February 2024
“mess pork” or “clear mess pork.” However, if period accounts are to be trusted, some parts of the hog commonly discarded by fussier eaters ended up being issued as rations. A Union soldier noted in a letter published by the New York Illustrated News, dated January 13, 1864, that “No one can without actual experience appreciate the cravings of a man who has subsisted for months on hard bread and salt pork. The moment such a man gets within reach of luxuries, … he rushes to the sutler’s and baker’s and buys what he wants at whatever cost. Fresh beef was by far the preferred meat ration, but it could be weeks or months before any of it was seen by men on the march. As noted in the memoirs of one 16th Maine Volunteers veteran, “…there is nothing like the stern realities of war as exemplified in our rations of hardtack, bacon and salt pork for the development of an I-want-to-go-home feeling.”
Submissions is the 20th of each month.
Civil War Artillery Projectiles – The Half Shell Book.
for the standard edition.
Send your book(s) for review to:
2800 Scenic Drive Suite 4 PMB 304 Blue Ridge, GA 30513
Civil War Artillery Book 392 page, full-color book,
$89.95 + $10 media mail
to Farming in All Its Departments and Details, Including the Dairy, Orchard, Vineyard, Garden, Domestic Animals, Their Breeding, Management, and Diseases; Bees and Their Management, Fish Culture, Silk Culture, Architectural Designs for Houses and Other Farm Buildings, Improved Sanitary Condition of Country Homes, Etc., Etc. United States: Ralph H. Park & Company, pp. 396-397, 1884.
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. 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.
