"Creating Fine Sawdust Since The Last Millennium"

...now located in very remote downeast Maine

Frenchboro Map

Your source for quality handcrafted Civil War living history products. A complete line of wooden ammunition boxes and artillery chests, hardtack boxes, cartridge packs, fuze packages, and camp stools. We also custom make Officers encampment chests, field desks, and medical panniers as well as soldiers personal boxes for re-enactors and living historians. Many of our items are in museums all across the country.

Do you have a wooden item that you would like to have duplicated? Contact us and we will give you a price. Our phone service is sometimes an issue. If we are slow to reach you by phone typically this is why.

Shipping: We live on an island that only gets ferry service two weekdays, Wednesday and Thursday (one way), it is more difficult to ship larger items on other days. Due to this fact and because we can only ship via USPS there may be some delays. Thank you for your patience.

6-8 weeks for shipment on most items.

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The “Poor Boy” Hardtack box field desk. Made from a Army hard bread box, this field desk is not based on a specific original desk but rather a possible use for one of the many thousands of hardtack boxes issued during the war. The outside dimensions are 24.5 inches long, 14.75 wide and 10.75 deep when laying down and the insides are rough. The inside compartments are made of half inch pine and all visible nails are cut nails. The 2 drawers have small leather pulls and are also nailed together. The desk has a total of 11 compartments including 2 drawers and has no finish on it. The lid folds down and is attached by 2 iron hinges (imported-sneaked by the blockade just for you Johnies).

During the "recent unpleasantness", also known as the American Civil War, the warring parties had to supply their soldiers in the field with all the material needed for them to fight for their respective causes. Ammunition for small arms and artillery had to be shipped from the various arsenals to the units that needed it. Most of this was transported in wooden boxes that held from 600 to 2000 rounds of small arms (pistols & rifles) to fewer than a dozen charges and projectiles for cannon. These chests quickly became ubiquitous in the encampments of both Billy Yank and Johnny Reb since they had other uses after the contents had been distributed. Soldiers could sit on them, use them for their own camp chests and finally for kindling for their camp fires. As a result of the last use, not too many of these remain today outside of museums, those originals that are offered for sale today are usually in rough shape, sometimes the lid is missing or it doesn't match the box and is usually covered in what is euphemistically referred to as "patina" or 140 years worth of dirt and age.

What we try to do at Charlies Boatworks is to provide fairly accurate, made in the USA, copies of actual wooden items that are reasonably priced. Most of our items are ¾" white pine, nailed together with cut nails. All edges are either block planed or sanded. All surfaces lightly sanded, no knots that would compromise the structural integrity are left in the pieces. A great deal of research has gone into the design. The colors we use are from the descriptions used in the ordnance manuals from the 1850's and 60's. If, however, a customer has a different color in mind then we will accommodate their requests. Either way, we hope you enjoy this website and don't hesitate to contact us with questions, suggestions or orders.
 

If you are considering placing an order larger than 5 pieces please contact us via email BEFORE payment. Combining items will save on shipment.

There is a 4% *restocking* fee for cancelled orders.

We accept the following methods of payment via the shopping cart or through telephone order.

We can take your credit card information via telephone again please email us for telephone information. We accept money orders and personal checks from established accounts only

*International orders please do not order until you contact us for instructions*  

2012 Charlies Boatworks
charlie @ charliesboatworks dot com