There is a fundamental principle that underlies the development of domestic breeds. Cattle, hogs, chickens & Guinea pigs were developed to fulfill needs for certain products.
In the 19th Century, there were none of the petroleum based products we take for granted. Hogs were bred to produce lard, for example. It is a vital ingredient in all period cookbooks. Tallow was another type of fat with many uses.
There were no breeds of cattle in the 1860's that produced the kind of well marbled steaks & roasts that fill supermarket coolers today. A diary cow has to bring a calf to term regularly in order to produce milk. That created the stock of young cattle raised for meat.
The Durham breed was introduced into the US from England on the early 1800's. Commonly referred to as shorthorns, they had fleshier bodies than previous breeds. They were also good milk producers. Shorthorns became the dominant domestic breed in the Eastern US.
In the 1500's, Spanish explorers & conquistadores introduced cattle to North America. By 1860 a distinctive breed of longhorn cattle had adapted to what is now Mexico & the Southwestern US.
Unlike their docile short horned cousins, longhorns were wiley, adaptable & dangerous to be around. Large herds ranged freely in Texas. Longhorns were valued for their tallow, horns & hides, not meat or milk products.
In his 3 volume history of the Vicksburg campaign, Ed Bearss documented a herd of Texas longhorns that swam the Mississippi & came ashore near Vicksburg. What would seem a great blessing was, in fact, a source of consternation.
Pemberton's QM's were faced with a daunting challenge. There simply was not enough pasturage in Western Mississippi to graze that many cattle. They were free range cattle & would not touch dry fodder. There was nowhere near enough salt available to process the meat, & valuable hides. (Fresh hides are scraped clean, soaked in brine (heavily salted water.) then folded up & packed in salt for transport to a tannery.
You can imagine the mix of alarm & exasperation when herds of wild longhorns were issued to Pemberton's regiments. The small, rawboned specimens had walked hundreds of miles. Their meager lean flesh was all but unchewablly tough. At least the soldiers could have make spoons, cups & other handy things from the horns.
Born & bred in cattle country, I am deeply sorry I never got to hear Ed Bearss' telling of the Texican cattle that swam the river. I am sure it would have been wryly amusing in the extreme.
Contrast the Vicksburg herd with the three thousand head that played an unsung part in the Battle of Alatoona.
US Signal Corps Captain McClintock kept the Kennesaw Mountain Station logbook with the famous exchanges between Sherman & general Gross at Alatoona. In between those stirring messages is something of a most surprising nature.
Off to the west of Hood's hungry infantry were reenlisted regiments returning from home leave. At Chattanooga, they had been assigned escort duty for a herd of several thousand shorthorn cattle. From his mountain airy Sherman kept the herd safely away from Hood's hungry men using flags & torches.
Not only was Hood's infantry denied a million rations of hardtack at Alatoona, they had no fresh beef to fry it up with, either.
NOTE:: There are pages of detailed information on cattle in 1860 available from the US Census.
"Agriculture of the United States in 1860, introduction." at <census,gov> breaks down cattle, milk & cheese production & other facts by region.
Guinea pigs (cui) are still a staple of the diet of indigenous people in the high Andes Mountains of South America.
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