The standard image of the hollowcheeked, gaunt, and starving Civil War soldier is deeply embedded in the consciousness of most Americans. It is certainly true soldiers did without meals on occasion, particularly Confederates in the Army of Northern Virginia (ANV). And when issued, there is little doubt that the rations were basic and monotonous. Even when supplies were plentiful the inability to transport provisions from Richmond to the troops in the field proved quite an obstacle. Robert E. Lee wrote in late 1862 of his concerns:
Battle of Bristoe Station Campaign Tours
Join site historians for the 153nd Anniversary of the Battle of Bristoe Station. Tour a Civil War encampment, watch artillery firing demonstrations, and take a tour the site. On Saturday evening, visit the battlefield to see over 2,000 luminary candles lit for every soldier who died at Bristoe Station. Selfguided tours will lead visitors throughout the battlefield to meet
the men and women who made history here.
the troops became so general that after consultation with the Chief of Commissary of the army, I increased the ration of flour to 1 1/8 pounds and of beef to 1 1/4 pounds. At that time we were using flour ground in the valley and collecting a quantity of beef on the hoof. No other part of the ration could be furnished to the men except salt, nor could the men increase their fare by the purchase of bread, vegetables, etc. Their whole ration consisted of meat and bread. It was stated that one great cause of straggling was the insufficiency of the ration to appease the hunger of the men.”
However, there are scant records (if any at all) of the troops in the Western theatre going hungry, except for the prolonged Siege Of Vicksburg in 1863. One does well to remember that the South had an agrarian economy and unless completely destitute folks at home often made sacrifices so “the boys” in the army could have food. And even when away from civilization “on campaign” food in the west was not scarce, see the following:
“The forest and farms around abounded in sheep and hogs. In fact, Tennessee and North Georgia were not the worst places in the South in which to live through a campaign. We had strict orders to protect all private property and molest nothing outside of camp requirements, but the men would forage at night, bring in a sheep or hog, divide up, and by the immutable law of camps it was always proper to hang a choice piece of mutton or pork at the door of the officers’ tent. This helped to soothe the conscience of the men and pave the way to immunity from punishment.”
In 1864 during Sherman’s “March to the Sea” his invading army lived on the bounty of the farmlands they marched across. For every story of subsisting on parched corn or frying a rat for want of rations, there are recollections of soldiers who wisely made friends with the local civilian population. In this way, they were able to buy food or were invited to meals at civilian homes in the area. And at least while the civilian population had resources to share, the stories soldiers shared in their diaries suggest abundance. One soldier reported the supper he was served as including “warm biscuits, corn bread and honey, fried ham, stewed pumpkin sass, [sauce] good coffee, sweet milk, and buttermilk. We could not have had a better meal.”
And he was not alone here is another similar experience from Company Aytch. This recollection enthusiastically describes a family style meal prepared for some men of the First Tennessee Regiment near Chattanooga in late summer, 1863, just before Chickamauga. Sam Watkins was apparently one of the men invited into this civilian home for a meal that made a lasting impression on him:
“…the old gentleman invited us all to take supper with him. If I have ever eaten a better supper than that I have forgotten it. They had biscuits for supper. What! Flour bread? Did my eyes deceive me? Well, there were biscuits—sure enough flour bread— and sugar and coffee—genuine Rio —none of your rye or potato coffee, and butter—regular butter—and ham and eggs, and turnip greens, and potatoes, and fried chicken, and nice clean plates—none of your tin affairs--and a snow-white table-cloth and napkins, and whitehandled knives and silver forks... We were invited to help ourselves. Our plates were soon filled with the tempting food and our tumblers with California beer. We would have liked it better had it been twice as strong, but what it lacked in strength we made up in quantity.”
The emphasized two potentially unfamiliar terms from this passage require some explanation. The reference to “genuine Rio” means more than the distinction between the beverages made from actual coffee beans and the common Southern substitutes for coffee beans like rye, corn, peanuts, okra or chicory root. So how was “Rio” distinct from any other coffee or what we have available today? After all, it has been said that coffee was as much a part of the soldier’s life as drill or firing a musket. “Rio was imported from Brazil, and made from the Robusta coffee bean which is a rather coarse species, growing at lower altitudes under 2,000 feet... It can be brought to market more inexpensively and it is more disease resistant.” Rio is also more caffeine-intense and bitter in flavor. This explains the soldier’s normal practice of adding some of their sugar ration to the coffee. Almost all the coffee exported from Brazil is Robusta. “The Brazilian coffee industry has concentrated from the beginning on producing “low price” coffees: cheap, fairly palatable, but not considered to be distinguished.” Clearly, if the Commissary General in Richmond could not obtain adequate coffee rations for the troops in the East, the civilians down in Tennessee were able to buy real coffee and have enough of it on hand to share with the Confederate soldiers camping in the area.
As far as the elixir Watkins called “California Beer,” it was a fermented drink produced from water, molasses (or sorghum) and some kind of yeast (seed) as an activating agent. See the following: SACRAMENTO, Nov. 4—A plea for a stake of “California Beer Seed” that will produce a beverage… has been received by Charles Paine, secretary of the California State Agricultural Society, from W. A. Adair of Marshall, Texas. Mr. Paine said he had no information concerning this “beer seed,” but has appealed to the public for assistance that he may comply with the request. Adair’s letter said:
“During the Civil War, we made a home beverage called California beer, made from beer seed. The seed multiplied several hundred fold monthly, is my recollection. I know that a seed the size of a grain of sugar grew to be as large as buckshot rose gradually from the bottom of the container to the top then burst into hundreds of little ones and sank to the bottom again. It was mighty good with ginger cake during the war and beat sassafras tea. As it is made of water and cheap molasses, it will beat ice tea without sugar…and it is a healthful drink much better than root beer. It never intoxicates.”
That California beer concoction would certainly ferment and therefore will intoxicate if you follow this recipe and drink enough of it. The sugar from the sorghum would result in carbonation if it aged a while. You are to be excused if you do not find all of this as fascinating as I do. It is an interesting and necessary part of any careful study of the material culture below Mason & Dixon’s line during the 1860s to take note of the many differences in the basic food that was served as well as preparation methods and how it was served.
There was a recent television series produced by PBS where a group of modern people was trying to live in a Victorian-era home “with no modern conveniences.” If the thrust of it is remembered correctly the modern contestants all nearly starved to death for lack of any necessary basic culinary skill needed to cook raw foodstuffs given the uneven temperatures produced by wood burning stoves of the era, or maintain basic sanitation without hot water provided straight from the faucet. In the modern era, it appears we may have come a bit too far from our agrarian past for that. However, Civil War soldiers, who were all civilians before joining the army, were not as spoiled by modern conveniences and as a result did much better making due with substitutes.