Campfires and Cornmeal

As I read literature and visit stores for backpacking gear information in preparation for my Appalachian Trail trek this August, I think of the many letters and journals of Civil War soldiers I have read, and I am awed. I have a library of 500 Civil War books that I began purchasing during the Civil War Centennial of the early 1960s. When I read accounts of soldiers of the Civil War period, I marvel at their ability to withstand punishing weather, long marches, inadequate gear, and poor food.

Today's quest for the best high-tech gear reveals down sleeping bags, leakproof tents, taut backpacks, waterproof boots, clothing made of lightweight, breathable material, ultralight titanium cookware and prepackaged meals, and special filters for purifying water.

Civl War era soldiers, like this Confederate prisoner photographed at Gettysburg after the great battle there, often had only the clothes on their backs, which were filthy, patched-up, wool or cotton uniforms that reeked strongly of campfire smoke. Shoes and boots were plain leather, which wore out frequently on long marches and had to be taken off when fording a stream. Bedding consisted of a thin wool blanket and maybe a weatherproofed ground cover. Tents, when available, were made of canvas that usually leaked.

Food often consisted of greasy meat, hard crackers, moldy cornmeal, and maybe some berries or apples picked while on the march. No portable stoves for these guys; cooking was done over an open fire in heavy metal cookware blackened from flames and not thoroughly washed after the last use. Water from streams and rivers was often so contaminated that it caused disease, even death. Add to all this a heavy musket and a good load of paper-wrapped gunpowder and lead bullets for ammunition, and you have a picture of a sunbronzed, weathered veteran soldier, a truly hardcore individual who may not have seen his family for two years or more and who constantly faced combat and disease.

So, I'll continue acquiring my gear and looking forward to the Appalachian Trail. Bears, snakes, and insects will be threats, but I'll feel pampered compared to camping conditions endured by soldiers of yesteryear. But I'll have to put up with Cassandra.