Keeping your rations or personal affects dry is an import part of maintaining your own morale on a long march. For Civil War soldiers, they could to the U.S. Sanitary Commision for not only socks and bedding in hospitals, but also painted cloth rations bags to help them keep their food and person affects dry on long, wet marches.
 
Our USSC ration bags are patterned after the original specifications, and are made from painted cloth (drill, cotton, or mattress ticking), and have a cotton drill drawstring top that has the USSC stamp on it. These bags have a square bottom, making it easier to stack up hardtack to fit it into your haversack.