"Whilst in this country ...": Supplementing Soldiers’ Rations with Regional Foods (Sullivan's Expedition, 1779, and the Carolina Campaigns, 1781-1782)

"Whilst in this country ..."

Supplementing Soldiers’ Rations with Regional Foods

(Sullivan's Expedition, 1779, and the Carolina Campaigns, 1781-1782)

John U. Rees

(Food History News, vol. VIII, no. 3, Winter 1996)

Occasionally the peculiar conditions of a campaign, combined with necessity, resulted in

uncommon foodstuffs being procured, sometimes to the benefit of the troops, occasionally to their

detriment. Two theaters of the War for Independence in particular serve to show the extremes

experienced by Continental soldiers. In what may have been the most diverse campaign of the

conflict as regards provisions, General John Sullivan's 1779 expedition against the Indians is an

interesting sidelight, though admittedly hardly typical, especially considering that it was one of the

few instances in which Continental troops were able to live off captured foodstuffs in enemy

territory. The late-war campaigns in the Carolinas introduced a few unusual alternatives to the

common ration and demonstrated the effect that poor provisions could have on an army. All these

operations saw the procurement of locally-raised foods not normally eaten in large quantities by the

soldiers.

“Victuals Well Dressed” by by Pamela Patrick White. Used with permission.

©2000 Pamela Patrick, this is NOT free artwork. http://www.ppatrickwhite.com/

Campaign Against the Iroquois, 1779. During the late spring of 1779 two forces of Continental

troops, with a combined strength of about 3,000 men, were formed for a punitive expedition against

the Iroquois tribes allied with the British. The northern column under Brigadier General James

Clinton set off from the Mohawk Valley, New York, in mid-June, while the main column

commanded by Major General John Sullivan did not leave the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania

until 31 July. They rendezvoused at Tioga (present-day Athens, Pennsylvania) on 19 August,

intending to move on into New York to destroy the Indian's towns and attempt to bring them to

battle. They marched from Tioga on 26 August, leaving behind a detachment of two hundred and

fifty men and number of women and children in a fortification commanded by Colonel Israel

Shreve.1

Colonel Shreve had his share of problems and pleasures at this post, called Fort Sullivan. After

experiencing some food shortages following General Sullivan's departure, Shreve was able to write

on 7 September that "One pleasing Circumstance to us is, Last Evening 240 head of fine fat Cattle

Arived At this post, - with 313 Barrels flower, Rum, Whiskey, Dried Clams, Butter, soap &

Candles, Now I hope to make those about me happy, after being Reduced to ten Ounces of flower

pr Day and no Rum - And Obliged to Work Exceeding hard, in Cuting Large trees, Collecting them

for stockades, and siting them up ..."2

In the meantime, soldiers advancing under General Sullivan found large amounts of food to

supplement their scanty provisions. On 11 July the ration had been set at "1 1/4 pound of soft bread

or flour or 1 pound of hard bread per day 1 1/4 [pound] of fresh or salt beef or 1 pound of dried

beef or pork per day [and] 16 pound of hard soap for 100 men per week." Shortly thereafter orders

came that "The Commissary is ... to issue no more fresh meat, but salt & dried beef." By early

August the food situation had deteriorated still further. "The troops immediately to draw two days

provisions at the rate of one pound of flour and one and a quarter pounds of beef per ration ... The

General ... assures that the rations shall be augmented when the situation and circumstances will

enable him to do so ..."3

In order to extend supplies of flour and beef the commanding general decided to feed the troops

from the gardens found in the Indian towns. Having left Tioga on 26 August, the next day at

Chemung the officers discovered that "the Troops will have such a quantity of Corn and Beans at

this place as will be amply sufficient for a days provision ..." Three days later an officer wrote that

General Sullivan asked the soldiers "whether they will, whilst in this country, which abounds with

corn and vegetables of every kind, be content to draw one half of flour, one half of meat and salt a

day ... He does not mean to continue this through the campaign, but only wishes it to be adopted in

those places where vegetables may supply the place of that part of the common ration of meat and

flour ..."4

This decision to exploit "the fruits of the savages" was the result of pragmatism (the crops were to

be destroyed anyway) as well as the general attitude towards Indian tribes allied with the British.

The adherents of Congress tended to adopt this same posture towards Loyalists, and sometimes

friendly Indians (depending upon the vagaries of region and circumstances), an attitude tempered by

the fact that Loyalists were not of another race.

In journals they kept during the expedition the men repeatedly mentioned the foods eaten.

Lieutenant William Barton noted on 27 August, "... halted with the army ... near some large fields of

corn ... and many smaller ones ... with beans, squashes, potatoes, &c., on which our soldiers feasted

sumptuously, it being a good substitute for bread, which was a scarce article with us." This same

day a Pennsylvania officer noted he "had an agreeable repast of corn, potatoes, beans, cucumbers,

watermelons, squashes, and other vegetables, which were in great plenty," while Major Jeremiah

Fogg observed, "Beans and squashes were in abundance, and a greater quantity of which was never

eaten in twenty four hours by the same number of men." On 28 August, Major Fogg wrote, "This

day the army was allowed no flour on account of the great quantity of corn, beans, &c." Also on the

28th, another soldier recounted: "This morning we had a dainty repast on the fruits of the savages ...

sitting at a dish of tea, toast, corn, squash, smoked tongue, &c."5

It was particularly fortunate for the men that these foodstuffs were available. One soldier wrote

on 14 September: "Much of our flower is carried in bags [by pack horses] & often falling off, and

striking against trees, sometimes falling into mud, & sometimes into ye water ... [this army] has

undertaken ... this tedious march on the bare allowance of 1/2 lb. Flower & 1/2 lb. Beef a day and 5

gils of salt to 100 lb. of Beef [and] without any spirit ..."6

One can imagine how absurd the soldiers appeared during an advance upon Seneca Castle on 7

September: "... the whole party ... had armed themselves with almost every species of the vegetable

creation, each man with three pompions on his bayonet and staggering under the weight of a bosom

filled with corn and beans, when in accents more sonorous than those of an injured husband,

[General Sullivan] broke out 'You d[amn]d unmilitary set of rascals! ... are you going to storm a

town with pompions!' ... In an instant the whole band was disrobed of their vegetable accoutrements

and armour, and pompions, squashes, melons and mandrakes rolled down the hill like hail-stones in

a tempest."7

Bacon, hard biscuit, and field-found root crops cooking in two tin camp kettles and a small

pan. (2013 Monmouth event. Capt. John Philips’ company, 2d New Jersey Regiment, as

portrayed by the Augusta County Militia and Queen’s Own Loyal Virginia Regiment.)

The Carolina Campaigns of 1780-1782 had their own peculiar provisioning problems. During the

first four years of the war the British concentrated their main effort in the northern states. Beginning

in 1779 they shifted the focus of conflict to the south, beginning with the capture of the large coastal

cities. The loss of these centers of supply forced American commanders to rely on various scattered

and unreliable sources, or to send supply wagons hundreds of miles over poor roads to the nearest

large American-held depot, neither a satisfactory alternative. A series of disastrous defeats only

made a bad situation worse, leaving Continental forces in the deep south to suffer more problems

with victualling than their counterparts in the north.8

On the whole food supply was relatively stable in the region during 1779 and early 1780. When

the British captured a large force of Continentals under General Benjamin Lincoln at Charleston,

South Carolina, on 12 May 1780, affairs for the southern army took a turn for the worse. Not only

did the Americans lose a large number of troops, they also lost their major supply center making

much more difficult all efforts to recoup the situation. Almost immediately the high command

consolidated their remaining forces and General George Washington dispatched reinforcements

from the northern army.9

Several vignettes attest to the difficulties of the army. About the 1st of July, just after the fall of

Charleston, a force of Continental troops under Baron Johann de Kalb "marched from Hillsborough

[North Carolina] about the first of July, without an ounce of provisions being laid up at any one

point, often fasting for several days together, and subsisting frequently upon green apples and

peaches ... we thought ourselves feasted, when by violence we seized a little fresh beef and cut and

threshed out a little wheat; yet under all these difficulties, we had to go forward."10

Prospects for a better supply of food did not improve with the appointment of General Horatio

Gates as new overall commander in the south. Desperate to retrieve the appalling military situation,

Gates decided to advance towards the British army through a region "by nature barren, abounding

with sandy plains, and very thinly inhabited." Colonel Otho Holland Williams described the

situation in late July and early August 1780: "The distresses of the soldiery daily increased - they

were told that the banks of the Pee Dee River were extremely fertile - and so they were; but the

preceding crop of corn (the principal article of produce) was exhausted, and the new grain, although

luxuriant and fine, was unfit for use. Many of the soldiery, urged by necessity, plucked the green

ears and boiled them with the lean beef, which was collected in the woods, [and] made themselves a

repast, not unpalatable to be sure, but which was attended with painful effects. Green peaches also

were substituted for bread and had similar consequences ... It occurred to some that the hair powder

which remained in their bags would thicken soup, and it was actually applied." Hair powder was

edible, though probably unappetizing if carried for a long time. In December 1778 orders for the 1st

Pennsylvania Regiment noted that "The Quartermaster will draw flour for the men to Clean their

Jacoots & Breches and to Powder their hair." In August 1782 Washington gave instructions that "At

general Inspection & reviews, two pounds of flour, and one half pound of render'd tallow per

hundred men, may be drawn ... for dressing the hair ..."11

Just prior to attacking the British at Camden, South Carolina, Gates ordered his men to cook and

eat their rations. "The troops ... had frequently felt the bad consequences of eating bad provisions;

but at this time, a hasty meal of quick baked bread and fresh beef, with a desert of molasses, mixed

with mush or dumplings, operated so cathartically as to disorder very many of the men, who were

breaking the ranks all night and were certainly much debilitated ..." In addition to defective tactical

disposition, poor diet is cited by historians as a contributing factor in the American defeat at

Camden on 16 August 1780.12

Even after the appointment of General Nathanael Greene to replace Horatio Gates (Greene had

done excellent service as Quartermaster General of Washington's army for two and a half years)

provisioning the troops was perilously uncertain at times. In 1781, after the siege of British-held

Ninety-Six, South Carolina, the troops were chronically short of provisions. "Never did we suffer so

severely as during the few days' halt here [Orangeburg]. Rice furnished our substitute for bread,

which though tolerably relished by those familiarized with it ... was very disagreeable to the

Marylanders and Virginians, who had grown up in the use of corn or wheat bread; ... the few

meagre cattle brought to camp as beef would not afford more than two ounces per man. Frogs

abounded ... and on them chiefly did the light troops subsist ... Even alligator was used by a few;

and very probably, had the army been much longer detained upon that ground, might have rivalled

the frog in the estimation of our epicures."13

In October 1781, after the Siege of Yorktown, Virginia, the Pennsylvania regiments were sent to

South Carolina, where the British still held the port of Charleston. Lieutenant John Bell Tilden's

journal details the food they consumed: "January 4. [1782] - Arrive at headquarters Round O

[Savannah, South Carolina] at noon ... Five hundred and nine miles since we left Richmond,"

Virginia. "January 9. - Make an addition to our hut; very bad off for want of furniture. Obliged to

eat rice; have a pretty good dish of Coffee for supper." "January 13. - Move up two miles from ye

[Stono] river, lay in ye woods all day and eat potatoes. Our boys [servants] not coming down with

our bedclothes, we pass the night horridly, it dropping a little rain and very cold." "January 14. -

Our boys bring down something to eat and we remain on our ground 'till sunset when we march to

Stono ferry, 2 miles, and lay in the woods without any covering ..." "January 17. - March ... to

Drayton's Cow Pens ... ye mess [i.e., the officers who ate together] take possession of ye dwelling

house and live pretty tolerably." "January 19. - Awakened this morning by a great noise which

proved to be a number of negroes belonging to the farm preparing rice. Dressed my self and went to

the barn, where I saw a sight entirely new to me; thirty negroes male and female naked, some

shelling the rice, others pounding and cleaning it." "February 9. - March at daylight, 12 miles

through mud and water up to our knees, and return a different road, equally as bad, to the ground we

left this morning. Draw a piece of beef and some rice; broiled my meat on a stick and with difficulty

boiled the rice."14

Rice posed a problem for northern troops. Lieutenant William McDowell of Pennsylvania wrote

on 8 January 1782, "Now our living was entirely on poor beef and rice." On the 11th another

lieutenant, William Feltman, noted, "This day we were under the disagreeable necessity of drawing

all rice instead of Indian Meal, and it is a very poor substitute for bread ... The Carolinians say they

are fonder of rice bread than they are of the best wheat." (Feltman confessed that "it is a mystery to

see how to make it into bread.") On the same day Lieutenant McDowell dined at "the Governor's

table" where he ate "bread made of rice, which was the first I ever eat, it was made thin like

buckwheat cakes, some in round balls and fry'd in a pan with some fat."15

Soldiers probably considered rice more suitable for impoverished whites and slaves, and the food

could not have gained in their estimation, as when Lieutenant Feltman wrote on 31 December 1781,

"Yesterday evening we drew rice for forage for our horses." (Luigi Castiglioni, who travelled

through the United States from 1785 to 1787, corroborated soldier's descriptions of rice and its use

in Georgia and the Carolinas. "Ordinarily, edible rice is given no other preparation except to boil it

in water and take it this way to the table, where it is mixed with fresh butter. In the country it is used

boiled in this manner at lunch and dinner. However, certain thin cakes are also made of it, which are

served in the morning with tea or coffee, and it is also prepared in many other ways. The cracked

rice serves as food for the negroes ... inasmuch as there is a shortage of fodder for horses in this

region, they are given rice straw instead of hay and rice itself with the husks still on instead of

oats.")16

In the spring of 1782, the food's unsuitability played a small part in a mutiny. Some members of

Greene's army, feeling that the government reneged on the conditions upon which they had enlisted,

including sufficient and edible rations, wore placards in camp asking, "Can soldiers do their duty if

clad in rags and fed on rice?" Continental troops were a long-suffering lot, but there were some

things they would not tolerate.17

(My thanks to Charles L. LeCount for providing information on the Carolina campaigns and

southern rice culture.)

Small sheet–iron mess kettle, turned bowl, and rations of beef, rice, dried peas, and

chocolate. Also pictured are a camp hatchet and soldier’s brimmed wool hat.

Soldiers of Capt. Andrew Fitch’s company, 4th Connecticut Regiment, in their mess groups preparing

an evening meal. (Model Company event, Putnam Park, Redding, Ct., 25 to 27 September 2009.

Photograph courtesy of the Model Company. http://www.fortticonderoga.org/learn/re-

enactors/model_company

For more on Revolutionary soldiers’ food see:

"`To the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet.’: Soldiers' Food and Cooking in the War

for Independence” "The manner of messing and living together": Continental Army Mess Groups

“Who shall have this?”: Food Distribution

"A hard game ...": Continental Army Cooks

“On with Kittle, to make some hasty Pudding …”: How a "Continental Devil" Broke His Fast

1. The Army Ration and Cooking Methods.

2. Eating Utensils.

3. The Morning Meal.

4. Other Likely Breakfast Fare.

Afterward

"We had our cooking utensils ... to carry in our hands.": Continental Army Cooking and Eating Gear, and

Camp Kitchens, 1775-1782

http://www.scribd.com/doc/129368664/To-the-hungry-soul-every-bitter-thing-is-sweet-Soldiers-Food-

and-Cooking-in-the-War-for-Independence

“`Six of our regt lived together …’: Mess Groups, Carrying Food … (and a Little Bit of Tongue) in the

Armies of the Revolution” Mess Groups

Food Distribution

Carrying Food

The Burden of Rations

And … Tongue

http://revwar75.com/library/rees/pdfs/tongue.pdf

"`A disgusting incumbrance to the troops': More on Kettle Bags and Carts in the Continental Army,

1781," The Brigade Dispatch, vol. XXVIII, no. 3 (Autumn 1998), 12-13.

http://revwar75.com/library/rees/encumberance.htm

“`Properly fixed upon the Men’: Linen Bags for Camp Kettles,” The Brigade Dispatch, vol. XXVII, no. 3

(Autumn 1997), 2-5. http://revwar75.com/library/rees/kettlebags.htm

"`As many fireplaces as you have tents ...': Earthen Camp Kitchens”: Part I. "`Kitchens sunk ... for the soldiers to Cook in.': The History of Cooking

Excavations and Their Use in North America"

Part II. Complete 1762 Kitchen Description and Winter Covering for Field Kitchens

Part III. "`Ordered to begin work ...': Digging a Field Kitchen"

http://revwar75.com/library/rees/kitchen.htm

“The common necessaries of life …” A Revolutionary Soldier’s Wooden Bowl,” including, “’Left sick on

the Road’: An Attempt to Identify the Soldier Left at the Paxson Home, ‘Rolling Green,’ June 1778.”)

http://www.scribd.com/doc/123562525/%E2%80%9CThe-common-necessaries-of-life-

%E2%80%A6%E2%80%9D-A-Revolutionary-Soldier%E2%80%99s-Wooden-Bowl

“`A capital dish …’: Revolutionary Soldiers and Chocolate,” Brigade Dispatch, vol. XXXVIII, no. 3

(Autumn 2008), 2-17.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/131353233/%E2%80%9CA-capital-dish-%E2%80%A6-

Revolutionary-Soldiers-and-Chocolate

"’Give us day by day our daily bread.’: Continental Army Bread, Ovens, and Bakers”

http://www.scribd.com/doc/125174710/Give-us-day-by-day-our-daily-bread-Continental-Army-

Bread-Ovens-and-Bakers

Compiled and updated for:

“’Their best wheaten bread, pies, and puddings…,’: An Historic Baking Symposium,”

Fort Lee Historic Park, N.J., 28 August 2010 (Hosted by Deborah's Pantry) Contents

“Waste and bad management …” : Regulating Baking

"Hard enough to break the teeth of a rat.": Biscuit in the Armies of the Revolution

“A bake–house was built in eleven days …”: Contemporary Baking Operations and Army Masonry Ovens

“Seeing that the Ovens may be done right …”: Bake Oven Designs

“The mask is being raised!!”: Early–War Iron Ovens, and a Yorktown Campaign Bakery

“Hands are most wanted to bake bread for the Soldiers …": The Superintendent's Bakers

"The essential service he rendered to the army ...": Christopher Ludwick, Superintendent of Bakers

Addendum: Hard Biscuit Recipes

Endnotes

1. Mark M. Boatner, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution (New York, N.Y., 1966), pp. 1072-

1076. Map of the Indian villages in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York, 1760-1794, Lester J.

Cappon, ed., Atlas of Early American History - The Revolutionary Era 1760-1790 (Princeton, N.J.,

1976), p. 21 (henceforth cited as Cappon, Atlas of Early American History). John U. Rees, "'... the

multitude of women': An Examination of the Numbers of Camp Followers with the Continental

Army", The Brigade Dispatch, (Three parts) XXIII, 4 (Autumn 1992); XXIV, 1 (Winter 1993);

XXIV, 2 (Spring 1993); XXIII, 4, p. 3 (henceforth cited as Rees, "... the multitude of women").

2. Israel Shreve to his wife, 7 September 1779, Israel Shreve Papers, Buxton Collection, Prescott

Memorial Library, Louisiana Tech University.

3. General orders, 11 July, 25 July, 10 August 1779, Order Book of Lt. Col. Francis Barber, 26 May

1779 to 6 September 1779, Louise Welles Murray, ed., Notes from Craft Collection in Tioga Point

Museum on the Sullivan Expedition of 1779, (Athens, Pa., 1929), pp. 31, 45, 63.

4. General orders, 27 August 1779, Orderly book of Col. Oliver Spencer's Regt., 27 July 1779 - 28

September 1779, Early American Orderly Books, 1748-1817, Collections of the New York

Historical Society, microfilm edition (Woodbridge, N.J., 1977), reel 9, item 93, p. 114, 120-123

(henceforth cited as Early American Orderly Books). Journal of Lt. Col. Adam Hubley, Journals of

the Military Expedition of Major General John Sullivan Against the Six Nations of Indians in 1779

(Glendale, N.Y., 1970), pp. 156-157 (henceforth cited as Journals of Sullivan's Campaign). For a

discussion of the soldiers' and settlers' animosity towards Native Americans and Loyalists see,

Gregory T. Knouff, "'An Arduous Service': The Pennsylvania Backcountry Soldiers' Revolution",

Pennsylvania History, Vol. 61, No. 1 (January 1994), pp. 55, 56-69.

5. Journal of Lieut. William Barton, New Jersey Regt., and Journal of Lt. Col. Adam Hubley, 11th

Pennsylvania Regt., Journals of Sullivan's Campaign, pp. 7, 154. Journal of Major Jeremiah Fogg,

Poor's New Hampshire Regt. ibid., p. 94.

6. Journal of Dr. Jabez Campfield, ibid., p. 60.

7. Journal of Major Jeremiah Fogg, ibid., p. 97.

8. Christopher Ward, The War of the Revolution (New York, N.Y., 1952), pp. 695-736.

9. Ibid., pp. 695-736.

10. Dan L. Morrill, Southern Campaigns of the American Revolution (Baltimore, Md., 1993), p. 86

(henceforth cited as Morrill, Southern Campaigns).

11. Ibid., p. 88. Regimental orders, 8 December 1778, The Orderly Book of the First Pennsylvania

Regiment. Col. James Chambers. July 26, 1778 - December 6, 1778, John B. Linn and William H.

Egle, eds., Pennsylvania Archives, 2nd Series, vol. XI (Harrisburg, Pa., 1880), p. 389. General

orders, 12 August 1782, Orderly Book of Lt. Col. Ebenezer Stout's 2nd Massachusetts Regiment, 7

August - 29 August 1782, Early American Orderly Books, reel 16, item 161.

12. Morrill, Southern Campaigns, p. 92.

13. Mark M. Boatner III, Encyclopedia of the American Revolution (New York, N.Y., 1966) p. 455.

John S. Pancake, This Destructive War: The British Campaign in the Carolinas 1780-1782

(University, Al., 1985), p. 215.

14. "Extracts From the Journal of Lieutenant John Bell Tilden, Second Pennsylvania Line, 1781-

1782.", Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. vol. 19 (1895), pp. 218-221. Map of the

Lower South, 1775, Cappon, Atlas of Early American History, p. 6.

15. "Journal of Lieut. William McDowell of the First Penn'a. Regiment, in the Southern Campaign.

1781-1782", John Blair Linn and William H. Egle, Pennsylvania in the War of the Revolution,

Battalions and Line 1775-1783, vol. II (Harrisburg, Pa., 1880), p. 311. Lieutenant William

Feltman's account, "Diary of the Pennsylvania Line. May 26, 1781 - April 25, 1782", ibid., p. 713.

16. Feltman's account, "Diary of the Pennsylvania Line", ibid., p. 710. Antonio Pace, ed. and trans.,

Luigi Castiglioni's Viaggio: Travels in the United States of North America 1785-87 (Syracuse,

N.Y., 1983), pp. 169-170.

17. Charles Patrick Neimeyer, America Goes to War: A Social History of the Continental Army

(New York and London, 1996), p. 154.