Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit.
How did the food affect the soldiers?
The types of food that were popular during the Civil War was very different from the food we eat today.
Due to war-time food shortages and a lack of both refrigeration and large-scale food processing, most meals were simple, easy to prepare dishes made from basic ingredients that could be grown in a garden or purchased and stored easily.
Food rations in the military were delivered to Union soldiers by volunteers in the United States Sanitary Commission. The purpose of the commission was to ensure that Civil War soldiers were fed healthy and nutritional meals to prevent malnutrition and food poisoning.
Since the focus was on health and nutrition, not culinary delight, and there were around 2 million soldiers to feed, the food tended to be bland, basic and simple. Each soldier’s daily rations included:
Hardtack, also known as “army bread,” was type of hard, dry biscuit that soldiers had to soak in water and fry in grease or pork fat in order to eat.
Each unit was also given a food ration in addition to each soldier’s individual ration. A 100- man company was given:
Vegetables, dried fruits, pickles and pickled cabbage were sometimes issued to prevent scurvy but only in small quantities. Other foods soldiers occasionally ate included baked beans, hardtack pudding, ashcakes and milk toast.
When weather or nearby fighting interrupted food deliveries, soldiers often had to forage for food. In extreme cases, such as during the Battle of Vicksburg, the soldiers had to eat rats, cats, bullfrogs and dogs, according to the book The Civil War Book of Lists.
The Confederate army provided its soldiers with the same rations as Union soldiers but food shortages in the south, caused by blockades of southern harbors, often made many of the ingredients hard to come by which forced many of the soldiers to hunt or forage for food.
As a result, boiled peanuts, which were an abundant crop in the south, became a staple of the Confederate army’s diet.
4.1 The student will explain how nutrition affects personal health and academic achievement. Key concepts/skills include
7.2 The student will describe and exhibit the behaviors associated with a physically active and healthy lifestyles. a) the effects of nutrition on daily performance;