Ration boxes

[Tyler Underwood]

I was looking through How to Feed an Army by the War Department and I found dimensions for Bacon, soap and candle boxes. Does anyone know what they looked like?

This is all that I have so far

Soap box 17x15x11 2,805 cubic inches; 80Lbs

Candle box 17x11x10.5 1963 5/10 cubic inches; 40Lbs.

Bacon box 28x20x20 11200 cubic inches; 225Lbs.

Any further information would be great.

[64OVI]

Re: Ration boxes

Holding 225 lbs of bacon, Ive always assumed the bacon box was just to be held in the wagon and the bacon issued as slabs from it to the QM Depts. I'd be interested to know if the boxes stayed with the wagons and were reused?

Kent Dorr
Winter Quarters in Ohio

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: Ration boxes

Hey there Deacon! It does say “Bacon in boxes 20 by 20 by 28 inches, outside measurement, containing 225 pounds each when to be carried in the field, otherwise in casks.”

What I find really confusing is they provide weights for transporting in box cars and wagons both. The weight of bacon for one box car is 6,960Lbs (9,280 rations) divided up into 24 packages which equal 290Lbs each, a 65Lb difference from the 225Lb box. There is no way an empty box of that size weighs 65Lbs.
Transportation in the wagons is as follows:

Good roads – 8 packages, 2,800Lbs, 3,093 rations.
Indifferent roads – 7 packages, 2,450Lbs, 2,707 rations.
Bad roads – 5 packages, 1,750Lbs, 1,933 rations

These all equate to 350Lb packages. Are these barrels? I would venture to say yes.

The book also says “There might be some difficulty in securing uniformity in both dimensions and weights of ham and bacon, and sugar.” But the above information proves to me that they have the shipping weights down to a science.
They also mentioned that some of the boxes would be useful to the men in making chimneys for winter quarters. Does this mean that the bacon boxes were all used in this fashion once emptied; probably not. I would however be willing to wager that some were reused if they were in garrison.

What are your thoughts?

[woodsda]

Re: Ration boxes

I would suspect none of the box's were reused for bacon, but rather as chairs, tables, chimney's and probably the most useful as firewood. No sense in searching for wood to cook a meal when comes already greased and ready to burn. Just my thoughts.

[Silas]

Re: Ration boxes

A box with bacon grease residue would really burn bright and hot. Smell good, too.

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: Ration boxes

That is proof that bacon makes everything better.

[GrumpyDave]

Re: Ration boxes

A box with bacon grease residue would really burn bright and hot. Smell good, too.

Or, you could make chairs and stuff out of them.

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: Ration boxes

So now that we have visualized what these boxes would have looked like after their intended use, can anyone provide any further information as to what these boxes would have looked like before being turned into a head quarters for Cpl. Klegg’s hind quarters?

[ScottCross]

Re: Ration boxes

Most of the period accounts that I have seen mentions salt pork and bacon packed in barrels.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Ration boxes

Here's another source, Kilburn's "Notes on Preparing Stores": http://books.google.com/books?id=c5s...page&q&f=false

See p. 14:
"BACON.

"The quality of bacon is ascertained in the same way as pork. Mast fed bacon is sweeter to the taste and is sometimes preferred. The loss in weight is much greater from month to month with mast fed than with pure corn fed. Bacon is packed sometimes for the use of the army in charcoal and sometimes in fine salt. The boxes used are about 23§- inches long, 22 inches wide, and 20 inches high. They are made of seasoned timber and tongued and grooved. The bacon is packed on its edge, being first wrapped in strong manilla paper, and charcoal or fine salt filled in around it. The box is then strapped at the ends and in the middle with either iron or wood. If packed in tight spirit barrels, wrapped first in muslin and treated in this way it will stand almost any climate, or long voyage. A very excellent way, though costly, to pack bacon sides, is to sack in coarse muslin and then box, or place in tight barrels, without pressure; where economy of weight is very important, it may be packed in double sacks, (inside muslin, outside gunny or strong osnaburg), care being taken that the bacon is perfectly dry. Mast fed bacon cannot be packed to advantage in this way. Hams and shoulders pack best in round packages, sides in square packages. In all cases, whether in hogsheads, barrels or boxes, bacon sides or hams should never be crowded or forced into their place. They should be carefully laid Where they belong. I have seen them pressed in by machinery, filling the interstices with liquid grease."

In short, bacon can be packed in boxes, barrels, or sacks, using salt, charcoal, grease, paper, or muslin.

Also, the officious bureaucrat in me feels compelled to point out that before you convert any containers to camp furniture they should be properly inspected and condemned. Otherwise, per para. 1233 of the Regs, the empty containers are to be sold and the net proceeds accounted for by the ACS in the monthly Summary Statement and Account Current, Subsistence Department Forms 9 and 10.

That might sound excessive but Lynette Taylor's book on QM Simon Taylor ("The Supply For Tomorrow Must Not Fail") states that Taylor had orders to recycle forage sacks, which cost the government two cents each.

[fahnenschmied]

Re: Ration boxes

I'd like to point out something to those who might not have read the above too closely, letting their conception of what "bacon" means at the grocery store cloud their imagery. Bacon - like when you see it in a blockade runner invoice, or here, meant a hog cut in half, like a modern Southern barbecue hog, and cured in a similar manner as country ham. Hence the quote above "Hams and shoulders pack best in round packages, sides in square packages" Bacon nowadays never means shoulders or ham, but in 1860s references you can indeed find the term "Bacon ham". Bacon cured in this manner is nothing like the slimy greasy mess that modern "bacon" is, which is pumped so full of water that it can no longer last without refrigeration. It is dry to the touch, like our modern country ham, and like country ham it will last without refrigeration. Just like the term "Salt pork", "Bacon" does not mean exactly the same thing then as now.

[Hardtack Baker]

Re: Ration boxes

Have not found what they would look like, but have these two references of interest to add to the topic:

From "This Business of War" - Recollections of a Civil War Quartermaster - by William G. LeDuc

(Introduction, pg. xv:) "In June 1862 the depot at White House Landing from which LeDuc had been drawing supplies was evacuated as Confederate forces poured down from northern Virginia."

"LeDuc was assigned the task of planking a rail bridge over the Chickahominy as part of the withdrawal, and the rain-swollen river made the process of moving wagon trains especially treacherous."

"In optimal conditions, an army wagon with four horses could carry 2,800 pounds, and a six-mule team could carry 3,700 pounds, plus 270 pounds of forage."

(Following incident is of rations coming off small flat boats, tied to the steamer, Chattanooga, when the Cracker Line was opened, pg. 102-103:)

"The soldiers were skirmishing through the fields after rabbits, birds, or anything for food, when they discovered the approaching steamboat, and coming to the river bank, raised a shout: 'Hurrah for the bully little steamboat! Rations once more--hurrah!' When the pontoons touched the shore they jumped aboard and commenced to throw off the boxes of hardtack, bacon, and the like, regardless of the commissary in charge, who shouted out: 'Don't do that, boys--I have to account for all this stuff!' 'All right, Captain, our commissary can give you receipts to burn. Pull down that fence, and make a fire--here's coffee and sowbelly, and hardtack once more--hurrah for the bully little steamboat--rah, rah, rah!"

In this instance, it is a reference to boxes rather than barrels. And LeDuc was limited with space in this desperate river run.

Respectfully,

Marie McNamara
Goodhue County civilian - Third Minnesota, Co. C

[kirklandaustin]

Re: Ration boxes

One thing that I have always found helpful is looking at original images of this stuff here is one I found I hope it helps

http://www.old-picture.com/civil-war/pictures/Soldiers-Camp.jpg

Austin Kirkland
'' just a poor man fighting a rich mans war"

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: Ration boxes

Fantastic information everyone! Has anyone found any reference as to how the boxes were labeled?

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Ration boxes

Again, from Kilburn (p. 42): "The packages should be small and marked with stencil plates with the kind of contents, the name and address of the contractors, gross, tare and nett weights, with other directions, such as to insure their correct delivery."

There's some other good stuff in there, too.