Major T.H. Blacknall in an article titled “Corn” (Confederate Veteran Magazine, Vol. 26, April 1918) noted the following: “During the war I commanded the 1st Arkansas Regiment, consisting of twelve hundred men, and during the four years we never saw a piece of bread that contained a grain of wheat flour. We lived entirely on plain corn bread, and my men were strong and kept the best of health...” What was the reason for the amount of cornbread used by the Confederate Army during the Civil War?
American corn (Zea mays) was grown in almost every state in the country during the 1860s. Part of the reason for this was the higher yield in terms of bushels produced per acre of crop. If an acre of corn yielded (on average) 25 bushels, the same acre could be expected to produce only about 15 bushels of wheat. This rate of yield remained true from colonial times until the 1940s when crop production per acre dramatically increased. During the Civil War period the traditional acreage yield figures would have been the norm. Of course, while a portion of the corn crop was used for animal feed, human consumption of corn was still the most prevalent use of the grain. Corn was easier to grow than other grains and it thrived in a wide array of conditions. Regional varieties of corn differed based on the growing season and the soil conditions. Common corn varieties included Southern white, also called “horse tooth,” yellow, and even reddish or blue colored regional varieties. Red corn was used almost exclusively for animal feeds.
Southern white cornmeal was made from hominy, a key ingredient of many traditional recipes of the Deep South, as well as a staple of Confederate rations. Hominy is produced by drying the corn while still on the cob, then stripping and soaking the dried kernels in a weak alkaline solution made from water mixed with limestone or wood ash to remove the hull. The bloated kernel of corn minus the hull results in “hominy” which is then either used as is or ground. William Smithers, writing about “Life in Old Virginia” noted this description of the process:
“The beating was done in a “hominy mortar” made out of a gum log three and a half feet in height, the top of which was dug out with an adz and the inside smoothly charred with fire and afterward cleanly and smoothly scraped. The hard flinty grains of corn selected for the purpose were placed in the mortar and boiling water poured over it to soften and loosen the husk. The beating of hominy was down upon the mass of corn with a wooden pestle made of seasoned gum wood. After sufficient beating the hominy was placed in a wooden tray and thrown up in the air; the falling motion of the grain
back in the tray blew the “hulls” out and thus separated the two. Hominy prepared in this way is a delicious food, far superior to that ground in mills.”
If coarsely ground, it is called “samp,” while more finely ground hominy is called “grits;” when it is ground even more finely like flour, it is “cornmeal.” Recipes using grits and cornmeal are all familiar throughout the South, but how was samp used? Samp was mixed with hot water to make the cereal commonly known as “porridge.” The use of Southern white corn is why real hominy grits are white and not yellow in color. This distinction is also important in making the correct Southern cornbread which should not be yellow either.
As the old saying goes, “an army marches on its stomach,” and this was never truer than during the Civil War. Food, including cornmeal or flour, was usually issued through the Quartermaster (commissary) as part of daily rations. By definition, a ration is the amount of food authorized for one soldier for one day. The Confederate government adopted the official U.S. Army ration at the start of the war, although by the spring of 1862 they were forced to reduce it. The marching ration consisted of 1 lb. of hard bread, ¾ lb. of salt pork or 1 ¼ lb. of fresh meat, plus sugar, coffee/tea, and salt. Cornmeal was often substituted for flour or hard bread. Bread, flour, hard bread, and cornmeal were used interchangeably in rations. Cornmeal was a common Confederate ration because corn was common in the South. While cornmeal was far from unknown in the Union army, it was an absolute staple of the Confederate soldier’s diet. One soldier noted:
“Rations were light, provisions of all sorts scarce, luxuries unknown, and clothing without suspicion of style or fashion. Cut off by the blockade from foreign supplies, we were dependent upon home resources, already overtaxed and imperfect, for almost everything. Only cornbread, peas, and sorghum were plentiful.”
The problem, as stated previously, was not with the ration so much as what the soldier did with it. Few individual soldiers knew much about cooking. The men pooled their resources and delegated cooking responsibilities to those most able to produce something edible out of the rations. However, there was not much material to work with. While on campaign there was not much available besides a campfire, the same monotonous rations, and a frying pan.
Craig L. Barry was born in Charlottesville, Va. He holds his BA and Masters degrees from the University of North Carolina The (Charlotte). Craig served Watchdog Civil War Quarterly as Associate Editor and Editor from 2003–2017. The Watchdog published books and columns on 19th-century material and donated all funds from publications to battlefield preservation. He is the author of several books including The Civil War Musket: A Handbook for Historical Accuracy The Unfinished (2006, 2011), Fight: Essays on Confederate Material Culture Vol. I and II (2012, 2013) and three books (soon to be four) in the Suppliers to the Confederacy series on English Arms & Accoutrements, Quartermaster stores and other European imports.
