Civil War Foodways
Throughout the U.C. Civil War, some confederate armies depended on the labor of slaves and free blacks pressed into service to construct fortifications, transport materiel, tend cavalry horses, and cook mass camp meals. Historically enslaved Africans had learned how to hunt and cook wild game like turkey, raccoon, and rabbit, and also how to cook local plant foods like dandelion greens. Except for the turkey, most Africans had already hunted and cooked corresponding animals in West Africa. Similarly, Africans had also cooked with oysters before arriving in the Chesapeake Bay region and the Carolinas.
