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Richmond (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 12
where the horses were tied, and there, in a pile of manure thrown up behind them, quickly concealed the case, and, at the bugle signal, was prompt to fall into line. Under cover of darkness, the same night, the plunder was taken from the manureheap and carried to a hill in front of the camp, where it was buried in a manner which would not disclose it to the casual traveller, and yet leave it easily accessible to its unlawful possessor, and here he resorted periodically for a fresh supply, until it was exhausted. I have quoted a few of the prices charged by sutlers. Here are a few of the prices paid by people in Richmond, during the latter part of the war, in Confederate money:-- Potatoes $80 a bushel; a chicken $50; shad $50 per pair; beef $15 a pound; bacon $20 a pound; butter $20 a pound; flour $1500 a barrel; meal $140 a bushel; beans $65 a bushel; cow-peas $80 a bushel; hard wood $50 a cord; green pine $80 a cord; and a dollar in gold was worth $100 in Confederate money.
Brandy Station (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 12
d, they were quietly reminded that if they were foolish enough to get caught they must suffer the penalty. But sutlers, like other people, profited by the teachings of experience, and, if they had faults, soon mended them, so that late'in the war they rarely found it necessary to beg deliverance from their friends. The following incident came under my own knowledge in the winter of ‘64, while the Artillery Brigade of the Third Corps lay encamped in the edge of a pine woods near Brandy Station, Virginia. Just in rear of the Tenth Battery camp, near company headquarters, the brigade sutler had erected his tent, and every wagon-load of his supplies passed through this camp under the eyes of any one who cared to take note. A load of this description was thus inspected on a particular occasion, and while the wagon was standing in front of the tent waiting to be unloaded, and without special guarding, an always thirsty veteran stole up to it, seized upon a case of whiskey, said to hav
Washington (United States) (search for this): chapter 12
precision the address that must be put on the cover, in order to have it reach its destination safely. Here is a specimen address:-- Sergeant John J. Smith, Company A., 19th Mass. Regiment, Second brigade, Second Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac, Stevensburg, Va. Care Capt. James Brown. As a matter of fact much of this address was unnecessary, and the box would have arrived just as soon and safely if the address had only included the name, company, and regiment, with Washington, D. C., added, for everything was forwarded from that city to army headquarters, and thence distributed through the army. But the average soldier wanted to make a sure thing of it, and so told the whole story. The boxes sent were usually of good size, often either a shoe-case or a common soap-box, and were rarely if ever less than a peck in capacity. As to the contents, I find on the back of an old envelope a partial list of such articles ordered at some period in the service. I giv
Boston (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 12
tten requisition given by the commander of a regiment or battery. He also sold supplies for officers' messes at cost price, and also to members of the rank and file, if they presented an order signed by a commissioned officer. Towards the end of the war sutlers kept self-raising flour, which they sold in packages of a few pounds. This the men bought quite generally to make into fritters or pancakes. It would have pleased the celebrated four thousand dollar cook at the Parker House, in Boston, could he have seen the men cook these fritters. The mixing was a simple matter, as water was the only addition which the flour required, but the fun was in the turning. A little experience enabled a Cooking pancakes. man to turn them without the aid of a knife, by first giving the fry-pan a little toss upward and forward. This threw the cake out and over, to be caught again the uncooked side down — all in a half-second. But the miscalculations and mishaps experienced in performing thi
Stevensburg (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 12
straightway the average soldier mailed a letter home to mother, father, wife, sister, or brother, setting forth in careful detail what he should like to have sent in a box at the earliest possible moment, and stating with great precision the address that must be put on the cover, in order to have it reach its destination safely. Here is a specimen address:-- Sergeant John J. Smith, Company A., 19th Mass. Regiment, Second brigade, Second Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac, Stevensburg, Va. Care Capt. James Brown. As a matter of fact much of this address was unnecessary, and the box would have arrived just as soon and safely if the address had only included the name, company, and regiment, with Washington, D. C., added, for everything was forwarded from that city to army headquarters, and thence distributed through the army. But the average soldier wanted to make a sure thing of it, and so told the whole story. The boxes sent were usually of good size, often ei
Miles O'Reilly (search for this): chapter 12
old clothes, he at once expressed them back to his home. But, as I have intimated, such men were few in number, and, while war made this class more selfish, yet its community of hardship and danger and suffering developed sympathy and large-hearted generosity among 223 the rank and file generally, and they shared freely with their less fortunate but worthy comrades. Nothing, to my mind, better illustrates the fraternity developed in the army than the following poem, composed by Private Miles O'Reilly:-- We've drank from the same canteen. There are bonds of all sorts in this world of ours, Fetters of friendship and ties of flowers, And true lover's knots, I ween. The girl and the boy are bound by a kiss, But there's never a bond, old friend, like this-- We have drank from the same canteen. We drank from the same canteen. It was sometimes water, and sometimes milk, And sometimes apple-jack fine as silk. But, whatever the tipple has been, We shared it together, in bane or bl
James Brown (search for this): chapter 12
soldier mailed a letter home to mother, father, wife, sister, or brother, setting forth in careful detail what he should like to have sent in a box at the earliest possible moment, and stating with great precision the address that must be put on the cover, in order to have it reach its destination safely. Here is a specimen address:-- Sergeant John J. Smith, Company A., 19th Mass. Regiment, Second brigade, Second Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac, Stevensburg, Va. Care Capt. James Brown. As a matter of fact much of this address was unnecessary, and the box would have arrived just as soon and safely if the address had only included the name, company, and regiment, with Washington, D. C., added, for everything was forwarded from that city to army headquarters, and thence distributed through the army. But the average soldier wanted to make a sure thing of it, and so told the whole story. The boxes sent were usually of good size, often either a shoe-case or a co
John J. Smith (search for this): chapter 12
ecame clear, or even tolerably clear, that the army was likely to make pause in one place for at least two or three weeks, straightway the average soldier mailed a letter home to mother, father, wife, sister, or brother, setting forth in careful detail what he should like to have sent in a box at the earliest possible moment, and stating with great precision the address that must be put on the cover, in order to have it reach its destination safely. Here is a specimen address:-- Sergeant John J. Smith, Company A., 19th Mass. Regiment, Second brigade, Second Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac, Stevensburg, Va. Care Capt. James Brown. As a matter of fact much of this address was unnecessary, and the box would have arrived just as soon and safely if the address had only included the name, company, and regiment, with Washington, D. C., added, for everything was forwarded from that city to army headquarters, and thence distributed through the army. But the average sold
S. B. Sumner (search for this): chapter 12
XI. special rations.--boxes from home.--sutlers. Can we all forget the bills on Sutler's ledger haply yet, Which we feared he would remember, and we hoped he would forget? May we not recall the morning when the foe were threatening harm, And the trouble chiefly bruited was, “The coffee isn't warm? Prof. S. B. Sumner. If there was a red-letter day to be found anywhere in the army life of a soldier,it occurred when he was the recipient of a box sent to him by the dear ones and friends he left to enter the service. Whenever it became clear, or even tolerably clear, that the army was likely to make pause in one place for at least two or three weeks, straightway the average soldier mailed a letter home to mother, father, wife, sister, or brother, setting forth in careful detail what he should like to have sent in a box at the earliest possible moment, and stating with great precision the address that must be put on the cover, in order to have it reach its destination safely. Here
Henry Wilson (search for this): chapter 12
cers' messes. The canning of meats, fruits, and vegetables was then in its infancy, and the prices, which in time of peace were high, by the demands of war were so inflated that the highest of high privates could not aspire to sample them unless he was the child of wealthy parents who kept him supplied with a stock of scrip or greenbacks. It can readily be seen that his thirteen dollars a month (or even sixteen dollar, to which the pay was advanced June 20, 1864, through the efforts of Henry Wilson, who strove hard to make it twenty-one dollars) would not hold out a great while to patronize an army sutler, and hundreds of the soldiers when the paymaster came round had the pleasure of signing away the entire amount due to them, whether two, three, or four months pay, to settle claims of the sutler upon them. Here are a few of his prices as I remember them:-- Butter (warranted to be rancid), one dollar a pound; cheese, fifty cents a pound; condensed milk, seventy-five cents a can
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