page_title: 33rd Alabama Infantry Regiment
section_title: Rations
hierarchical_section_title: 33rd Alabama Infantry Regiment / Regimental commanders, weapons and equipment / Rations
context_page_description: The 33rd Alabama Infantry Regiment was an infantry unit from Alabama that served in the Confederate States Army during the U.S. Civil War. Recruited from the southeastern counties of Butler, Dale, Coffee, Covington, Russell and Montgomery, it saw extensive service with the Confederate Army of Tennessee before being nearly annihilated at the Battle of Franklin in 1864. Survivors from the regiment would continue to serve until the final capitulation of General Joseph Johnston in North Carolina in 1865.
  In addition to the counties named above, the 33rd Alabama drew recruits from three modern Alabama counties that did not yet exist in 1862: Geneva County, which was then a part of Dale and Coffee counties; Crenshaw County, which would be formed from Covington and other nearby counties after the war; and Houston County, which then formed a part of Dale and Henry Counties.
  Initially assigned to the defense of Confederate forts in Pensacola Bay, Florida, the 33rd was quickly transferred to duty in the Army of Tennessee, where it saw its first significant action at the Battle of Perryville.
context_section_description: Rations issued to the men of the 33rd varied, depending on the time and location. Speaking of the regiment's fare during their early days at Ft. McRee, Matthews writes:
  By the time the regiment reached Corinth, Mississippi, in early 1862, the 33rd was keeping "three days cooked rations in our haversacks of flour or cornbread, crackers, rice, pickled pork, fresh or pickled beef, salt, syrup, sweet potatoes, and drew some soap once a week." "Cattle, hogs, sheep or goats," said Matthews, "were either driven or shipped to us on [railroad] cars, and usually butchered on the banks of a creek into which the offal was dumped." He writes of men wrapping fish they had caught in green leaves, then roasting them in the ashes of their campfires, together with sweet potatoes.
  In Tullahoma, Tennessee, in early 1863, regimental rations now consisted largely of fresh pork; after the hogs had been butchered, their intestines would be left for any soldiers who wished to make chitterlings out of them. Salt (which Matthews says was carried in "small cloth wallets in our haversacks") and coffee were highly prized, with "ghouls" even taking them from the dead. He also mentions "flour, corn meal, rice, some fresh beef, some sweet and Irish potatoes ... and soap" being issued at this time.
  By April 1863, rations consisted of "three-fourths pounds of flour, or corn meal, or rice; meat rations: usually three-fourths pounds grass-fed common beef or a half pound of bacon; and salt, occasionally ..." Soldiers supplemented this through foraging, and while rations were plentiful enough at this point to ignore a dead yearling bull they found on one of their marches, Matthews indicates that "a dead yearling, nor a live one for that matter, would not have remained unskinned long near us a month later." By the start of the Atlanta Campaign, the beef issued to the regiment was of such an inferior quality that "some of the boys said they had to walk across their pen twice to make a shadow."
  While in the field, rations for the 33rd (and other Confederate regiments) were usually cooked at a site located two to five miles in the rear area behind the front lines, where the "regimental skillet wagon" was located. Men were periodically assigned to KP duty here, where they chopped wood, carried water and cooked meals. A regimental teamster was assigned to draw rations daily from the nearest railhead; in May 1864 these consisted of one pound of unbolted corn per man per day, or the same weight of flour made of wheat and cowpeas ground together. In addition, each soldier was allotted a half-pound of bacon, or a pound of fresh beef. When this arrangement proved impractical (such as during combat), uncooked rations were issued, and each soldier was on their own. Unlike modern armies who employ trained cooks, the 33rd made do with troops from the ranks; the quality of their preparations accordingly varied, with Matthews reporting of one cook: "Co. B didn't make [him] any presents."
  During their ill-fated Franklin-Nashville Campaign in late 1864 regimental rations had dwindled to near nothing, with troops forced to scavenge sorghum from farms; one Mess Sergeant was even jokingly advised to throw away his scales, since the men believed that no more rations would ever be issued and the man should not have to haul the unnecessary weight. Local farmers had fled the area, leaving their fields unplanted and their stock scattered or dead.  While cornbread, biscuits and beef were occasionally issued in minute quantities, persimmons were often the only food the 33rd got to eat on a regular basis. When he was wounded at Franklin, Matthews was transferred to a Confederate hospital at Columbia, Tennessee, where he was fed "beef soup, wheat and corn bread, fresh beef often hashed, pork and bacon, Irish potatoes and onions."
  On their final journey from Mississippi to North Carolina in early 1865, the 33rd drew two-days' worth of rations described as: "three-fourths pound of corn meal and a half pound of flour, and three-fourths pound beef and one-third pound of bacon," plus sweet pota
caption: Civil War regimental commissary
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