ARMY BEANS - By Craig L. Barry

[Eric Tipton]

ARMY BEANS
By Craig L Barry

“The Cooking Tent” image dated to Grant’s Overland Campaign. June 1864 (courtesy Library of Congress)

“At noon we draw a ration of corn bread, pork and beans…took breakfast at 7 ocl (o’clock) of cold beans and corn bread. “ [1]

Civil War soldiers ate more beans than any other vegetable. When meat was scarce the most common protein alternative widely available was beans. It is important to note that the beans issued during the Civil War as part of the normal rations were not the canned “pork and beans” known today. There were canned foods during the Civil War but the product known as “pork and beans” in tomato sauce only gained popularity in America“

"Here is just what a single ration comprised, that is, what a soldier was entitled to have in one day. He should have had twelve ounces ofpork or bacon, or one pound four ounces of salt or fresh beef; one pound six ounces of soft bread or flour, or one pound of hard bread, or one pound four ounces of corn meal…But the ration thus indicated was a camp ration. Here is the marching ration: one pound of hard bread; 3/4 of a pound of salt pork, orone and 1/4 pounds of fresh meat; sugar, coffee, and salt. The beans, etc., were not issued to the soldier when on the march, as he could not carry them.” [3]

The problem noted with beans as a marching ration was not that they could not be physically carried with the other rations per se; it was that there was no viable method of preparation while out on campaign. As previously stated, the beans were issued dry and had to be soaked all day prior to cooking. The use of baking soda (known as saleratus) would have speeded the process of softening the beans while on the march if it were available, but then there was still the matter of carrying an iron pot or Dutch oven with a cover large enough and the time required to cook them, which was usually overnight. If one should happen to eat undercooked Army beans out of expediency, a nasty stomach ache was the unfortunate result. Hence, while popular among the men, beans remained mostly an item of camprations or at least an item of issuance when camping conditions permitted the necessary time for overnight preparation. This was usually not the case while on campaign.

There was a universal propensity for Civil War soldiers to complain about their rations, whether in camp or on the march. So when soldiers were issued the regular camp ration of dry beans, what did they think of them? Well, it appears they were favorably regarded given the alternatives and consumed with enthusiasm. Beans were cheap and therefore issued with frequency. A camp song to the tune of the hymn ‘The Sweet By-and- By’ was composed to express their fondness for them:

There’s a spot that the soldiers all love,
The cook tents the place that we mean,
And the dish we love best to find there,
Is the old fashioned white army bean.Chorus:
'Tis the bean that we mean
And we'll eat as we ne'er ate before;
The army bean, nice and clean
We'll stick to our beans evermore. [4]

Soldiers were so fond of beans that they would occasionally trade part of their salted meat ration to get more of them. The following lends considerable insight into both the fondness for beans as an item of rations as well as how they were prepared:

“We had baked beans quite often…The cook used to exchange some of our salt beef with some other company for beans. I think I never ate better beans than we had at Camp Sacket in the winter of 1861-62. The cook used to put in a hole dug in the ground a copper kettle large enough to hold a bushel or more. A fire was made in the hole, so that it was very hot. He put fifteen pounds of pork on top of the beans in the kettle, putthe kettle in the hole and packed around it a lot of small, hot rocks. The beans were then covered up with an iron cover, and a fire was built on top. This was done at sundown. There was a guard at the cook tent, day and night, and he was requested to keep a fire on top of the beans all night. The next morning Company H had baked beans good enough for a king. The colonel was up late onenight, as he frequently was, to see what was going on in the regiment, and saw the fire at our cook-tent. He inquired of the guard, "What is that firedown at Company H's cook-tent?" The guard said they were cooking beans. "Company H is always cooking beans," he replied. He then went to bed. We sent himover a plateful the next morning.” [5]

Modified for smaller quantities, this is a good recipe to follow for preparing beans in camp. It is probably easier to make something palatable out of the Army bean than anyother item of rations. Soldiers on both sides ate beans whenever the opportunity arose. Confederate rations were similar to the Union including beans. The difference in the CS rations was that cornmeal was often substituted for wheat flour and the “beans” were not the white “Army” bean but predominately a variety known as Southern cow peas, meaning crowder or field peas. The Confederate Quartermaster reported stores of “rations of pease, meat and mixed vegetables” were on hand butthey were apparently not getting to the soldiers in the field at least not on a regular basis. By late 1862 the Confederate Quartermaster struggled to regularly supply anything but basics. One Alabama soldier noted:

"Our rations are outrageously short now. Yesterday morn(ing) had last of beef for breakfast and that evening (we eat only 2 meals a day now) dry bisc(uits) without grease & no meat. This morning - dry biscuits again but not enough & had to make breakfast on parched corn. This evening we have had no dinner at all until we draw rations.” [6]

The Alabamans ended up foraging a few vegetables, bartered for some flour and a beef shank from somebody more fortunate and made a kettle of “the riches (sic) soup I ever saw.” It held them over until the rations were again available. Depending on how long men had to make do with dry biscuits and water supplemented by whatever could be foraged, getting beans for breakfast,lunch and dinner may not have been too bad. Since beans were filling, it well could have provided a reason to celebrate. Beans could be boiled, broiled or baked, and period accounts mentiona variety of ways to prepare them. A distinction should probably be made between beans and the late war Confederate emergency ration of peanuts. While technically a legume or “bean” the peanut, also known as the pindar, groundnut or “goober pea” as a ration did not appear to be prepared in the same manner as pease (peas) or beans. This means soaked in water and boiled. Instead, period accounts primarily mention roasting peanuts or eating them raw, hence “…wearing out your grinders eating goober peas.” [7]

The mid-19th century French military saying for “the end is near” which given their lack of success they no doubt used quite often, was lafin des haricots or literally, the beans are gone. [8] Another way to use the Civil War ration of beans for variety, and still feed an entire company was to cook up a kettle of “hearty bean soup.” The following receipt (recipe) orvariations on it seems to be common:

“A cup of dried white beans or pease (peas) to five cups ofwater, soaked overnight. Add salt pork with chopped carrot/onion/potato (anyfresh or dried vegetables available went into the soup) and cook 45 minutes or until vegetables are tender.” [9]

No matter how they were prepared, beans were a staple of campfire cuisine. A Union Cavalrytrooper named Vidal Thorn wrote in a letter to his family back in ; “I suppose you would like to know what I had for Thanksgiving breakfast…well I had a very good one. There were baked beans, bread and coffee with milk in it,which makes a good army meal.” [10] The date was November 26, 1863 and this was the first year of the National Holiday of Thanksgiving. He mentioned being thankful for his life being spared thus far and guessed that back home they were enjoying chicken pie, cider, plum pudding and “C & C” whatever that is. Vidal Thorn was killed near Cox’s Mills, Virginia in July 1864, while on picket duty.

The most common “Confederate beans” were crowder peas orfield peas

NOTES

[1] Wm A. Hunter (ed), Civil War Diary of Leonard G. Ferguson, 57th Pennsylvania Infantry, Pennsylvania Historical Society, 1908, p. 212. See Entry for Monday, June 27, 1864. Ferguson
[2] John Adams Lee, Canned Foods, J. Lee Publisher, (Chicago, IL) United States
[3] John Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life, George Smith Publishing (New York, NY
[4] Paul Glass and Louis C. Singer, "Singing Soldiers: A History of the Civil War in Song," Da Capo Press, Inc., (New York, N.Y.
[5] Daniel C Fletcher, Reminiscences of California and the Civil War, Huntley Turner Press (Ayer, Massachusetts
[6] Samuel Pickens, Civil War Diary of Samuel Pickens, 5th Alabama Tuscaloosa, AL
[7] The history of the popular ditty known as “Goober Peas” is probably a subject for another day. It is best regarded as a folksong of unknown origin, though often credited to the Georgia Militia. It was widely sung outside of Georgia though, and one of the earliest known versions dates to July 1863 at a Union Prison on Johnson’s Island
[8] Ken Abala, Beans: A History, Bloomsbury Publishing, (New York, NY)
[9] Susan Dosier, Civil War Cooking: The Union, Capstone Books (Mankato, Minnesota)
[10] Letter from 1st New Hampshire Cavalry trooper Vidal Letaine Thorn to his brother dated Thursday November 26, 1863 from a camp near Bealton Station, Virginia