Civil War Cooking: What the Union Soldiers Ate

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The biggest culinary problem during the Civil War, for both the North and the South, was inexperience. Men of this time were accustomed to the women of the house, or female slaves, preparing the food. For a male army soldier, cooking was a completely foreign concept. Thrust into the bleak reality of war, soldiers were forced to adjust to a new way of life and eating on the battlefield.

In the early stages of the war, the Union soldiers of the North benefited from supervision by the United States Sanitary Commission. Commonly known as The Sanitary, it made the soldier's health and nutrition a top priority. Even before the start of the war, volunteers in The Sanitary were trained to find and distribute food to soldiers stationed in the field. They were expected to be knowledgeable in determining which foods were available during each season, and how to preserve food items for transportation and storage. It was the responsibility of The Sanitary to schedule and maintain a constant supply of food to soldiers at war.

While the Sanitary did their best to provide a reliable supply of food, that didn't guarantee a tasty or healthy meal. Considering there were nearly 2 million soldiers in the Union army, the Sanitary did not focus on flavor nor variety. It was a large enough task to provide the basics and keep their soldiers from starving. When food deliveries were interrupted by weather delays or other challenges, soldiers were forced to forage the countryside to supplement their meager diets.

At the start of the war, James M. Sanderson, a member of the Sanitary, became concerned with reports of poor food quality and preparation. Sanderson, who was also a hotel operator in New York, believed that his experience would be of value to the Union. With the help of New York Governor Edwin D. Morgan, Sanderson set out to visit soldiers in the field, in hopes of teaching them a few simple cooking techniques. He started with the camps of the 12th New York, as they were deemed most deficient in the proper culinary knowledge. He reportedly saw a significant change in just three days.

On July 22, 1861, just after the Union's loss in the First Battle of Bull Run, Sanderson approached the War Department with a proposal. He asked that a respectable minority in each company be expertly trained in the essential basics of cooking. For every 100-man company, the skilled cook would be appointed two privates; one position would be permanent and the other would rotate among the men of the company. The skilled cook would be given the rank of Cook Major and receive a monthly salary of $50. It would be the Cook Major's responsibility to ration the food, prepare it, and delegate tasks to the company cooks. Sanderson had unknowingly proposed his idea at exactly the right time. Washington was faced with the likelihood of the war lasting years, rather than months. The government was actively looking for ways to increase soldier comfort. Sanderson's proposal reached the Military Affairs Committee of the U.S. Senate. Though they did not follow his instructions specifically, Sanderson did receive a commission; he was named Captain in the Office of the Commissary General of Subsistence from the War Department.

Around this time, Sanderson wrote the first cookbook to be distributed to the military. The book was titled: Camp Fires and Camp Cooking; or Culinary Hints for the Soldier: Including Receipt for Making Bread in the Portable Field Oven Furnished by the Subsistence Department. Though his grammar was questionable, Sanderson did describe several techniques, such as suspending pots over a campfire, that made cooking slightly more convenient in the battlefield.

Sanderson believed his efforts were so successful that no man could consume his daily ration, although many waste(d) it. This certainly was not the case, as many men still suffered from hunger, illness and death from unsanitary and poorly cooked food. Sanderson did understand the importance of cooking with well-cleaned pots and was quoted as saying, "Better wear out your pans with scouring than your stomachs with purging."

Typical fare during the Civil War was very basic. Union soldiers were fed pork or beef, usually salted and boiled to extend the shelf life, coffee, sugar, salt, vinegar, and sometimes dried fruits and vegetables if they were in season. Hard tack, a type of biscuit made from unleavened flour and water, was commonly used to stave off hunger on both sides. After baking, hard tack was dried to increase its shelf life.

Soldiers in the field would carry rations in makeshift bags called haversacks. Made of canvas, the haversack folded around its contents, basically anything the soldiers would need to survive for a few days on their own, and was held together with buckling straps and completed with two shoulder straps.

The following Union army recipe comes from Camp Fires and Camp Cooking; or Culinary Hints for the Soldier by Captain Sanderson. It's a basic recipe (in those days known as a receipt) for Commissary Beef Stew. This easy meat stew is thickened with flour and filled out with potatoes and vegetables. The flour and added vegetables allowed Union cooks to stretch small amounts of meat into a substantial, filling meal. While many wartime stews were made from salted preserved meat, this recipe appears to be written for fresh beef. Here is the original recipe, as transcribed in A Taste for War: The Culinary History of the Blue and Gray. Note that grammar and measurements have been clarified from the original source:

"Cut 2 pounds of beef roast into cubes 2 inches square and 1 inch thick, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and put in frying pan with a little pork fat or lard. Put them over a fire until well browned but not fully cooked, and hen empty the pan into a kettle and add enough water to cover the meat. Add a handful of flour, two quartered onions, and four peeled and quartered potatoes. Cover and simmer slowly over a moderate heat for 3 ½ hours, skimming any fat that rises to the top. Then stir in 1 tablespoon of vinegar and serve. Other vegetables available, such as leeks, turnips, carrots, parsnips, and salsify, will make excellent additions."

I have adapted Captain Sanderson's recipe for the modern kitchen; my updated version of the dish appears below. While the stew is simple, it stands the test of time. The long and slow cooking produces exceptionally tender meat chunks. As you cook it, imagine stirring a kettle over an open flame in a Civil War army camp. Hungry soldiers would have looked forward to a hearty stew like this.

Research Sources

Davis, William C. (2003). A Taste for War: The Culinary History of the Blue and the Gray. University of Nebraska Press. US.

Herbst, Ron and Sharon Tyler (2009). The Deluxe Food Lover's Companion. Barron's Educational Series, Inc., Hauppauge, NY.

Holzer, Harold and Symonds, Craig (2010). The New York Times Complete Civil War. Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, New York, NY.

Murphy, Jim (1993). The Boys War: Confederate and Union Soldiers Talk About the Civil War. Sandpiper, Boston, MA.

You can uncover more fascinating food history on Tori's website: The History Kitchen.