"What do ACW era haystacks look like?" Topic

My understanding is that hay bales are a 20th Century thing. I want to have some cut wheat or hay on the table so I wonder, what would a hay stack look like during the Civil War?

Wm Britain's makes a 54mm terrain piece that has a pole stuck in the ground and the hay leans against the pole. I've also seen a big shapeless mound of hay in what I'd call a haystack.

So what should I use for my tabletop scenery?

Plenty of images on google, e.g.:

Thee is a really nice lithograh of ACW soldiers shooting from hay stacks. Now where is it? Helps with height etc.

martin

I also researched this interesting topic for my Antietam research, which took me to the Smithsonian no less.

Here is the link.

link

I would suggest a top layer on the crown would improve my Mark 3 variant.

Have fun.

Chris

Here is a modern image from the battle of Monocacy.

The question is how it was gathered in the field to dry, or later put up for storage?

We have both traditional stacks and field stacks (in 4 scales) here if interested: link

I can't seem to open your link Chris.

Hay bales were a thing in the 1800s. There was a need for hay to be in a form that allowed it to be easily transported and stored. This could be done far more efficiently if the hay was in the form of bales rather than being loose. Agree that you would not see hay in bales in farmer's fields though.

For an example of making hay bales in the 1800s see YouTube link

Interesting. Thanks.

The top most image is of Hay,
A crop to feed animals.

The others are grain stocks drying.
A crop to feed humans.

Of course, both would be seen in the field.

Photo example of Grain.

Photo examples of Hay.

I just saw a posting on FB about Timecast and their 28mm haystack.