December 2022
soldier’s issued equipment did not include any cooking utensils beyond camp kettles and mess pans for company use in camp or in garrison.
While on campaign there was not much available besides a campfire, the same monotonous ration, and a frying pan. While foraging could produce additional ingredients, specifically eggs and milk, these foods were not widely available on a daily basis. The campfire cornbread referred to by the soldier above is most likely corn pone or jonnycake. Sometimes spelled “johnnycake;” the term is not an oblique reference to “Johnny Reb,” the Northern slang for a Confederate soldier. Rather it refers to a panfried unleavened cornbread. The earliest recorded use of the word dates back to colonial times. It may have its origins in the similar term describing the traditional Virginia and Carolina version called “journeycake.”
Jonnycake was made in a skillet or frying pan using the grease from rendering bacon or salt pork. Water and cornmeal were mixed to the approximate consistency of a thick batter and fried in the hot grease like a pancake. M.S. Schroyer in History of Company G & Civil War Diary about the 147th Pennsylvania Regiment, wrote:
“We had pans with handles 12 or 15 inches long. We often came across flour or corn meal; sometimes bought it, sometimes otherwise. We would stir this up, make a batter of it, grease the pan well, hold it over the fire, keep shaking the pan to keep the slapjacks from burning fast. When we thought it time to turn the cake, with a slight twist of the wrist the cake would be thrown into the air, turn a somersault and be caught again in the pan. Sometimes half of it would hang out over the edge of the pan. Sometimes it wouldn’t hang at all, but drop in the ashes. Then we would always make the best of it.”
Corn pone is another similar type of campfire cornbread. It is made from thicker batter the consistency of mashed potatoes, shaped into small 2- to 3-inch ovals and pan fried. As a frame of reference, if you were to add buttermilk to this recipe and deep fry it, you would have hushpuppies.
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Civil War soldiers universally complained about inedible hardtack, but it traveled better than corn pone which easily crumbled, mildewed, or otherwise deteriorated in the haversack. Corn pone and jonnycakes made correctly will turn rancid and buggy as fast as shredded cheese. When the corn pone soured, Confederate soldiers used it to make a stew they called “cush.”
A Second South Carolina, Kershaw’s Brigade, infantryman quoted in Lee Rainey’s “Corn Meal” Vol. 9, No. 4 Watchdog article, wrote his recipe down as follows:
“Chip up bacon and fry to a crisp. Fill the oven [pan] one-third or one-half full of branch water then take the stale cornbread … rub it into fine crumbs and bring the whole to a boil, gently stirring with a forked stick … when cool eat with fingers.”
Civil War period cornpone and jonnycake are quite different from what we commonly associate with cornbread. The widely served accompaniment in most barbeque lodges and restaurants countrywide is the yellow caketype cornbread. The first clue is that it is distinctly yellow, not white, and not fried. This would have been referred to as “Yankee cornbread,” a combination of wheat and corn flour, plus eggs, baking powder, baking soda, buttermilk, sugar, salt, and butter. The so-called Yankee cornbread is absolutely nothing like authentic
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corn pone or jonnycakes. Real fried Southern cornbread is bland, gritty, and much denser.
Craig L. Barry was born in Charlottesville, Va. He holds his BA and Masters degrees from UNC (Charlotte). Craig served The 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
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battlefield preservation. He is the author of several books including The Civil War Musket: A Handbook for Historical Accuracy (2006, 2011), The Unfinished Fight: Essays on Confederate Material Culture Vol. I and II (2012, 2013). He has also published four books in the Suppliers to the Confederacy series on English Arms & Accoutrements, Quartermaster stores and other European imports.