Wow...I like my cheese and crackers type snacks, but I can't imagine living off of basically just that for months at a time. I have nothing but respect for the memory of our Civil War vets!
As always, very interesting, thank you. When I was in the Army we were taught how to live off the land. Worms and grubs are ucky but it's protein. I played a joke useing regular noodles chopped up & leaves of spinach & it looked grubs & just quickly chowed down. The look on their pale faces was priceless, ha, ha.
My great grandfather was with the 8th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. Over the years some of his possessions were passed down through the family of which I am the caretaker now. One item is a hardtack biscuit. It was stored for many years in a tin with some desiccant. It has a corner bitten off and looks unappetizing but not bad for 155 years old. The biscuit has the lettering NBC on it. This stands for the National Biscuit Company or Nabisco today!
GREAT VID! Thank you! ... wow, I forgot all about Hardtack & Coffee.... I read that as a teenager 30 years ago! Loved the book and loved this video. Thank you!
The Confederacy was fighting a war of attrition. A Union General and a southerner General Scott proposed the Anaconda strategy. It was very costly for the Union, but over time it worked.
I've dug up civil war ration cans on my property in Tennessee. I have a can lid that looks like it was opened with a square nail. (square holes punched in it)
Thanks for mentioning Joseph Hooker and part of his reforms to the Army of the Potomac. Aside from the fresh bread, he also put an end to the rife black market business less than honest quartermaster and government suppliers were doing by selling stuff on the side and it not even getting to the army. He introduced a system of tickets requiring signatures for accountability and sacked lots of crooked quartermaster personnel. One soldier wrote years later "We began to *live* when Hooker took over."
There is an account in Mr Lincoln's Army by Bruce Catton of President Lincoln dining with the 55th New York who were camped outside of Washington. The regiment contained a large number of French immigrants and he commented that it was the best meal he had outside of the city and added that they would do well indeed if they could fight as well as they cooked.
The MRE of today are ions away from the hard tack- I now know why General Ulysses Grant rationed good food and supplies immediately for the Confederate army after Lee surrendered. Thank you for the History lesson! Subscribed.
Thanks so much. Slight correction - vitamins weren't discovered until about 1900, but people did have an intuitive understanding of the need for vegetables and fruit.
Many a good man died in prisoners of war camps back then. Usually by ailments due to lack of proper nutrition.. Andersonville being among the most notorious . The Andersonville prison warden was the only man hung for war crimes after the war ended.. But the northern prisons had their nasty prisons as well... Where men were treated just as bad ... Often times on purpose if not worse than anything the other side did .
It worked both ways; my Great, Great Grandfather, George T Wynn, was captured and died in a Union prison camp near St. Louis. He left a wife and four children
Large bodies of men will quickly scare off wildlife. Cattle on the hoof are a lot easier to manage. In addition firing a weapon near the picketts could result in a lot of "friendly fire" accidents.
Since green corn and apples, stolen along the march, was the subsistence. of the CSA for many a campaign, the attack on Manassas Junction and the Confederates did with the supplies found there is humorous but also sad.
What is hardtack because I know that at Vicksburg Mississippi the soldiers kept saying hardtack hardtack to Ulysses s grant and I know that that is how he got the nickname hardtack grant
Mix flour and water, into a paste as stated in the video. Bake at about 200 degrees for 2 hours, until the moisture is out of the bread. Bents still sells hardtack.
Reminds me, once again, what a God-awful war the Civil War was. I don't believe for a minute that I would have survived it. I am sooo glad I missed it....
Sittin' by the roadside on a summer's day chattin' with my messmates passin' time away Lying in the shadows underneath the trees Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas Peas, peas, peas, peas, eating goober peas Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas Peas, peas, peas, peas, eating goober peas Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas When a horseman passes the soldiers have a rule to cry out at their loudest, "Mister here's your mule!" but another pleasure that's enchantinger then these is wearing out your grinders, eating goober peas Peas, peas, peas, peas, eating goober peas Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas Peas, peas, peas, peas, eating goober peas Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas Just before the battle, the General heard a row He said, "The Yanks are coming, I hear their rifles now" He turns around in wonder and what do you think he sees? The Georgia militia eating goober peas Peas, peas, peas, peas, eating goober peas Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas Peas, peas, peas, peas, eating goober peas Goodness how delicious, eating goober peas I think my song has lasted almost long enough The subject is interesting but rhymes are mighty rough I wish this war was over, when free from rags and fleas We'd kiss our wives and sweethearts and gobble goober peas
