Thanksgiving Food for the Civil War Soldier

From Civil War diaries we know what the troops ate on Holidays.  Food was scarce, especially for Confederate soldiers, but for holidays, various organizations solicited donations of food including poultry, mince pies, sausages and fruit. 

The Union soldiers’ rations were somewhat better.  Salt pork, ham, beans, split peas, dried fruits, hardtack, and dried  vegetables were on the list.  The unpopular desiccated or dried vegetables were often called "desecrated" vegetables by the soldiers.  These were layers of cabbage leaves, turnip tops, sliced carrots, turnips, parsnips, and a few onions; they were dehydrated in large blocks in ovens and then cut into one-ounce cubes.  Issued to prevent scurvy, they were made into soup or fried.

Some ingenious Union soldiers made apple pudding out of hardtack. In this “pudding,” hardtack was pounded into a powder, mixed with water and flour if available, kneaded into dough, rolled out like a pie crust, and filled with apples or anything available. Finally it would be wrapped up in a cloth and boiled for an hour.

Lobscouse Stew
There was also hell-fire stew (hardtack boiled in water and bacon grease), lobscouse (a stew of pieces of meat, vegetables and hardtack) and milk toast. 

Some lucky soldiers describe appetizing Thanksgiving dinners.  Asa Bean, a surgeon in the Union Army, wrote the following to describe his Thanksgiving dinner on November 27, 1862:

“There has been a surprise party here to Day for the Benefit of Soldiers and Nurses they were furnished with a Thanksgiving Dinner roast Turkey; Chicken & Pigeon & Oysters Stewed. I had a good dinner of Baked Chicken & Pudding Boiled potatoes, Turnip, Apple butter, cheese butter, Tea & Trimmings …we live well enough, but cannot Eat Much without being sick.”

Salt Pork

Some soldiers were given Idiot's Delight Cake as a dessert treat.  Food was scarce for the South, but they tried to celebrate Christmas and the Holidays.   

Idiot's Delight Cake

Ingredients

1 c. brown sugar
1 c. raisins
1 tbsp. butter
1 tsp. vanilla
4 c. water
7 tbsp. butter
1/2 c. white sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 c. milk
1 c. flour

Boil together the first 5 ingredients. Make a batter of the second 5 ingredients. Drop the batter in a greased pan by spoonfuls. Pour first mixture over it and bake in a moderate oven until golden brown.  Source:  Cooks.com
  
Idiot's Delight was popular because it used only a few, inexpensive, easy to obtain ingredients and is fool-proof. Even an "idiot" can make it.  

Slaves Who Stayed - Loyalty of Slaves Civil War

Many slaves were loyal to their masters, having known no other life.  Slaves  heard descriptions of "savage Yankees" from their masters. Some slaves feared the Yankees.

Slaves could not forget their status as property, no matter how well their owners treated them.  Some suffered incredible cruelty.  Many slaves rapidly departed at the first notice of emancipation.  However, it would be too simplistic to say that all masters and slaves hated each other.

Many faithful slaves truly helped their mistresses survive through the onslaught of the war and its aftermath.  They hid valuables from the plundering Yankees, in wells and swamps. They outwitted the ransacking soldiers and  foragers when they could.

Human beings who live and work together are bound to form relationships of some kind, and some masters and slaves genuinely cared for each other. 

The following account is from the diary of Nancy Saussure,"Old Plantation Days; Being Recollections of Southern Life Before the Civil War".  It relates the story of Hugh Bailey, wounded at the battle of Cedar Mountain, Virginia.  His family thought he was dead, as they heard no news of him.  A family slave had nursed the wounded Hugh.

“An old negro, his body servant, had carried him off by stealth to a hut in the woods...to hide him from the Yankees.

He had no medicine, no doctor, no help, the master was ill for a long time from his wounds and with a slow fever, and through it all Uncle Reuben never left him except at night to forage for both. ... He was in a strange country; he could not leave his charge, alone and desperately ill”.

Note:  Some Southerners romanticized the past, claiming they had "civilized" the slaves. This included the notion of "the loyal slave".  In truth, thousands of slaves escaped whenever an opportunity presented itself and many went North to join the Union.  But nevertheless, some slaves feared change and showed loyalty to their former masters.

Painting Reflected the Last Days of the Confederacy

In the last days of the Confederacy art reflected the lives of southerners, and the changing times.  This painting is entitled The Burial of Latane.  It was painted in 1864 by William D. Washington (a descendant of George Washington).   

In the painting, white women, slaves, and children perform the burial service of a Confederate cavalry officer.  The fallen hero died among strangers, surrounded by enemy forces, unable to summon his family or a minister to perform the service.  The women have come to entomb the victim of the “supreme sacrifice”.  

It is a significant painting:  the principal figures are only slaves and women.  The only white male is dead.  A woman serves as Preacher, and is placed in a role of power, previously given to men.  Women are now political actors in their society.  The painting makes specific statements about gender and race and new roles.  Social relations were truly in a state of transformation.

Some women never recovered from the wartime taste of autonomy.  Before the war, their lives were about conforming to the strict Southern code of womanhood.  Women now realized the men were not able to protect them.   Confederate women had moved towards a new independence, whether they wanted to embrace it or not.