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Standards of the Columbia Rifles

5.0 RATIONS AND COOKING

5.1 Food
A. Only period-correct foods should be eaten in the campaign camp. Military-issue rations should make up the bulk of these items.
B. In most campaign situations, rations are limited to salt pork (slab bacon), fresh or salt beef, hardtack, coffee and sugar, as these were the government-issue “staples” that the soldier could (usually) count on receiving without resorting to procuring food from outside camp.
C. Depending on the scenario, additional issue items such as beans, peas, fresh or desiccated vegetables, etc. may be used.
D. “Foraged” items should be used only if appropriate to the scenario. These will be limited to those items documented as having been appropriated by Civil War foragers for the scenario portrayed (i.e. apples are not appropriate for a springtime scenario).
E. Soft bread is inappropriate except in scenarios where documentation supports its use.
F. Use of canned goods is improper for campaign scenarios as these items were expensive, heavy, and usually unavailable because sutlers normally disappeared during active campaigning.
G. All foods should be wrapped in period materials such as brown paper, newspaper, rags or cloth bags. Plastic or aluminum packaging is forbidden.
H. Coolers are forbidden.

5.2 Cooking Equipment (“Mess Furniture”)
A. Members are highly encouraged to minimize their cooking equipment. Those mess items that are used should be spread among the men of a mess and shared in common.
B. If used, frying pans shall be made of tin-plated or unfinished stamped steel, riveted with a stamped steel or cast iron handle (skillet bodies of cast iron are not correct for the period). Frying pans should be small enough (8-inch diameter or less) to be comfortably carried while on campaign.
C. Documentation shows that soldiers used canteen halves and tin plates as substitutes for frying pans. Skillets were improvised by using slit branches (preferably of green wood, for lower burning potential) for handles. Carrying a canteen half strapped to the regular canteen seems to be a reenactor practice and is unsupported by historical evidence.
D. Most meat was fried, boiled, or roasted. Members of the Rifles are highly encouraged to use period cooking methods to prepare food. A forked tree branch over the campfire makes an excellent cooking implement for roasting meat.
E. Metal fire grates or spits are not allowed, because soldiers on campaign could not and did not carry such bulky, heavy impediments.
F. Knives, forks, and spoons must be of Civil War style. Civilian forks are generally three-pronged, and utensils should have either bone or wood handles. Federal issue flatware was hot-tinned-dipped, stamped sheet iron; issue forks had four tines. Avoid using any utensil of stainless steel. Nineteenth century utensils are affordable and can usually be found at flea markets, antique stores, and Civil War relic shows. The use of privately purchased knife-spoon-fork combinations is over-represented in the hobby.
G. All Members should have a tin plate or canteen half and Federal-army issue tin cup or improvised boiler. Tin cups have reinforced edges and handle and are assembled with lead-free solder. Tin cups shall not have “crimped” bottoms (i.e. they shall not have a lip similar to a modern can). Tin “billie cups” or “muckets” with a lid and bail is discouraged because its use is not adequately documented.
H. Members are encouraged to add their own wire bails to their tin cups instead of buying them with bails already attached.
I. Members are encouraged to improvise coffee coolers to supplement or replace tin cups. The most popular style of cooler was a simple period vegetable can with a bail wire attached. If used, such cans must have smooth sides and shall not have “crimped” bottoms.
J. Tin plates should be heavy-duty tin-plated sheet metal plates and not deep “pie pans”. There was a multi-piece issue tin-plated “dish” that resembled a pie pan, but it was issued on a very limited basis. Furthermore, the “pie pan” dish sold by sutlers today does not resemble the originals.
K. Stainless steel mess furniture is prohibited.

0.0 Standards Home

1.0 Uniforms

2.0 Blankets, Tentage and Waterproofs

3.0 Accoutrements and Camp Equipage

4.0 Weapons

5.0 Rations and Cooking

6.0 Camping

7.0 Drill