The Life of a Soldier - What he Eats, how he Sleeps and how he Fights

[paulcalloway]

Here's a article in the Morning Oregonian entitled, "The Life of a Soldier - What he Eats, how he Sleeps and how he Fights".

Source:
Morning Oregonian, Saturday, March 26, 1864. P. 2.

[Benedict]

Re: The Life of a Soldier - What he Eats, how he Sleeps and how he Fights

Concise but information-rich description of the typical army life. Interesting that he writes about the ways of dying while many other soldiers wrote in their letters that they could not describe the gruesome realities of combat (at least that is claimed in For Cause and Comrades.)

Thanks for sharing it with us!

[Dale Beasley]

Re: The Life of a Soldier - What he Eats, how he Sleeps and how he Fights

Brother Paul,

Good reading, As a Preventive Medicine Commander I tell Commanders and Soldiers..."The Army moves on it's feet and it's colon"

[AZReenactor]

Re: The Life of a Soldier - What he Eats, how he Sleeps and how he Fights

Great Stuff, and from a far West source as well. Went ahead and transcribed the article so it is a little easier to read. Let me know if you see any typos.

The Daily Oregonian
Saturday Morning March 26, 1864

The Life of a Soldier--What he Eats, How he Sleeps, and how he Fights.

Notwithstanding the voluminous accounts published of the manner in which our soldiers live, there are still many that are passed over by newspaper correspondence as too trifling to men, which go far toward filling up the true picture of a soldier's life. We have seldom encountered a description so [gr???] and [comple?], and yet so unpretending, as tho following contained in a letter from a private soldier in the Army of the Potomac to his little brother

Dear Brother ---I have nothing to send you for a Christmas present, so I will tell you a little about how soldiers live, fight and eat, and all I can about War and so that you can understand it better, I will do like the preachers and papers, divide it into chapters or parts, and part first will be how they live what they live on, and what they live in

HOW THEY LIVE

There is an officer called the "Commissary of Subsistence," who keeps a sort of store, sometimes in a wagon, sometimes in a big tent, and has charge of all the bread and meat, and what we have to eat. Every five days we get our rations from him. Sometimes we get nothing but coffee, sugar, salt meat, and hard bread for two or three weeks at a time. Some days we get for each man two spoonsful of sugar, three spoonsful of ground coffee, a spoonful of salt, two spoonsful of rice or three of beans, three or four little potatoes, a little loaf of bread, a pound of fresh beef, and now and then a little pepper, and once in a long time, about a quarter of a pint of molasses, vinegar whenever we want it, which is seldom, as we have nothing to eat it with. Sometimes we get a little bit of desicated vegetables, which is a mixture of cabbage, potatoes, turnips, onions, carrots and red peppers, rice and string beans, ground up together and dried, and is used for making soup, but very few of us like it and we do not care much about it. We hardly ever get half of these things during a month, and never get them all at once. We cook for ourselves, and when we are on a march---and some marches last for two or three weeks---we cannot cook anything but coffee, rice and meat, as we only have one quart tin apiece, and very often they get lost or broken before the march is over. We cook our beef on a stick and generally eat our pork raw, as it is so fat that it would all melt away if we tried to cook it before the fire, and when we are very tired and hungry, we think it very good eating, and I have known men to wish for raw pork when they had fresh beef. When we aer in camp, we have big tin kettles, called camp kettles, and frying pans, and manage to get along first-rate though we sometimes have to cook three or four different dishes in one cup or skillet, and let the rest stand around the fire until we are done. Sometimes we lose our plates and have to split open an old canteen and make one, or use two or three crackers for a plate. Sometimes we get dried apples and cook them in our tins, and empty them on a plate, or some crackers, while we make our coffee. So you may know soldiers' fare as not very enticing if it is substantial. Sometimes our ration has so much bone, and sinew, and skin in and on it that we can't eat it at all and have to go without meat altogether until the next issue, but now that we aer in camp, we get fresh meat twice a week and soft bread about as often and will get it oftener, after a while, if we do not march. I have told you what we live on and will tell you

WHAT WE LIVE IN.

Each man has one or two pieces of cloth (white muslin) about five or six feet square. Two or three of us get together, and when we get into camp, we cut three poles, two about four feet long with notches on top, and about six feet long for a ridge pole. We set the short poles in the ground about six feet apart and lay the long one in the notches. We then button two tents together by means of the buttons and button holes provided for that purpose, and each has two loops on one end to put the pins through. We stretch it over the poles and drive pins through the loops into the ground, and our house is finished, unless we have extra tents to close up the ends. When this is done, the houses are about six feet square inside, and I have to curl up to keep either my head or feet from sticking out. For our bed we spread down a gum blanket, and make pillows of our knapsacks, two of us lie down together and cover ourselves with blankets, which makes it warmer than for one to sleep by himself, as the blankets are big enough to cover two. If it rains, we generally get wet, as the water invariably runs under us, unless we have been in camp long enough to dig a ditch around the tent, or the water comes through the button holes. If the night is cold and dry, or we are near the enemy, or expecting to march early in the morning, we seldom pitch our tents, but use them for bedding. In winter, we cut logs and build little houses, many of them not fit for pig pens, and cover them with our tents, and build big fire-places out of mud and wood or stone. My house is a very comfortable one, and has a nice bunk, table, cupboard and benches to sit on, and a fine fire place, and we have plenty of the best clothes to keep us warm when we are at home. But we have to go on guard three days and three nights every week, and stay away all the time, so that sometimes we get bad colds and have very little sleep. Besides we have to do camp guard and fatigue when we are not on picket, and don't get many nights out of the week in our homes. I have now told you how we live, and will next tell you

HOW WE FIGHT.

When we get near the rebels, we are formed in two ranks and face towards them, one regiment beside another and two or three lines behind one another. Sometimes it is ten or twelve miles from one end of the line to the other, but generally only three or four. We are ordered to load, a lot of men are sent out in front of the line as skirmishers, and when the order is given to advance, (generally after a good deal of cannon firing is done,) they commence going towards the enemy. We follow them, and as soon as we get in range, the bullets begin to fly, and we bear all sorts of balls, shells, grape, shot and bullets, flying among us. The men cheer and yell like madmen, the officers yell out their orders, and the wounded shriek and groan, and it is almost impossible to tell one sound from another until we become accustomed to it---Some men get their heads or legs or arms knocked off by a shell or a cannon ball, some get hit and are dead before they fall to the ground, men often ran past the lines with their blood spirting all around---a sorry sight. The dead and wounded fall in our path, and we are compelled to go over them. The ground gets slippery in some places with blood, and the air grows so hazy that we can hardly see. Sometimes we get the enemy driven off, but often come back with less than half the men we had, and aer compelled to stop fighting or to try same thing over again. In skirmish fighting, the men get behind trees and stumps, or stone, or banks, or anything that will protect them a little and shoot at every one they see on the other side. Sometimes on picket a man will slip up and shoot the sentinel without knowing there was any one near. Sometimes a man in our uniform will ride up and say "surrender," and if any objection is made will shoot us on the spot. This last is called guerilla warfare, but is nothing but murder. I have now told you about how fighting is done, and will tell you how some of the soldiers have died. Some do not care about death at all and never murmur, some die as though they were just going to sleep, some die in great anguish, some die praying, and some swearing, but very few of our men groan or cry, and death seems to have no effect on the wounded. When the dead of a battle are buried, a hole is generally dug where they fall, and sometimes the dirt is just thrown over them where they lie, and the first rain washes it off, [but] if our own men bury them they are nearly always buried together and boards put up by their companions to tell where they are. But you have had almost too much of the details of war, and I am sure you will never take to it from love of the life of a soldier.