Interesting information about oysters in this letter, written by John R. North, at the time a Sergeant in Company B, 16th Georgia Infantry. The letter is dated Camp Bryan, Va [Yorktown], October 22, 1861:
.....We are encamped in a clover field and are surrounded by a forest full of ripe chestnuts, chinquepins, summer grapes, muscadines, and walnuts. Wild turkeys are heard around our camp every morning. Cobb's Legion is encamped three miles from us, towards Newport News. We have oysters here in the greatest abundance. The men are generally very fond of them. They go down to the creek a few hundred yards off, and to the river about a half a mile distant, and gather their haversacks full, and bring them back to shell at their leisure. The first day we were here [October 20, 1861] , it was a novel sight to see men huddled about in squads all over the encampment, cracking oysters. They prepare them in various ways. Some roast them in the shell, others make soup of them; some season them and eat them raw, others mix them in cornmeal dough and fry the mixture..... Source: Southern Banner, Nov. 6, 1861, page 1.
John R. North b. 1836 had been an editor for the Athens, GA Southern Banner prior to his enlistment. He enlisted June 14, 1861. On September 14, 1862, the 16th Georgia was among the regiments sent to Crampton's Gap (South Mountain) to dispute the advance of the Union VI Corp. 52 members of the regiment were killed/mortally wounded in the engagement that day. John R. North, age 26, was among those killed.