Label Type
Cultural/Historical ContextLabel
Canteens, used for carrying drinking water, were issued to all soldiers who fought in the Union Army during the Civil War. When they were first being manufactured by contractors for the Union Army in 1858, all of the canteens were made with smooth sides, like the canteen displayed on the left. In 1862, a new design was introduced that featured reinforcement rings, like the canteen displayed on the right. Canteens produced by different manufacturers at different times vary in their materials. While all of the canteens produced for the Union army had pressed tin bodies in either the “smoothside” or “bullseye” pattern, their spouts could be made from pewter or other white metals, their shoulder straps could be made of leather or cloth, their stoppers could be attached with jack chains or fiber cords, and their covers could be made from a wide variety of cloth types in shades from gray to light blue. The cloth cover could be wetted in order to cool the canteen’s contents, and many soldiers altered the length of their canteen’s shoulder strap with hand-sewing. Canteens carried by Confederate soldiers did not have the same consistency of design and quality as Union canteens, and there are numerous reports of Confederate soldiers stealing Union canteens–as well as other pieces of the Union-issued equipment–for their own use.