Chow Time!

[gary]

in the Vicksburg City Jail. Some boys in blue were captured and were sent to the Vicksburg City Jail. Their food was prepared by a black cook.

Upon reaching Vicksburg we were placed in the city jail, an old two story brick bulding situated in the heart of the city near the Court House. The building was enclosed by a brick wall about twelve feet in height, the enclosure containing about half an acre. In one corner of the yard was built a small brick cook house, used in cooking the food for the inmates of the jail. The cook was a great big buck Negro weighing about 250 pounds, and as important as a chef at Delmonicos in New York City, but I don't think it required as much skill to prepare a meal in the prison cook house as it would be in the above named place, as about all he had to cook was corn meal, corn cob, and all ground together, and stirred up with water, which was our regular fare... We received two meals a day at this place, breakfast at 9 a.m., supper at 4 p.m., no change of diet which consisted of a chunk of the aforesaid corn bread, pieces about four inches square. It was laughable to see our old d____y cook after having prepared our corn bread. He would step outside of the cook house door and yell, "Hellow dar yo pore white trash, fall in two ranks and come and done git yoah grub." If one of the boys should happen to get a little out of line he would yell out, "you get back in line Sah imejately sah." After they had formed ranks to suit him and we would march past and receive our rations.

Taken from pages 110-112 of On the Skirmish Line Behind a Friendly Tree: The Civil War Memoirs of William Royal Oake, 26th Iowa Volunteers. Edited by Stacy Dale Allen.

Allen is a Park Ranger at Shiloh National Battlefield Park. Recommended by Terrence Winschel (Vicksburg NBP) to edit this book, he did an outstanding job and there are hundreds of endnotes in the book. I bought my copy, but you can try inter-library loan.