The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1897-08-01
the LOSS or THE sour.
A Brief Chapter Out of tho Experience of "a
Soldier in tho civil War.


Tho most terrible calamity that ever
befell us, in its way" said the old soldier,
was the loss Of tho soup. When our
regiment first went into service IT had,
furnished by the State for each com
pany, cooking outfit that included
stove. This stove in shape was some
thing like a length cut on the end OF
"A big square timber. | guess II must
have been about four feet long and 4 foot
and half or two feet square. 1t
was made of sheet iron. with nat wrought
iron ribs OH the inside 10 support IT, There
were holes in the top ana hole al one
end for the pipe of one length. We USED
TO set the stove right on the
ground. or, If we were settled in a place
Tor some little time, We would BLOCK II
up in some way, stick on tho pipe, MI
1t up with wood and let her 90.
with this stove we had two cooking
kettles shaped like wash boilers, one
fitting inside the other TO save space III
transportation. one Of these boilers was
for soup or meat or potatoes, the OtheI
for tea or coffee. Then we had some pans
TO fry meat in. The boilers and the pans
and the stovepipo could all be put inside
the stove. When we moved We used 10
pack them away for Transporting On- 1t
made a convenient package to slide in
and out of a wagon, and II didn take
up oVermuch room. Theoretically II was
a good army cooking outfit, and so ii was
practically as long as we could use It,
and IL would have been always If war
could always be carried on methOdlcally;
II we could always have wagons 10 move
things with anC could always be where
we could get new stoves when the old ones
wore out. AS il was. the outnt was a
comfCrI and convenience as long as II
lasted. which think was about three or
four months.
we had already begun 10 use camp
kettles. and there came a time when we
gave up the stove for good II had come
pretty well bunged NJ and played out
in big dents in the top stovepipe ragged
and frayed on Tie enus, the whole Outnt
pretty well bungned up and playd out
and finally one tune, when we broke camp
and marched. We left the old stove be-
hind. Thereafter We carried camp ket-
ties. When We moved, if We had wagon
we nut the kettles in that. n we didn [,
then We nestcd them together and put
a pick handle through the handle Of the
biggest kettle and the COOK took one
end and some other man the other, and
away they Went with the camp Kettles
suspended from the sticks and banging
now and then against the nubs in the
road If the road was too rough, or some
times gust for change, the men would
hoist the stick up and carry II on their
shoulders. When we went into camp
again, or halted, a man would cut couple
of crOtched sticks and drive them into
the ground. We would rest the ends OF
the stick holding the camp Kettles IN
shese crotches and build "a fire under the
kettles. and there you were.
1.-The loss of the soup was one OF the
last incidents that attended the use OF the
stove. For a week or more at that time
we had had nothing 10 eat but pork and
hard bread. and then by an extraordinary
lly fortunate combination of circumstan-
ces the commissary had fresh meat, pO-
tatoes and onions TO issue all on the
same day II was a sort Of spontaneous
| sense of our company. crystalized in the
openly expressed opinions of two or three
OF the men. and by them communicated
| to the cook. that our rations ought TO be
made into a soup. The sutler had that
daV received. too lot of cahbages.
| Some of the men in our company bought
| half a dozen cabbagcs. which they turn
ed into the common stock: the COOK cut
| tnem up ana put them into the soup