Showing results for "Civil War Cookin'"
Civil War Cooking: Theodore Dodge’s Boiled Beans with Curry
The winter of 1862-1863 for the Union’s Army of the Potomac has been compared to the Valley Forge hardships of the Revolutionary War decades earlier. For the Civil War soldiers, morale plummeted after the Battle of Fredericksburg and year of losses in the east. Huddled in huts and muddy camps, the Union volunteers contemplated if […]
Read more...Civil War Cooking: Sam Watkin’s Farm House Dinner
In the autumn of 1863, Private Sam Watkin in Company “Aytch” of the 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment got sent on a foraging mission into the countryside of Georgia to bring back food. Somewhere along the way, he got a memorable dinner…in more ways than one:
Read more...Civil War Cooking: “A Taste of War”
It’s that time of year again…the week of Thanksgiving! Keeping with ECW tradition, it’s time for a week of “journaling”, research notes, primary sources, photos, and time in the kitchen to learn by eating and blogging for the Civil War Cooking Series. If you’re a long-time reader, you’ll remember that this series started with recipe […]
Read more...Civil War Cooking: “War Picnic” at Second Manassas with Jackson’s Corps
When “Stonewall” Jackson’s men captured supplies at Manassas at the end of August 1862, it was feasting time. In addition to storehouses, 100 train cars waited on the tracks, filled with supplies. Jackson ordered bread to baked and directed the whiskey dumped on the ground. He seized 50,000 pounds of hardtack, 1,000 barrels of beef, […]
Read more...Civil War Cooking: Thanksgiving Dinner at the Wolfe Street Hospital
The larger hospitals in cities usually tried to have special foods for holiday meals, and through the letters of Private Will Lamson from the 20th Maine Infantry Regiment, there’s a glimpse of the Thanksgiving dinner from 1862. Young Lamson had been hospitalized since early November since he had dysentery until “I got poor and weak […]
Read more...Civil War Cooking: Miss Caskie’s Cake at General Lee’s Headquarters
“You must thank Miss Norvell for her nice cake. I . . . assembled all the young gentlemen around it & though I told them it was a present from a beautiful young lady, they did not leave a crumb.” And in Mrs. Robert E. Lee’s family cookbook is a recipe titled “Spice Cake Norvell.” […]
Read more...Civil War Cooking: Corn and Apples with the 17th Virginia Infantry
In Private Edgar Warfield’s memoirs, he describes his experiences in the 17th Virginia Infantry Regiment on marches, in camp, and during battle. His writings about the Maryland Campaign of 1862 gives a glimpse of the deprivations the soldiers in his unit endured. He described his own appearance at this time: I was not entirely shoeless, […]
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