Civil War Forage Cap or Bummer

Civil War “Forage Cap” or "Bummer"

In the 1860s it seemed like half the country was on the move. Soldiers traveled great distances with amazing speed and ease on the new rail lines, and filled the open road with the tramp, tramp of marching feet.

The founding legends of the hoboes point back to the discharged Civil War veteran (some say the word Hobo comes from the term “Homeward Bound”) with an Army “forage cap” on his head and a blanket roll over his shoulder. He had learned to ride the rails, forage for his livelihood, and live under the open sky.

Those skills pointed to the liberties of tramping in peacetime. But outside the context of military service, they were not so much admired.

Mooching and petty theft of foodstuffs would be early popular hallmarks of the emerging tramp subculture. For like any great force of men, the “Tramp Army” traveled on its stomach. And as the Blockade Runner website explains (this fine hat was purchased from them, along with the straw farmer's hat), the bummer is a highly useful item. If you turn it upside down, it can be used as a bucket or for stealing eggs.

A long tradition of jokes about hungry hoboes encountering pies left to cool on windowsills celebrates this kind of practical thinking.

—David Hammond