News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-01-08
DIFFICULT DINING.
REMARKABLE CHRISTMAS DINNER THAT
THREE PRISONERS OF WAR ENJOYED,

John will not agree with you," turn
ing toward her husband; she insists
that he helped to cook and eat dinner
which tasted better than any ever pre-
pared.
The guests joined in requesting the
husband to tell the story of that dinner,
and after they had moved to the sitting
room and were comfortably seated,
John began
"On the last Thursday of November,
1864, three of Us sat in shebang in the
prison stockade at Florence, South Car
olina. ShebaDg was the prison word
for dwelling constructed in this way :
An excavation about seven feet nlengtb,
six feet in breadth, and two feet in
depth was made. Tie earth taken out
was banked up perpendicularly on the
edge of the excavation inside; outside
the surface was sIoped. Two crotched
sticks driven firmly into the ground, a
ridge pole laid in the crotches. army
blankets stretched over the ridge pole
and fastened to the earth slope with
wooden pins, mud chimney at one end
and hole for a door at the other finished
the building.
1t was in the afternoon. We had
received our daily rations-about three
tablespoonfuls of gookas, or cow-peas,
and little over pint of corn meal
had cooked and eaten them. and were
sitting on the ground floor of the she
bang, our eyes istlessly turned toward
rude bas-relief upon the chimney,
which was meant to represent human
figure. In a moment of art enthuaiasm
one of us, q Kentucky cavalry man, had
fashioned it when the chimney was put
up. 1t would have made tobac 'onist's
Indian split its wooden sides with laugh
ter. But our thoughts were as shallow
as our faces.
''After time the Iowa man spoke:
Boys, it must be Thanksgiving day at
home, and my folks are just through
their dinner. don't believe they cared
naucn Tor IL
: 1--WE were silent for awhile. I was
the first to speak:
"FWell, boys, we mustn't think about
home, or any one there. We all know
what that means if we keep it up-death
and place in the trench. 1 walt my
bones laid in New York, wher I was
born. I know we have had a mean
Thanksgiving dinner. and it does seem
as though we had to look around a little
to find something to be thankful for; but
we are alive yet, and we may yet get
home after all. Thanksgiving's gone,
but if we live until Christmas we can
have dinner, and won't be hungry af.
ter we have eaten it.
"'How?' inquired my two comrades,
eagerly.
"'We won't feel much hungrier than
we do now if we each put by spoonful
of meal and a spoonful of gookas every
day from now until Christmas, and
think our saving will make a dinner
that viii be satisfying
''After some discussion as to the rela-
tive strength of our appetite and our
wills, it was decided to lay by our six
spoonfuls OF food every day, all agreeing
that the spoonfuls should not be heaped,
but even. I dreamed that night of
feasting on all good things in the way OF
food that I had ever heard of or eaten.
The next morning we made two bags of
generous size. In the afternoon when
our rations came, we put three spoon
fuls of gookas in one bag and three
spoonfuls of meal in the other. Every
succeeding day the bags received their
portion, and were felt of affectionately,
to find how much they contained.
Christmas morning, 1864, after being
long waited for, came at last. The
faint light of the morning found us STIR
ring. We had boarded our fuel, saving
little every day. 1t was not an easy
thing to do, for the daily fuel rations of
ninety men was three sticks of pine cord
wood of average size. To this supply
we had added by picking up every
splinter as large as toothpick and every
chip as large as a ten-cent piece that we
discovered in our wanderings about the
stockade.
The occupants of shebang near our
own, in addition to the usual cooking
utensils-quart bottles and tn. or sheet
iron pans-possessed a gunboat. This
was piece of old roofing tin, made into
pan more than FOOT long and about
six inches wide and deep. The corners
where the tin had been cut off or turned
were soIdered with corn meal. It was
not slightly, but was convenient. We
bad bargained before for the use of this
gunboat.
"Fhe fire was lighted. The gookas
had been soaked the night before. and
were now put in the gunboat covered
with water, and the gunboat was set
over the fire upon two mud bricks made
for the occasion. A watched pot may
not boil, but watched gunboat did,
for three heads bent. forward and six
eyes gazed intently upon the contents
of the vessel over the fire, until the wa
ter was bubbling and the peas dancing
in and out among the bubbles.
cat short intervals few peas were
taken out in a spoon and allowed to
cool, and pea was tasted by each of
us and Judgment given as to its being
done. Finally we were unanimous in
the opinion that the gookas were cooked
enough. Meal was brought forth and
stirred in, and the pudding was allowed
to remain on the fire until it had thick
ened, SO that there was danger of its be-
ing scorched. The peas were dark
skinned; and had given the pudding a
pu~piish hue. The gunboat was lifted
off and set on the ground to cool. While
we we're waiting the fire was renewed
Co.. meal saved for the purpose was put
in a pan and thoroughly dried and