Kayla

What soldiers ate in the Civil War

In this picture it shows where food was store.

In the civil war they would store food in wooden barrels.

In these wooden barrels they would store food like salted meats, coffee beans, and sugar.

All soldiers would have to know how to cook because all beverages they got were raw and with no spices, small groups of soldiers would get together and cook each others meal epically if a soldier did not know who to cook. They were called messmates. If a march was call the men would have to hurry cook their meals and put their meals in their haversack.

The haversack had inner cloth that was able to be removed and cleaned so the bag would not become oily and greasy and have a foul smell.

The soldier’s main diet was a very simple meat, coffee, sugar, and a dried biscuit called a hardtack

This is what you call a hardtack.

A hardtack is a hard biscuit that would come with the army’s meals

The main ingredients to a Union hardtack is : 2 cups of flour, ½ -3/4 cup of water, 1 tablespoon of Crisco or vegetable fat, and 6 pinches of salt

A hardtack was as hard a s rock but they were good tasting and filling.

Another recipe to the hardtack or angle cake is : 2 cups of cornmeal, 2/3 cup of milk, 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil, teaspoons of baking soda, and ½ teaspoon of salt.

Other foods that the soldiers had were: salted pork, or fresh salted beef, coffee, sugar, vinegar, dried fruits and dried vegetables such as carrots, onions, potatoes, and turnips.

Once in a while there would be bacon, cornmeal, tea, and molasses when available but when they were available they would go quick so maybe not even half of the army got the extra stuff because it was limited. Bacon would cooked in a frying pan with some water and cornmeal to make a thick brown gravy the soldiers called this “coosh” even though it did not sound good it was a very filling and easy to make food.

This is what you would call a lodge camp Dutch oven.

The legs on the Dutch oven were for the easy use in campfires.

The flanged lid to place colas on top of the oven. This war great for the army because they had a clean place to cook stews, chili and roasts complete recipes for everything including old fashion bread.

This is a 15 inch cast iron skillet.

Large skillet 2.25 inches in depth and this is not for home use, this was used to for camp fires this is what they would use to cook the bacon and cornmeal to make the brown gravy for the army.

This is a campfire tripod this would hold the Dutch ovens when they had food in them when cooking this tripod could hold weights of food up to 40 lbs

This is a picture of the kitchen where all the food would be made.