Rare wooden Civil War era homemade Checkerboard (SOLD)

This is another great piece being offered, it is a Civil War era handmade checkerboard. The wooden board measures approximately 20 ½” x 20 ½” and was fashioned from an old white pine board.

From playing cards to checkers, dominos and chess, Civil War soldiers played basic games with each other in order to pass the time. They also used their time to adapt objects found on the battlefield like wood, lead and bones into missing objects when needed. In my book “The Civil War Soldier – His Personal Items”, I go into more detail about the games soldiers played (see pictures). There are also examples in the Gettysburg Civil War Museum and the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg (see pictures).

This is a crude board; the white spaces being made from paper and the black painted on the wood. Obviously, this was done for the absence of white paint. Some of these paper squares are slightly peeling because of its age.

The dings and wear, along with a pleasing natural age patina front and back, offer good evidence of age, originality and period use. A neat companion piece with any Civil War soldier personal grouping.