Showing results for "Civil War Cookin'"
Civil War Cookin’: Learning To Make Bread
Baking bread. Have you ever tried it? You know, yeast bread. Mix, knead, rise, knead, rise, bake. Time consuming. (I cheat and use a bread maker.) Back in the Civil War days, they prepared their bread without the convenience of a mixer or bread maker. Well, not everyone made their own bread. Some households had servants […]
Read more...Civil War Cookin’: Don’t You Want Some Pie?
Why would a hungry soldier refuse a slice of home-made pie after miles of marching on a dusty road? That was the mystery for one lady in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania when the Rebel soldiers appeared in town on June 26, 1863.
Read more...Civil War Cookin’: An Introduction
We’re just days away from Thanksgiving. So…it’s time to start those shopping lists (I prefer to call them logistic lists for the quartermaster’s department) and working on the menu or food preparations. Or maybe your mom, wife, aunt, or grandma is doing the cooking on Thursday? I know that some guys enjoy cooking or baking, but […]
Read more...Civil War Cooking: A Tale of a Colorbearer and His Army Beans
Many Civil War regimental histories include overviews or anecdotes about the food the soldier ate, complained about, or tried to cook. The 14th New Hampshire Infantry veteran writer followed this trend, including several pages about food and the convenience of Virginia fence rails for cooking fires. The regiment mustered in September 1862 and then spent […]
Read more...Civil War Cooking: Plucked and Plundered in Fredericksburg
The scenes in the city of Fredericksburg during the night of December 11, 1862, were disruptive at the least and outright vandalism at the worst. But for one Union officer, the night resulted in a good dinner, plundered from a pantry in the home of a local music teacher. Twenty-one-year-old Second Lieutenant John G.B. Adams […]
Read more...Civil War Cooking: The “Rhine Wine” Party
Food boards have been one of my hobbies over the last few years—making and eating them. There’s something creative and comforting about laying out a pleasing assortment of flavors and making it looking pretty. Through the fun of learning about meats, cheeses, fruits, nuts, hummus, and more and how to pair the flavors, I’d always […]
Read more...Civil War Cooking: Patrick Cleburne’s Stewed Watermelon
Before the Civil War and before he became a Confederate general, Patrick Cleburne floundered a bit as he learned the societal and cultural ways of the American South. An Irishman who immigrated to the United States and eventually settled in Arkansas, Cleburne found work as an apothecary in the early 1850’s, employed by two local […]
Read more...Civil War Cooking: “What do you call this stuff, anyhow?”
It’s that time of year again with the holidays on the horizon! Tradition is tradition…so it’s time to share a week of Civil War Cooking blog posts on Emerging Civil War. (Previous cooking and drinking adventures here in the blog archives.) Gather ’round the table via the blog because it’s been a year of gathering […]
Read more...Civil War Cooking: “There Were Yet Left Some Good Things in Old Virginia”
This historic menu had been on my goal list since finding it in 2020! Recorded in Private William McCarter’s memoirs about his service in the 116th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment (Union Irish Brigade), the menu is semi-complicated, and the history surrounding the meal presents quite a few conundrums. Let’s start with the food and then look […]
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