This comes from "My Days and Nights on the Battlefield" by Charles Carleton Coffin, s Civil War era journalist.
"but there is activity everywhere. Drums are beating, men assembling, soldiers marching,and hastening on in regiments. They go into camp and sleep on the ground, wrapped in their blankets. It is a new life. They have no napkins, no table-cloths at breakfast, dinner, or supper, no china plates or silver forks. Each soldier has his tin plate and cup, and makes a hearty meal of beef and bread. It is hard-baked bread They call it hard-tack, because it might be tacked upon the roof of a house instead of shingles. They also have Cincinnati chicken. At home they called it pork; fowls are scarce and pork is plenty in camp, so they make believe it is chicken!
There is drilling by squads, companies, battalions, and by regiments. Some stand guard around the camp...
"but there is activity everywhere. Drums are beating, men assembling, soldiers marching,and hastening on in regiments. They go into camp and sleep on the ground, wrapped in their blankets. It is a new life. They have no napkins, no table-cloths at breakfast, dinner, or supper, no china plates or silver forks. Each soldier has his tin plate and cup, and makes a hearty meal of beef and bread. It is hard-baked bread They call it hard-tack, because it might be tacked upon the roof of a house instead of shingles. They also have Cincinnati chicken. At home they called it pork; fowls are scarce and pork is plenty in camp, so they make believe it is chicken!
There is drilling by squads, companies, battalions, and by regiments. Some stand guard around the camp...
Really interesting site! I first noticed the Camp Cameron signage on a run through the neighborhood a while back, but didn't have time to stop.
ReplyDeleteRecently, I wrote a post on the Seven Hills of Somerville and your site was really helpful in my research on Clarendon Hill and Camp Cameron.
https://bouseblog.wordpress.com/2015/06/05/seven-hills-park/