Transporting Butter?

[GburgSldr]

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone had any insight or references into how soldiers would have carried butter they obtained during the war? I have come across several instances where soldiers wrote in a diary that they purchased butter from a local farm or from a sutler, but I have not seen how they would have transported it. I presume it would not have gone into canteens. Maybe tin cups? I can imagine some edible items could have been transported in a piece of paper or a poke sack if purchased, but I imagine that would not work with butter.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. The conundrum has slowly begun to drive me mad....

[Hoosier]

Re: Transporting Butter?

Thomas,

A very good question. Just a thought...maybe the soldiers carried around the butter in an small tin container of some sort.

[PogueMahone]

Re: Transporting Butter?

Given a soldier's usual practice of eating most of his rations in one sitting, I would suggest that the butter purchased was not intended to travel. It was consumed post haste.

That said, take a small loaf of bread, cut a hole in the crust like a plug, dig out the soft center of the bread and insert the butter. You can cover the hole with the crust plug again. Wrap in a cloth. Even if the butter melts, you have butter bread.

[Ambrose Bierce]

Re: Transporting Butter?

Or carried in a small crock, which probably wouldn't have been carried for long since it was extra weight. Veterans would have tossed any extraneous items in the interest of expediency.

[Strawfoot]

Re: Transporting Butter?

Given a soldier's usual practice of eating most of his rations in one sitting, I would suggest that the butter purchased was not intended to travel. It was consumed post haste.

That said, take a small loaf of bread, cut a hole in the crust like a plug, dig out the soft center of the bread and insert the butter. You can cover the hole with the crust plug again. Wrap in a cloth. Even if the butter melts, you have butter bread.

Reading this post I immediately thought of Charles Heath.

[NCSoldier]

Re: Transporting Butter?

I'd also imagine that butter was like eggs, milk, fresh vegetables, etc...when camped or bivouacked near or in a town, it is much easier to obtain it fresh than it is transport it. Acquiring it from the townspeople, either with money, IOUs, or forcibly happened, especially for things they really wanted or needed.

[Craig L Barry]

Re: Transporting Butter?

There is a letter from a Union soldier named William Norton to his mother dated October 8, 1862. In it he makes a number of requests for food items from home, and adds "Some butter would be very nice, it will come (to me) better in a tin can than in anything else."

He is probably right about that. He doesn't mention how he will transport it, but a tin can would certainly work as well as anything a soldier would have ready at his disposal.

[GburgSldr]

Re: Transporting Butter?

Thanks all for the thoughts on the matter. Thanks especially to Craig Barry for the quote. It is similar to one I found earlier. I can't find the one I'm thinking of at the moment to record here, but the soldier states that he was able to obtain a pass to go to Washington DC for the day where he obtained butter and other eatables, which is what started my mind down this path to begin with...

[Craig L Barry]

Re: Transporting Butter?

As a general rule and in the interest of being pragmatic, on matters of what soldiers did in any camp life situation I find it most helpful to see what they might have written on the subject.