Foods of the American Civil War

The official ration for soldiers of the Confederate States army was supposed to be similar as that for the Union, with slightly less meat, coffee, vinegar and salt but more sugar.

[2] Cornbread was a staple of their daily diet, although it was considered coarse, dry and largely tasteless to such extent that they appreciated hardtack captured from Union forces.

[4] The peanut, while popular among both sides of the conflict, was often the only thing left to eat in the last years of the war as the Union blockade took hold.

While a variety of materials were tried – including corn kernels, dried apples, and acorns – the best equivalent was found to be wild chicory root.

[4] The Civil War required complex logistics in order to feed the massive numbers of soldiers in the Union and Confederate armies.

In the Union Army, the Subsistence Department was in charge of the purchase, storage and distribution of food rations and related items.

[6][7] The Subsistence Department maintained depots in major cities and producing areas; officers in charge at these locations were responsible for buying food in bulk and repackaging for delivery to field units.

[8][7] At the regimental level and lower, commissary personal were selected from within the unit, while staff positions at higher formations were in theory filled by officers from the Subsistence Department.

While the use of slave labor was often necessary, it was considered onerous (to the slaveowner), and the reassignment of these workers from other essential chores negatively affected overall economic activity in the South.

Confederate generals also had to contend with their own hungry soldiers seizing enemy foodstuffs on their own volition whenever they had the opportunity, which on several occasions distracted from or disrupted more pressing and/or time-sensitive battlefield objectives.

Moreover, the long-term strategic value of capturing meat in particular, including most famously the capture of thousands of cattle in the Beefsteak Raid of September 1864, was undermined by the Confederate Army's inability to secure either the hay or grain needed to feed large herds of swine or cattle or the salt needed to preserve meat after slaughter.

Head-cooks were chosen from among the company's soldiers and rotated on a ten-day basis, allowing for each man to learn the role while avoiding the more frequent changeover which had caused issues early in the war.

[10] One common dish prepared by Civil War soldiers was Skillygalee, hardtack soaked in water and fried in fat.