Peas as Rations

[DaveBrt]

What type of peas were meant when the Confederate army issued peas as rations?

Peas were shipped in 120# sacks. In 1864, the ration items being hurried forward to Richmond were:
bacon, corn, peas and sorghum (flour would have also been on the list, but there was little of it to ship). Imported pickled beef and pork were suggested as alternatives to bacon since they would be shipped in containers too big to steal and too hard to get into for small quantity theft. Bacon was shipped in boxes or in bulk.

 

[bdtex]

What type of peas were meant when the Confederate army issued peas as rations?

I don't know. I remember my guide at Vicksburg telling me that by the end of the siege,Confederate rations were down to a few spoonfuls of peas a day per person.

 

[donna]

They were probably dried split peas. They don't have to be soaked and take shorter time to cook.

 

[redbob]

The Union prisoners at Cahaba Prison saw the issuance of cowpeas (aka blackeyed peas) as a treat even though they thought that even the cows wouldn't eat them.

 

[RobertP]

I don't know. I remember my guide at Vicksburg telling me that by the end of the siege,Confederate rations were down to a few spoonfuls of peas a day per person.

I've posted this a couple of times before but will again. My great grandfather and his brother were in the 36th Miss. at Vicksburg, the regiment defending the Stockade Redan during the assaults of May 19 & 22, later in June moved south to the right of the 3rd Louisiana Redan. He told both his daughter (grandmother) and my father that at the end of the siege they were down to 2-3 teaspoons of peas and one of sugar per day.