Survival: One Meal At a Time --> Confederate

The last article was about a typical Union soldier's diet, from salted pork to hardtack. Today we’re going to discuss the Confederate menu. Did “Johnny Reb” eat the same way "Billy Yank" did; or different?

Survival: One Meal At a Time --> Union

Union soldiers cooking dinner in camp (Library of Congress)

The Civil War is such a complicated time period. I have been studying the Civil War for years, and I’m only scratching the surface of knowing what it was like to live in 1860’s America. The soldiers experienced more than just battle, they also suffered from camp sicknesses and starvation. The governments, both North and South, did their best to feed the 4,000,000 soldiers, but still men went hungry. According to statistics, the Union Army alone had 2,700,000 men enlisted. Among those numbers, there were approximately 100,000 men under 18, and 25 of them were 10 years old or younger! There definitely weren’t any buses to take all the men over to the closest McDonald’s! How did the armies feed their millions of hungry men and boys?