16 Civil War Recipes Made for Soldiers (2024)

FAQs

What was a typical meal for Civil War soldiers? ›

These rations allotted just over a pound of meat, likely beef or pork, just under a pound of "hard bread," and a small collection of dried vegetables. The most common form of hard bread, was called hard tack, a basic wheat biscuit that did not easily decay and could survive a rough march.

Gail Borden's invention of condensed milk was very helpful for the Union army. Soldiers would also regularly drink coffee, however it was not always entirely coffee beans. Dandelion root served as a supplement or Ersatz good when coffee beans were scarce.

Coffee, hardtack, and salt pork comprised the majority of a Civil War Soldier's diet. While these items may seem crude by 21st century standards, they met the nutritional needs of Soldiers at the time.

During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, soldiers were given two meals a day. This was usually simple, slow-perishing food like salted pork or boiled beef, along with some bread.

The most common food given to soldiers was bread, coffee, and salt pork. The typical ration for every Union soldier was about a pound of meat and a pound of bread or flour. The Confederacy started out following the same rules. As the war went on, they weren't able to keep up.

During the Civil War one of the most common meals for soldiers was a cracker-like food called hardtack. Hardtack is made from flour, water, and salt.

The two sides ate a different mix when rations were plentiful. A Union soldier's haversack would have contained salt pork, fresh or salted beef, coffee, sugar, salt, vinegar, dried fruit, and vegetables. And if in season, they might have fresh carrots, onions, turnips and potatoes.

Civil War: Canned foods were first used as rations. Canned condensed milk, pork and beans were sometimes fed to Union soldiers. For meat, cattle moved with the troops before being slaughtered.

How were Union and Confederate soldiers fed during the American Civil War? Troops in the field were issued raw salted meat, pickled/dried fruits vegetables, hardtack, coffee, rice, flour maybe, etc. (In the South Coffee substitute, and corn meal.) and whatever they could beg, borrow, or steal from the locals.

The consumption of alcohol was relatively common among soldiers living in camp or stationed in large cities. Civil War surgeons typically only hospitalized soldiers for drunkenness if they were suffering severe effects. It was uncommon for a soldier to spend the night in a hospital ward for simply being drunk.

Did civil war soldiers have coffee? ›

Trade continued throughout the North, with the allotted rations including 36 pounds of coffee a year for every Union soldier. The over-abundance of coffee in the North and the lack of coffee in the South grew into a point of comradery between soldiers, and the task of brewing coffee one that they looked forward to.

Coffee was also an essential part of a Civil War soldier's routine. They drank their coffee whenever they could, refueling themselves for the long days and nights ahead.

On the other side of the battlefield, the Continental Congress set the daily rations of the Continental Army soldiers at one pound of bread, half a pound of beef, and half a pound of pork (or one and one-quarter pound of beef, if no pork was available), one pint of milk, one quart of spruce or malt beer, and one gill ( ...

What did soldiers do in their free time? When they were not drilling, which made up a considerable portion of their time in camp, soldiers passed the time writing letters, playing games like checkers, dominoes and poker, drinking, smoking, whittling, making music and praying.

According to army regulations for daily camp rations, a Union soldier was entitled to receive 12 oz of pork or bacon or 1 lb. 4 oz of salt or fresh beef; 1 lb. 6 oz of soft bread or flour or 1 lb. of hard bread (hardtack), or 4 oz of cornmeal.

The marching ration consisted of 1 lb. of hard bread, 3/4 lb. of salt pork or 1 1/4 lb. of fresh meat, plus the sugar, coffee, and salt.

Many of the soldiers had no cooking skills; women or slaves typically handled home kitchen chores. “As a result, almost every food in the Civil War was fried. It's easy to fry food,” Burke said. Despite the obstacles, military cooking over a campfire in the early 1860s resulted in some pleasing meals.