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It was very common for soldiers and others to make up new lyrics for a popular song. Sometimes they just wrote new words in order to use the melody but other times they changed the original words just slightly as a clever way to have a little fun. That is called a parody. They enjoyed taking songs and changing the words to something funny- either making fun of their own situation or making fun of the enemy as we saw with Union Dixie.
"Hard Crackers Come Again No More" is obviously a parody of "Hard Times Come Again No More".
Hard crackers or hardtack was a simple type of very hard, dry cracker made from flour, water and sometimes salt. It was cheap and didn't spoil. They weren't good but they could keep soldiers from starving. In order to eat them, soldiers would break them into bits and soak them in liquid to soften them.
Some examples of the humor soldiers found in them:
One group of soldiers used crackers to make a patio in front of their tent.
One soldier used a cracker to carve a new bridge for his violin.
Soldiers called them teeth dullers, sheet iron crackers and worm castles.
One northern soldier said, "We live on crackers so hard that if we had loaded our guns with them we could have killed southerners in a hurry."
A hard cracker joke:
"I was eating a piece of hardtack this morning and I bit into something soft," said a sergeant to one of the privates in his regiment.
"A worm?" asked the private.
"No... it was a ten-penny nail."
"Hard Crackers Come Again No More"
Singer: Bobby Horton
1. Let us close our game of poker, take our tin cups in our hand
While we gather 'round the cooktent's door
As dried mummies of hard crackers are given to each man.
O, hard crackers, come again no more!
‘Tis the song and the 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!
2. There's a hungry, thirsty soldier who wears his life away
In torn clothes—his better days are o’er.
He is sighing now for whiskey and with voice as dry as hay, sings,
“Hard crackers, come again no more!”
‘Tis the song and the 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!
3. ‘Tis the song that is uttered in camp both night and day,
‘Tis the wail that’s 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 the 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!
Many days have you lingered upon our stomachs sore.
O, hard crackers, come again no more!
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