winter camp, cooks prepared the meals, but on the march the soldiers cooked their own. The Union soldier's marching rations included meat, desiccated vegetables, coffee, and sugar. Confederate rations might include bacon, cornmeal, rice, and molasses. Sometimes there wasn't any food. When that happened, the soldiers foraged in the woods for nuts and berries. If they were near farmland, the farmers' fields and orchards were soon stripped.

If low on time or supplies, Yankee soldiers settled for a meal of hardtack and coffee. Hardtack was the name given to the flour and water biscuits rationed to the soldiers. They were often so stale and hard that the soldiers called them “teeth dullers” and “sheet-iron crackers.” Sometimes they were moldy or infested with bugs (which didn't stop the hungry

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men from eating them!). They ate them plain, broken up in their coffee or soup, or crumbled in cold water and fried in pork fat. They called this last dish “skillygalee.” Coffee was the soldiers' favorite drink and they parceled out their ration of it with care. If they wanted cream for it, they bought it from the sutler or “borrowed” it from a nearby cow.

Rebel soldiers fried coarse cornmeal in bacon grease to make a meal they called “sloosh.” They also made cornmeal biscuits. They didn't have the luxury of real coffee, but made a substitute out of ingredients such as dried apples, peanuts, potatoes, or chicory.

After the meal, the soldiers gathered for a final roll-call. Picket-duty was assigned to some. The rest of the men rolled up in their blankets and fell, exhausted, into deep sleep.