The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1881-08-25
Mule M at as q Delicacy.

D. P. Smith, in the Philadelphia
Times, says: The twenty.first of May,
1862, found Port Hudson invested by an
army of thirty thousand men, while Far.
ragut's fleet guarded the river; but the
garrison of six thousand men, was pro-
visioned for two months, so no alarm
was felt in regard to short rations, as no
one realized that the siege would last
more than few weeks. About the tenth
of June shell-they had been seeking
it for three weeks-found the commits
sary building, set it on fire, and, with it,
destroyed two. Thousand bushels of corn
and the grist mill. Heavy we're the
hearts of the corn bread loving soldiery.
Reduced rations of unground corn and
COW peas were issued for several days, till
the commissary rugged up q portable
grist mill in the depot, banded from the
drying wheels Of an old locomotive
blocked up. The commissary was get
ting so low that the expedient was tried
of mixing it with peas, but it was not a
success, as the peameal would not cook
in the bread, and the peas were issued
as O separate ration. On the nineteenth
of June the mill was in good order, and
pound of meal was issued per day with
liberal ration of peas and half q pound
of bacon.
The supply of fresh beef was exhausted
early in the siege, but the bacon lasted
till about the twenty-fifth of June. A
number of mules remained, which. I'M
worked, had grown fat roaming through
the fields and woods. Some of these
were slaughtered and the meat served
out to all who would take it. The flesh
was rather coarse but tender, with much
of the flavor of venison. 1t was very
fat and the dutch" ovens in which it
was baked would be half-full of yellow
oil. Many Of the soldiers could not eat
the novel food, and lived on corn-meal
and pea diet, To suit these delicate
stomachs the commissary corned Il con-
siderable amount of the choice portions
Of the meat, and announcing that forty
barrels of corned beef had been discov-
cred, issued it to all. The general yer.
dict was that it was an unusually good
article. Though reduced to coarse fare,
those of the garrison who kept we'll did
not suffer for food, for when other ra-
tions failed there were peas, and boiled
they made very tolerable dinner. Beaten
in mortar till the hull was loosened
and then winnowed, they were not far
inferior to English split peas. They
were slowed in bulk ON the floor of an
old church, whose Window the concus-
sion of the bombardment, and, perhaps,
stray shell or two, had shattered into
fragments. In spite of care it was not
uncommon to get splinter OF glass in
the mouth while eating dinner. The
soldiers were accustomed to pea fare
at home, but seasoned with bacon, and
they pronounced it dry eating with glass
as substitute for meat. AS the well
men had to eat ut the breastworks day
and night, the cooking was done by me-
groes and details in sheltered spots in
the rear; but the cooks had no bomb.
proof petitions. and minnie balls and
fragment, of shell fell even in the fires.
One Of tie most serious questions to be
solved by cooks and commissaries was
to provide food for the sick. BY the lat
ter part of June at least fifteen hundred
men were o., the sick and wounded lists.
Boiled COZ. peas and mule steaks we're
not dishes for invalids, but their we'll
comrades devised ways to give them some
delicacies. Bullets were cut up into
shot and wandering bird occasionally
killed, but the bombardment was too
heavy for many such to find their way
into the lines. Rats, however, we're
plentiful, burrowing even under the for
tifications, and many one was served
up in the hospitals as squirrel. On July
9Th, with about weeks rations for the
twenty-five hundred men able to eat still
on hand, Port Hudson was surrendered.