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 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

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" 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 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.

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...