The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1898-06-29
SOLDIERS BUDGET.
Soldiers Fare.

81 see the men are growing more or
less about the food" said an old soldier.
"They have always done 30 and they
always will. And there can be no
doubt that with long continued reitera-
ton meals Of pork, hard bread and cof-
fee may at last become distasteful even
to the man OF the hardest stomach;
but worse things can happen, namely,
the absence of pork and 80 on, when
not replaced by something else; and
as for the other side of the question,
why, some of the most delightful meals
/ have ever eaten / have had in the
army; the recollection of them lives
with me wildly still.
GAS understand it, the army ration
is rather more elaborate now than it
was in the civil war times, or the
commissary carries more things which
may under certain conditions be
drawn, and, as l understand it, there is
now no sutler accompanying the troops.
] imagine that, take it altogether, the
ration now is rather better than it was.
We had a sutler, who did not, of course,
go on the march, but found us as soon
as he could, or whenever circumstances
permitted, when we were in camp.
And we used to buy things of him
when he was there or we had the
money or the credit to buy with.
"When we were where we could do
so we used to build ovens and have
fresh bread, just as they do now. Pc.
tatoes were issued as a ration with more
or less frequency, and also sometimes
onions, though do not at this moment
recall that potatoes and onions were
ever issued at the came time. But l
do recall that when we have had pota-
toes as ration and the sutler was in
camp and he had onions, have drawn
my potato, or potatoes, if got more
than one, of the company cook, and
drawn from him also my ration of pork,
and bought onions OF the sutler. From
these ingredients, with little hard
bread added later when it was finished,
l have compounded and personally
cooked an Irish stew that looms up in
my memory as cloud of fragrance that
will never fade. l get the folks where
live now occasionally to make me a
stew just that way, nothing else in it,
no, nothing except potatoes and onions
and strips of pork and crackers. This
may indicate low and depraved gas
tronomic taste on my part. Very likely
so; but if l live to be a million years
old, as trust may, l shall never cease
to like it.
ave were more or less in regions
where oysters abounded. I've often
seen colored people going through the
: company streets carrying oysters in
, buckets and selling them at ten cents a
pint, the pint being measured in an
army tin cup, which held about pint
and a quarter or a pint and half
Under such circumstances, if a man
! liked oysters it was simply question
of whether he had the money to buy
them with, which reminds me that it's
! mighty good thing TO have little
! money in your pocket wherever you
! may be.
"It was the same with sweet potatoes
which l remember we used to cook in 8
camp kettle with just water enough tC
cook 'em and no more, so that they'd
cook dry. And sometimes we used tc
l take sweet potatoes along on picket
and roast them in the fire, if you were
where you could have fire; in camp
we would bury them in the ashes Of the
cooks fire at the end of the company
= street.
81 remember once we had a pos
sum-'possum stew. The first fresh
figs l ever ate got in the army, and
: the same with persimmons and pome-
grantees. Maybe you don't like al
, these things, but they're all good
ways from pork. l don't know just
what the BOYS will get in the Wes
Indies and Philippine Islands, but il
won't be all pork and bareback. New
York Sun.