The first days in the "Field of Honor" meant a welcome break from their daily drudgery for many workers, farmers and small employees in the summer of 1870. But under the strain of the long marches and the exertions of the nights spent in the pouring rain, the romantic feeling of taking part in a great adventure soon vanished. The daily business of the troops during the Franco-Prussian War consisted of marching, often in intense heat with a knapsack pressing on the spine. Regular drinking in high heat was strictly forbidden, although strangely this prohibition did not apply to so-called liquor drinks.