's Book of Sports and Games_. And in the Winslow Homer painting "Pitching Quoits", there is the image of a group of zouaves playing quoits with what look like horseshoes. You would need to use real horseshoes, however, and not the lawn game shoes commonly sold in stores.

Just curious if anyone can cite some period references for soliders playing horseshoes. (It seems like such an obvious activity given the number of horses around...) My son and I used to pitch real horseshoes in camp and quite a bit of fun at it. I recall there was some historical justification for the activity, but can't remember where I read about it.

[mmescher]

Considering Winslow Homer was a correspondent/illustrator with the army and his painting "Pitching Quoits" was done in 1865, that would seem to me to be a pretty good reference for the soldiers playing quoits with horseshoes.

Including cricket in an impression would probably only be appropriate for a unit recruited from an eastern city in the North. They did have cricket clubs in the cities but I wouldn't think it would be a big sport in the rural areas.

Michael Mescher

[Rob Weaver]

The boys in the 7th Wisconsin played a scandavanian children's game called "hop, skip and a jump" ( or something like that). You set a marker at a given distance, then all the players line up at the starting point. Then you run toward the marker and before you make a long jump to try to land on it, you have to make a hop, then a skip. Try it - really messes up your coordination. They used their state issued grey hats as markers in one of the accounts. of course, that hat looked so goofy I can understand why!

[hanktrent]

The boys in the 7th Wisconsin played a scandavanian children's game called "hop, skip and a jump" ( or something like that).

Was "hop step and jump" especially tied to Scandanavian cultures? I thought it was pretty widespread at the time.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Pvt Schnapps]

All this talk of games brought to mind the following entertainments from the letters of Theodore Ayrault Dodge:

January 29th [1863] “After supper the Colonel and Lieut. Colonel generally come to our tent a little while, and we four sit round the table and converse, the Q.M. and Colonel generally getting into some argument or other. Tonight the question arose as to what we were to do, having run entirely out of envelopes. The Q.M. suggested folding in the old style, and Col. P. showed us several ways of folding paper. Thereupon we degenerated into making paper boxes and paper bellows, and paper nicknacks of all kinds, from which intellectual occupation we verged into making night caps and rabbits out of pocket handkerchiefs; and the Col. gave us a Polichinelle exhibition with the handkerchiefs on his fingers. This gave rise to shadows on the wall, and Harry, the Q.M.'s clerk, came in and gave Syers and Heenan [two boxers] on the wall, producing universal merriment...

“The men are singing in camp some of their German songs, and the drummer boys, the wretched little villains, are doing ditto by some not very choice but popular street ditties.”

Anybody for origami?

[mmescher]

The game "Hop, Step, and Jump" must have been pretty widespread because it is described in _The American Boy's Book of Sports and Games_ (1864). The rules are pretty simple. Mark a starting point to begin your run and ten yards away mark a second starting point to begin your hop on one leg. The hop (single hop) is followed by a step (the foot on the ground at the end of the hop must remain on the ground until the leading foot is on the ground again after stretching as far as possible for the step). Following the step is a jump with the participant landing on both feet. The measured distance is from the start of the hop to the back heel of the foot furthest to the back. This has been a track and field sport in the Olympics since they started in 1896. And to give you something to shoot for, the world record for men is 60 feet.

Thinking about track and field, just plain running contests were popular enough to sometimes put winners' names in the papers from major cities. And running races don't take any additional equipment, just a measured distance. I'll try to find my clippings to give some ideas of the distances they raced.

The book _The Boy's Own Toymaker_ (unfortunately, not reproduced yet) has instructions for making folded paper hats, boats, and boxes.

If you are intrigued by shadow images, we carry the book "Hand Shadows" (originally published in 1859) in our sutlery, raggedsoldier.com It contains many images that only require a light source and a flat surface to receive the images.

Michael Mescher

[Ofcalipka]

I found some more photos from a 1866 Version of The Checkered Game of Life and thought I would share.

The playing peices:
http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic91266_md.jpg

The box:
http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic91264_md.jpg

The back of the board:
http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic91261_md.jpg

And the board again:
http://images.boardgamegeek.com/images/pic91265_md.jpg

Enjoy.

[Rob Weaver]

Was "hop step and jump" especially tied to Scandanavian cultures? I thought it was pretty widespread at the time.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com
Apparently it was. I first encountered the game in a scandanavian context, and given the large percentage of Norwegians in the 7th, just assumed that that's how it followed them.
So this "Checkered Game of Life" seems to play like "Chutes and Ladders." Would I be correct in that assumption?

[mmescher]

We did a search of google books and found references to the game "Hop, Step, and Jump" from the 1830's in England and the 1840's in the United States. So I think it is safe to conclude it was widespread in the United States by the 1860's and, further, that some of the younger soldiers might have played it when they were growing up.

Without going into a full discussion of "Checkered Game of Life" rules, I don't think it should be compared to what we now know as "Chutes and Ladders." In Checkered Game of Life, on every turn, the player has the opportunity to make a decision, e.g., if you spun a 1, you could go one square up or down or, if you spun a 4 you would have a double decision of one or two squares up or down. So you have quite a bit of control over your pathway and the winner is the first player to amass a fixed number of points, regardless of where that player is on the board at the time.

From what I can determine about Chutes and Ladders (originally Snakes and Ladders), it is a variation of a pursuit game where you proceed numerically from the start to the last square. The chutes and ladders come in when, if you land on certain special squares you are permitted to advance by a significant amount or, on other squares, you are forced to go back a significant distance. The determining factor in whether you advance or go back is whether the special square is a virtue (you go forward) or a vice (you go backward). In this regard, it bears more resemblance to “The Mansion of Happiness” which was a children’s game played during the civil war period. As a final distancing of Checkered Game of Life from Snakes/Chutes and Ladders, from what I can determine from secondary sources, the game didn’t enter England from India until the latter portion of the 19th century and wasn’t published in the United States until 1943, although games could have come into the United States from England before then. But, in any case, it doesn’t appear from these sources that it was a civil war game.

Michael Mescher

[Rob Weaver]

Well, I didn't mean that the 2 games were related; I meant was the game-play similar. From your description apparently not.

[mmescher]

By posting an assumption, I could see the next step that has sometimes happened when other people post assumptions. The post will remind some other person of the game (or other item being discussed) and think that, since it is "ole-timey" (in this case, since the game helped teach social values as some of the period games did, it might be considered a likely candidate for the civil war period) that it would be fine for a civil war impression. So my response, rather than just being a "no, that assumption isn't correct" was oriented on laying snakes/chutes and ladders to rest as inappropriate for the civil war period before the notion started gaining momentum.

Michael Mescher

[Rob Weaver]

While I can understand that as a concern, that wasn't really the direction I was going by asking if the game play was similar. I play a lot of board games, wargame, and collect antique toys. There are really only a few patterns that board games fall into and I was just trying to get an idea of which pattern this one fits in. I wasn't trying to insinuate that Chutes and Ladders was in any way a mid-19th century game, just curious if the two happened to fall into the same broad game type. sort of like asking if chess and checkers are related since they both use the same type of board. In the broadest sense, they share a similar purpose, arrived at by similar means: denying board space and removing pieces from play. However, they're not historically related either. I don't think anyone is going to drag a copy of Chutes and Ladders to ye olde locale event based on our conversation. :)