Slaves Find a Pot of Gold - Civil War Stories

A Pot of Gold

During the Civil War, many a Southern family buried their jewels, silver and gold coins in the ground, to hide from Yankee plundering.  Many Confederate men died in battle, never to return to unearth it. They often hid the location even from their wives, so the site would not be revealed under pressure.

Martha Richardson had been a slave girl in Columbia, South Carolina.   

Martha and her brothers were sharecroppers, working in the fields.  

As they chopped, her older brother’s shovel hit something hard.  He dug more and saw it was the lid of a pot.  Martha describes what happened:

“It was no sooner out than we takes off de lid and we is sho’ surprised at what we see. Big silver dollars lay all over de top.  

We takes two of them and drops them together and they ring just lak we hear them ring on de counters. Then we grabble in de pot for more.

De silver went down about two inches deep. Twenty dollar gold pieces run down for about four inches or so and de whole bottom was full of big bundles of twenty dollar greenbacks.”

They quickly return to their family cabin to show the pot to their Mother, who begins to empty it.  She first tells the children to watch the door and see that no one enters. 

She counts the coins and tells them the money amounts to $5,700.   (This money is equivalent to $90,000 today.) She asks them to swear to tell no one about their find.

Martha’s family continued to work, tilling the land.  With the newly found wealth, Martha’s Mother bought 2 lots of land and built a house for the family and a cottage she rented out.  Martha was eternally grateful for this money which allowed her family  to escape from debt and to find some relief from their hard toil.

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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.  

U.S. Civil War: Loyal Slaves Who Stayed

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

Of course, 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.  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 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”.

 

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.

Civil War: The Soldier's Food

The soldiers gathered in small groups each evening to prepare their food.  The food was low quality for both armies, but the Confederate soldier suffered more from lack of food.   For soldiers of the North, some food was obtained by plunder.  When food deliveries were interrupted by weather delays or other challenges, soldiers were forced to forage the countryside to supplement their meager diets.

Yankee Soldier

Hardtack

Hard as a rock, this cracker was the bane of many a Civil War soldier.  The ingredients were simple: wheat flour, water, and maybe some salt, mixed into a dense dough, rolled and cut into biscuit sized squares.  Mostly a food of the Yankee or Union Army, soldiers called the hard little biscuits, “tooth-dullers”.  Hardtack was almost inedible and nearly dense enough to stop a musket ball.  To soften, hardtack was often dunked in brine, coffee, or cooked with salt pork.  You can make hardtack, the recipe follows:

Ingredients:

2 cups of flour

 1/2 to 3/4 cup water 

6 pinches of salt

Optional:  add 1 tbsp of vegetable fat 

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.  Mix the ingredients together into a stiff dough, knead several times, and spread the dough out flat to a thickness of 1/4 inch on a non-greased cookie sheet.  Using a knife, cut dough into 3-inch cracker squares.  Punch four rows of holes, four holes per row, into each cracker.

Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven, turn crackers over on the sheet and return to the oven and bake another 30 minutes. Cool completely.

Confederate Soldier

Sloosh

Many Southern soldiers simply cooked cornmeal mush around a rifle ramrod.  They took the cornmeal and swirled it around in grease, making a dough. They then wrapped the dough around their rifle ramrod and cooked it over the campfire. That was called "sloosh". 

Corn Pone
Corn pone was a staple of early settlers and Civil War soldiers.

Recipe

4 cups ground white or yellow cornmeal 
1 tablespoon salt 
2-3 cups of very hot (not boiling) water 
 1/4--1/2 cup bacon grease or other oil

In a large bowl, add the hot water to the corn meal and mix into a thick batter. Cover with a dishcloth and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. The batter should still be soft enough to mold into a small cake. 

Take your cast iron skillet and put it over a medium heat on the stove or over your fire, add the bacon grease or oil. When the oil is hot lay the cakes into the pan. Cook them until they are browned on one side, this should take about 3 minutes. Turn each and brown on the other side. Drain the fat and serve.

source:  https://preparednessadvice.com

Food on the Home front 

Lacking many ingredients, the southern women learned to alter food recipes according to their scarce available resources.  

Oatmeal pie recipe:

The military needed a cheap way to feed a lot of people, and soldiers across the country were introduced to the idea they could eat their horses' oats.  So oats become a popular food.  During the Civil War  pecans were in short supply in the South, so oatmeal pie was a good substitute for southern pecan pie.

      


Idiot's Delight cake recipe:

An easy dessert to make, "Idiot's Delight" cake was quick and frugal.  It was often served on Christmas and Holidays.

Civil War: Black Confederate Soldiers, Real or Myth?

Nobody questions that the Confederate Army utilized blacks as cooks, teamsters, and body servants.  As for accepting slaves as soldiers, there had been resistance among Confederates to placing arms in the hands of slaves.  Fears of slave uprisings were factors.   Some assert the “black confederate” soldier is a myth.    

An iconic photograph has often been used as evidence of black confederate soldiers.  It is a 160-year-old tintype depicting Andrew Chandler and his slave Silas, both in Confederate uniform. 

Today, the descendants of Silas Chandler state firmly that Silas was Andrew Chandler's servant and slave. Silas Chandler was there when his master, Confederate Sgt. Andrew Chandler, was  wounded at the 1863 Battle of Chickamauga in Tennessee. Silas helped his injured master return home, saving Andrew’s leg from amputation.  But a Confederate soldier?  Perhaps not.

Yet in diaries we find references to the black Confederate soldiers:

"As usual with the enemy, they posted their negro regiments on their left and in front, where they were slain by hundreds, and upon retiring left their dead and wounded negroes uncared for, carrying off only the whites, which accounts for the fact that upon the first part of the battlefield nearly all the dead found were negroes." - Federal Official Records, Vol. XXV, Chapter XLVII, pg. 341 Report of the Confederate Commander, Savannah, April 27, 1864   

Although the Confederates did not officially enlist blacks until March 1865, when desperate for manpower, the Confederate Congress had passed a law allowing African Americans to serve in combat roles.  Some states allowed them to serve on a local level as early as 1861.  Perhaps no one knows how many blacks served as soldiers in the Confederacy.

Eyewitness to the Battle of Gettysburg - Tillie Pierce

Gettysburg, PA, 3-day battle, July 1 - July 3, 1863

Gettysburg was a small town in Pennsylvania, with rolling hills of corn and wheat fields and only 2,400 inhabitants.  The residents seemed unaware that two huge armies, about 170,000 men, were converging on their sleepy little town.  The fiercest battle of the war was about to ignite.  The Battle caught the residents of Gettysburg completely by surprise. 

Tillie Pierce:

Tilllie Pierce 16 years old at the time of the Battle.  Her father was a butcher and the family lived above his shop in the heart of town. She was attending the Young Ladies Seminary school when the cry is heard "the Rebels are coming!"

Soon Confederate soldiers were streaming through the area.

"Rushing to the door, and standing on the front portico we beheld a dark, dense mass, moving toward town.  Our teacher, Mrs. Eyster, at once said:  'Children, run home as quickly as you can.'  It did not require repeating. ...  I had scarcely reached the front door, when, on looking up the street, I saw some of the men on horseback.  

What a horrible sight!  There they were, human beings!  Clad almost in rags, covered with dust, riding wildly, pell-mell down the hill toward our home!  Shouting, yelling most unearthly, cursing, brandishing their revolvers, and firing right and left.

Soon ...ransacking began in earnest.  They wanted horses, clothing, anything and almost everything they could conveniently carry away.  Nor were they particular about asking. Whatever suited them they took.  They did, however, make a formal demand of the town authorities, for a large supply of flour, meat, groceries, shoes, hats, ... ten barrels of whisky; or, in lieu of this, five thousand dollars."

At the urging of her family, Tillie and some friends left the town and went to what they thought would be a safe place, Jacob Weikert's farmhouse.  

"During our flight over to the farm-house, and when about half way, Mrs. Weikert happened to think of some highly prized article of dress, that in our sudden flight she had never thought of. Nothing would do but that her husband would have to go back to the house and get it. Thus in the midst of the confusion of battle, Mr. Weikert started back. Just as we were reaching our starting point, we met him coming out with the treasure; a brand-new quilted petticoat; and we all went panting into the house. During the whole of this wild goose chase, the cannonading had become terrible! Occasionally a shell would come flying over Round Top and explode high in the air over head."

Sometime between 4 and 5 p.m. that afternoon, Tillie Pierce and her friends were caught between the opposing forces.

"On this evening the number of wounded brought to the place was indeed appalling. They were laid in different parts of the house. The orchard and space around the buildings were covered with the shattered and dying, and the barn became more and more crowded. The scene had become terrible beyond description."

Over 700 wounded and dying soldiers found shelter in the farmhouse and barn during the battle.  Tillie provided water and food to the soldiers and assisted the surgeons and nurses caring for the wounded.

The battle raged for 3 days.  "It seemed as though the heavens were sending forth peal upon peal of terrible thunder, directly over our heads; while at the same time, the very earth beneath our feet trembled. The cannonading at Gettysburg, has already gone down into history as terrible." 

After the battle:  "We were all glad that the storm had passed, and that victory was perched upon our banners.  But oh! the horror and desolation that remained. The general destruction, the suffering, the dead, the homes that nevermore would be cheered, the heart-broken widows, the innocent and helpless orphans! Only those who have seen these things, can ever realize what they mean."

"The whole landscape had been changed and I felt as though we were in a strange and blighted land."