WWII Era Sauerkraut Viennese Recipe

When I was younger, my grandmother made cabbage weekly. Cabbage fried in soy sauce and topped with ketchup or cabbage stuffed with ground beef, cabbage soups, and coleslaw. Always with that particular smell that accompanied a hot, steamy kitchen.

Everytime I see I recipe that calls for cabbage, I remember how much I like it and wonder why I don't cook it. In fact, I couldn't even remember the last time I had cabbage short of coleslaw. It was something that fell off my food radar as an adult. My diet has gotten bland, relying heavily on foods flavored with sugar and salt.  Many fermented foods were dropped so I'm now making a more conscious attempt to add them back in again because they're delicious and provide good health benefits.

Fermented foods can improve digestion, boost immune systems and have inflammatory properties among other benefits. For this recipe, I replaced the sour cream with plain yogurt to really up the probiotic count (okay, so I just happened to have a ton in the fridge I needed to use up.). Any kind of sausage would go good in this but kielbasa is amazing, I used Field Roast Italian with good results. This recipe is from 500 Delicious Dishes from Leftovers, 1940.

WW2 Sauerkraut Viennese 

Ingredients:

- 3 Cups Sauerkraut
- 1 Pound Link Sausage
- 1 Cup Sour Cream
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3 Cloves
- 1 Bay Leaf

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place sausage in a casserole dish and make until browned.

While the sausage is baking, add sauerkraut, bay leaf, and cloves to a large saucepan on medium-high heat. Stir periodically to avoid burning. Remove from heat when the water from the sauerkraut has cooked off.

Remove the bay leaf and the cloves and stir in the sour cream. Serve on a platter, topped with the sausage.

Interview with Deborah Hill, Author of This is the House

I was extremely lucky to get to interview Deborah Hill,  author of the Kingsland series. Her journey is a dream come true for many historical fiction writers. In 1975 her book, This is the House, sold 700,000 copies! It was inspired by a memoir that an ancestor of her husband's family left behind about his experiences in Cape Cod during the 18th and 19th centuries. The interview is below.  

Can you tell us a little about your new book and the series? Who are they for, etc.?

My latest book brings the Kingsland Series into the present. It began just after the Revolution, with This is the House, went on through the Clipper ship and Victorian Era with The House of Kingsley Merrick, and concludes with The Heir, which has just been released. They are historical novels, written for discerning readers who don’t mind a little spice along the way.

 How did you first get into genealogy? 

I’d have to say that genealogy got into me! My husband’s family was quite reticent about their background, perhaps because they were surrounded by it. Portraits, sizeable ones, lined the living room walls. Considering that the family home was a Cape (not too far from the house in my book), they were wedged in pretty tightly. My in-laws were using a lot of the old furnishings that may be glimpsed in The House of Kingsley Merrick; the rest was in the attic of the carriage barn. The local summer drama company often hauled this piece and that away as props. Once the four-poster bed that Mr. and Mrs. Allen used was taken. I never learned where they slept while the play was going on!

What was it about your husband’s family that inspired you so much?

The leading male character of This is the House, set off to trade with Europe at a time when no one had ever seen the American flag. Conveniently for me, he wrote a memoir for his grandchildren, describing his adventures, and did a rather fine job of it, so there it was – I could see for myself what was going on 200+ years ago. The next ancestor of interest started a coach line in Australia when their gold rush began. Public transportation still carries his name. As for The Heir – well, suffice it to say I did meet my husband on a windjammer cruise in Nantucket Sound, the details of which are recounted.  35 years ago I didn’t consider that as being “historical”, but now, apparently, it is.

Why did you choose to write historical fiction instead of a historical narrative?

In the first place, I’d always wanted to be an author. To write “the great American novel” had been my goal since childhood. Elijah’s diary was historical narrative, when you get right down to it, and very valuable to me. But writing such a document is just not my métier.

How much of your books are fiction and how much is fact?

I pride myself on the accuracy of the history in my books. All my characters are fictional, but some are based on actual people. I didn’t invent any of the history (I repeat, any!) though I moved the dates around as far as “Rockford” and “Waterford” are concerned, because I didn’t want to be seeing as writing the history of the real town on Cape Cod that they represent.

Did you have any problems while writing? 

Writing on a deadline was intimidating. I didn’t know how long it would take to develop the plotlines; it isn’t something I can specify ahead of time. This always seemed to confound the editors! But the characters would sometimes do something unexpected that was much more interesting than I had planned, and I always went where they led even if it slowed me down.

The house your ancestors lived in still stands and is now a museum. Did you know about the house prior to writing? Did it change how you portrayed your characters or the house itself?  

I’m afraid your information is incorrect. Elijah’s house isn’t a museum yet, though the Historical Society would like nothing better than to buy it to store (and, I suppose, show) their collection. It’s for sale –

Yes, I knew all about the house. I didn’t have a chance to go into it until a few years ago, but friend of the family had one just like it, and I used that as a template, sticking as close to its design as I could. It made a difference in the story line, so I was careful about that. When I did have a chance to explore it, I was satisfied that I’d done OK.

What advice do you have for people trying to research their ancestry?

I’m afraid I don’t have any advice. All the work had been done for me 100 years ago, when genealogy became important to the women in my husband’s family and their friends. Of course, the whole town was interwoven, so the genealogy of one family filled in a section (or two) of the genealogy of others. They intermarried a lot, which made things much easier.

You have been quite successful as an author. What do you think contributed to your success and what advice would you give to people writing about their family trees?

Timing. This is the House first appeared in 1975, right in time for the bi-centennial. As far as advising people who want to write about their family’s past, I would remind you that this family was not my own, so I could take liberties that directly related people probably wouldn’t do. The joy of fiction!

Thanks Deborah!

Check out her books! 

In addition to the Kingsland Series, she has also made the memoir of her husband's ancestor, Cape Cod mariner, Elijah Cobb, available. 

Civil War Trust Park Day, 2014

 
For everyone who hasn't heard, April 5 will be this year's CWT Park Day. Park Day is an open call for volunteers to help preserve and maintain Civil War battlefields. Park Day has been hosted since 1996 and is a great day to give back while spending the day at a historic site.


This is a great chance to get to spend the day at big Civil War sites like Gettysburg or Antietam but also to visit smaller and little known sites. Each site has its own list of tasks for volunteers. Some of the cemeteries and battlefields just need general landscape maintenance other sites need help with organizing, record keeping or restoration.  

To see the full list of sites that are looking for volunteers: Click here.

To register your site to be included for Park Day: Click here.

I'm always interested in hearing who is going where? Does anyone have any plans for Park Day?

10 Fun History Podcasts to Listen to this Winter

wikigallery.org

 The holidays are coming up which means I'm going to be spending more time than usual cleaning the house. I don't mind cleaning as I always accompany cleaning with an audio book or podcast.

The podcasts below are fun or informative or both. I love podcasts because they are a relaxing way to learn more about things you have heard of but might not know about or understand them in a way that you would like. 









-Stuff You Missed in History Class: This podcast is fun and a good way to fill in some gaps in your history knowledge. Most of the topics are familiar but are a nice refresher.  

-In Our Time: This podcast is by BBC and is broken down into the categories of history, culture and philosophy. The next episode of this podcast will be about the life of Pocahontas. 

-Past & Present: This is Colonial Williamsburg's podcast and focuses on the Colonial period. 

- Backstory Radio: This podcast focuses on current events placed in their historical context.

-Journal of American History Podcast: Interviews with the authors in the publication.

-History According to Bob: History according to a history teacher of 29 years.

-European Civilization from the Renaissance to the Present: A course from Berkley, You can also follow along with the readings. Not so much a podcast but still an interesting set of lectures.

-The China history Podcast: 5,000 years of Chinese culture.

-Military History Podcast: "Bringing you the strangest anecdotes, innovative technology, and most significant events of Military History." 

-The Egyptian History Podcast: Only published once a month, this podcast focuses on ancient Egypt.

Are there any good ones I missed? I know I'm missing a few popular ones. What podcasts do you listen to?

Myths in History: Why Do Myths Prevail?

Last week, I wrote a post entitled "Legends Never Die," which discussed the various lies or myths that I hear on a regular basis at the Colonial era site I work at. If you didn't read that one head on over to that post.






As someone who spends most of her time researching and reading the latest research in my field, I thought that visitors would be happy to be receiving the most up-to-date research. I was very wrong.

I've spent a lot of time wondering why history myths prevail. There are many myths in history that captivate the minds of many and they are terribly hard to kill. We typically learn these myths as children: "George Washington had wooden teeth."

 In music, they call a song that prevails, regardless of it's quality, an "earworm." Some common earworms include the I Dream of Jeanie theme song or anything by pop sensation, Ke$ha. Likewise history's "yesteryear worms" are wriggly, little buggers that stick in minds and are  a terrible thing to try and get rid of.

Reasons Myths Prevail:

- Habit: Some of these things are told just as a force of habit and we all know how hard it is to change habits. Also many of these myths are passed around from person to person.

- Good Stories: Myths typically make interesting stories or answer the pesky question "why" when it would otherwise go unanswered. People love a good story and myths give it to them.

- Confirmation: People like to hear reaffirmation for their beliefs about a time period and many myths cater to this. People like to hear just how horrible it was in the past because it fits with their view of the past. There are many myths that center around poor living conditions in the past.

- Superiority: Some myths make the teller feel more intelligent. Many myths make the teller feel intelligent because they know something clever that their peers don't know. Likewise, people also like to hear about how "backwards" people were in the past.

As history lovers, it's our job to dispel these false impressions of the past.  When confronted with a person asking about or telling a myth, the best course of action is typically to correct them in a polite manner such as "Some people theorize that this is true, but here is a reason it is probably not true," or " Historians believed that previously but new research has suggested that 'X' is not the case."

What myths have you been hearing lately in history?

Legends Never Die: Myths in History

I told a lie at work.  A big, big lie and I am ashamed.

A few weeks ago I was at work when I had a group of school students who had been on a lot of field trips to historical sites. The students were very knowledgeable and the teachers had been coming to our site for a long time.

I was giving a shortened version of the tour I had learned when I first started working there. Our house tour had been removed from the programs for some updating but this group was getting a shortened tour with the questionable material removed. I finished up the first room of the tour of the house, the young, pretty blonde teacher looked at me with excitement in her eyes and raised her hand.

 "Aren't you going to show them the bed?" she asked, "You know, sleep tight?"

There it was. It was one of those lies I found out I had been telling. It was told to me when I first started working and it was something I had heard and still hear at multiple historical sites.  You know the lie: The phrase "Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite" came from the colonial period where bedbugs were prevalent and people slept on beds held together with ropes.

Caught in an awkward place, between admitting the previous tours she had experienced at the farm had been very outdated and telling 25 children a lie, I really wanted to tell the lie. So I did, with the cop out of "some people think" said so extremely fast that I doubt anyone could discern it from the rest of the sentence.

I feel bad but it could have been worse. What is one lie?

I  went to lunch in the kitchen and drank out of a glass bottomed pewter tankard (designed to prevent conniving navy recruiters from slipping me the king's shilling and insist I joined up) and I toasted my bread over the fire in my toaster, (so called because the apparatus is designed to be stirred with your toe once one side is done cooking) while making sure I didn't get too close to the fire because the leading cause of death for women in colonial times was catching on fire or dying from burns.

I told about how ingenious colonialists were: Did you know the fashionable tri-cornered hats  were regular hats but the soldiers folded the sides up to prevent them from knocking them off their heads with their rifles? And that tavern pipes were made with long handles so that after each use men could break off the tip, preventing the spread of bacteria?

But then again, the colonists were also so backwards they thought tomatoes were poisonous, water would kill them, and they put wax makeup on their faces so thick they had to use screens to protect their makeup from melting. Additionally, people were shorter back then which is why their beds and doorways are so small.

They were also frugal which is why they had men pose with one hand in their coats when posing for portraits because hands are difficult to paint so artists charged more to paint them and people didn't build closets into their house to avoid the closet tax which stated that closets were considered rooms and would be taxed accordingly.     

And I'd only be lying if I said that visitors didn't say these things and enthusiastically encourage me to say these things on my tours.  

Help a Historic House Museum!

Historic Cherry Hill  in Albany New York is in danger of foreclosing if they don't raise $152,000 by the end of July.

The historic house was built in 1789 and was home to 5 generations of hoarding Van Rensselaers. The collection if items collected by the family over time include over 3,000 photographs, 7,000 textiles, 20,000 objects, 30,000 manuscript among other things. It is a naturally accumulated time capsule of the family and the time periods in which they lived. In 1963, the last remaining member of the family died and the house became a museum.

The family members have interesting stories of their own. Besides the fact that they rarely threw anything out over 5 generations, two of the early family members living in the house were missionaries in China and brought back souvenirs that are still in the house and in 1827, there was also a murder in the house when the wife of John Whipple, conspired with Jesse Strang to murder her husband. After the deed, Strang was convicted but his wife was not charged. 

The house holds mundane objects like toothbrushes but also very expensive, rare items too. There is also cross documentation of articles such as photos of the certain pieces of furniture throughout the years and diaries that mention some of the pieces. It is interesting to note that in the Colonial Revival style in the early 1900s, the house re-purposed some of the early furniture kept in the house from the colonial period. 

Please donate to help save this historic house and collection. If you can not donate, please share the link with your friends to get the word out.

New History Based Reality Show?

Today's laugh comes to us by way of Michael Lynch at Past in the Present via the American Historical Association.


















There is an open casting call for a history based reality show in Washington DC. The call reads as below:

Are you a curious person, and obsessed with history? Can you recite facts inside and out, and name-drop (and even date-drop) with the best of them? Do your friends at trivia night, dare we say it, label you as the history buff? Maybe you're not a full-blown "buff" but if you like history and get psyched at the idea of even visiting a museum, or actually read those placards on your tour, then we want to meet you...virtually for now though.

Maybe the thing I should worry about is that everyone I know is at least 50x more intense than what they are looking for. "Actually read those placards"? My friends read, write and correct those placards.  

Lets hope this doesn't go in the way of "Sabers & Roses," the weird reenacting reality show whose odd premise was whoever stays in character longest wins money or something like that.

In case you didn't get enough of Sabers & Roses, there's another clip here.  :D

Remember, Remember the 5th of November

Explosives placed under a government building by  a group of religious extremists? Sounds like something we'd see on the news. 

On the night of October 25th,1605 an anonymous letter was sent to Baron William Parker during dinner alerting him of a plot to blow up the House of Lords in an attempt to assassinate King James I and his daughter Princess Elizabeth.

Nine year old, Princess Elizabeth was scheduled to become the Catholic head of state on November 5th which angered a group of English Catholic extremists who feared that there was little chance of increased religious toleration under the reign of King James I.
  
However, this wasn't the first attempt of English Catholics at harming King James I, in 1603, there was a plot called the "Bye Plot" in which Catholic priests and Puritans had planned to kidnap the king. The whole thing was fouled before it even began but nevertheless made the king take threats seriously which worked against the November 5th plotters.   

Guy Fawkes is now the poster child for the plot, although he was only one of many conspirators in "The Gunpowder Plot." He earned his notoriety because on the night of November 4th, 1605, he was found in the House of Lords guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder which was enough to level the building. He was wearing his now iconic, hat, cape and boots with spurs. Fawkes was arrested immediately, while the other conspirators fled.      

Punishments included  dragging behind a horse and having genitals removed and burned in front of their still living owner, the removal of bowels, dismemberment by quartering and leaving the pieces at the mercy of animals. The conspirators ended up suffering a variety of cruel deaths, many of which started at the gallows. Fawkes managed to break his neck at the gallows, which alluded many of the other conspirators, but was still quartered.

The plot inspired a poem:

"Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
the Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I see no reason why Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent to blow up King and Parliament.

Three score barrels were laid below to prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s mercy he was catch’d with a dark lantern and lighted match.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!"

King James I also immortalized the event by commissioning a sermon to be given on November 5th, 1606 to make sure everyone remembered the punishments. It became tradition to commemorate the day every year. 

Soldier Letter from Antietam

"Federal buried, Confederate unburied" LOC

 Army of the Potomac, October 6th 1862

Dear Brother--I was surprised to hear of the death of Henry. I had heard that he was wounded, and got a furlough of two days to go and find him. Starting when your letter came to me, I wandered all day over the field at Antietam. I kept going for miles and miles, looking at every grave I saw, and was about to give up the search from fatigue and hunger (for I had already gone over twenty-five miles), but I kept on till dark, and just as I was about to lie down for the night, I saw a few graves under an apple-tree, a few rods off, and there I found the grave of our dear brother. It was a solemn time for me as I sat by the grave. 

I found a person who watched with him, and was present at his burial. He was shot in the early part of the action. He died without a struggle. It will be a hard struggle for mother. To think he was taken away in so short a time after leaving home, while I have been engaged in six or seven battles! But the thought of his dying so peacefully  (and no one can doubt his Christian character or fitness to meet his Maker), will lessen the grief of our mother, and brothers and sisters. We have lost him; but this we know, he was a Christian, and showed a Christian spirit in all his actions. It seems like a dream. As I look from the "heights" [Bolivar], I can see the rebel army, and a battle is expected in a few days. I am willing to meet them, no matter how hard the battle, or how long the forced marches are, if we can only finish the war, or make a beginning to an end. I may too, like Henry be shot down. If I die, I die in the faith of Christ, and have no fears as to what awaits me. I am happy wherever I am. I can lie down with as much ease, and rest for the night within range of the enemy's guns, knowing that at dawn we may meet face to face, as I could at home upon my bed. It is near midnight, and I must close.

SERGEANT S.P. KEELER

Letter from: Soldiers' Letters from Camp, Battlefield and Prison edited by Lydia Minturnin Post in 1865.

93rd New York at Antietam, LOC

Henry Keeler was a corporal in the 14th Connecticut Co. C . He was 23 years old when he died at Antietam on September 17, 1862. He had only been in he army since early August. The 14th Connecticut is remembered for fighting near Bloody Lane.

 According to Anna Resseguie's (a distant relation) diary, Henry’s grave was marked by a wooden board. Silas Keeler, the author of the above letter, was 21 years old and a Sergeant with the 8th Connecticut, Co. E. One of Silas' sisters sent his letter to be included in a book of letters published by the U.S. Sanitary commission in 1865. With the letter, she notes that Henry's body had been retrieved and re-interred at home. His funeral took place on November 2, 1862. She also notes at the time of her sending the letter that she had two wounded brothers in the army.

Anna 's family owned a tavern in Ridgefield, Connecticut which amazingly, you can visit today. Once called the Keeler Tavern and later the Resseguie Hotel, the Keeler Tavern Museum and Garden House  is now open to the public. Anna Resseguie's wartime diary can be read as View from the Inn.  She details a lot of the goings on in the town, including weather, festivities and tragedies. She even writes of one local who died after sticking his hand near a lion's cage when a menagerie came to the town. 

It's rare that there is so much wartime information from one family but it is fantastic that you can read about their lives in the form or letters and diaries and visit a site that they would have spent a lot of time in. The Inn has a very unique history of its own, it hosted action during the Revolutionary War. It is also speculated that Alexander Gardner stayed there a few years before the Civil War.

The above letter seems cold at first but when you realize that it is the youngest brother in the family writing to an older one, it seems likely that his emotions were subdued. This letter also brings up the custom of retrieving dead for a burial closer to home. For many men, this was not an option.

Opportunities for Amateur Historians

We romanticize the job of historians. We imagine them as erudite, old men, bent over old tomes with hair disheveled and glasses firmly in place. We see them in their book lined study.  Each page they turn, they are piecing together the clues to a puzzle lost in time.  They touch documents that are of such significance that your hands would shake under the importance of them.  

I’m sure this kind of historian exists, somewhere. Regardless of the image of the “classic” historian, few historians fit the picture.  Most deal with the writings of everyday people who wrote about ordinary things. Many historians never touch important documents; they study them on the computer or as photocopies.  But these “ordinary” writings are just as important to the study of history.  

The digitization of documents has been a major advancement in the history field. It has not only opened up the history field for historians but also for amateur historians. What once required detailed planning, far away museum visits, phone calls,  and hours of searching can now be done instantaneously at any time of day from the comfort of your own home. Historians are more average than ever.

Many museums have many more documents in their collections than they can afford to digitize and transcribe, so many resources remain unavailable to researchers. Many museums are now soliciting the help of nonprofessionals to transcribe these digitized works for the ease of researchers.

If the thought of digitizing documents on Friday night excites you, you can now do so for the only slightly lower than normal pay for a transcriber: free. :D


Projects that need help:

-William & Mary's Transcription Project: "From Fights to Rights: The Long Road to a More Perfect Union," where transcribers work on documents from the Civil War Era up through the Civil Rights Movement.

-The National Archives' "Citizen Archivist" project where transcribers can choose documents of varying transcription levels from beginner to Advanced.Visit here for more transcription projects from the National Archives.

-The University of Iowa's "Civil War Diaries & Letters Transcription Project."

"Stop Televised Looting?"

 It’s a dream. You reluctantly go out back on your day off to start digging a garden exactly where your wife wants it. With each shovelful, you are thinking of all of the better spots in the yard for it.

“Where we had it last year.” Thud, thud.   

“In the corner, out of the way of the lawnmower.” Thud, thud.  

“ Near the hose so it will be easier to water,”  Thud, clink!

The headlines start rolling: “Man Discovers Civil War Cannon in Back Yard Garden!” and “Man Finds Valuable Treasure in Back Yard!”

It’s the find of a lifetime and evidence shows that this really does happen. Many people find valuable historical items accidentally, others go digging for them. 

Such is the case with Spike TV’s new show “American Digger,” which will debut on March 21^st. This show follows ex-wrestler Ric Savage who leads his team to dig up the back yards of history rich areas in an attempt to make it rich in the relic market.

According to Spike TV’s website, “American Savage, based in Mechanicsville, VA, is the top artifact recovery company in the country, digging as much as half a million dollars worth of historical artifacts out of US soil each year.” Of course, once the artifacts are recovered, they are no longer artifacts, they are relics. So in reality, this company makes half a million dollars worth of relics out of artifacts each year. 

Once an item is removed from the ground, the context of the item is lost. Yes, you know it’s a Civil War belt buckle. But why is it in that particular field? What about the rest of the items from this soldier that were not made of metal? What else is in the area? What does the position of these items tell you? 

The importance of context has been a heated debate between and archeologists and metal detectorists for years.  Some people think the item is more important and others, the context of the item. Although metal detectors are regularly employed at archeological sites to plot possible artifacts, the precise digging methods are still employed to preserve the context surrounding the objects.  Read a good article about Archeology and Relic hunting at The Battle of Franklin.

Sign the petition against the show or like the facebook page “Stop Televised looting.” 

I am not against metal detecting. I just don’t believe that you should metal detect in historically important areas without working with an archeologist. If an area will be destroyed and you have permission to metal detect, by all means remove the objects.  Also, if you find something of archeological significance, you should contact local archeological authorities.

Read some stories about scary finds:  

Virginia Man Killed in Civil War Cannonball Blast

New Jersey Beach Replenishment Dredges WWII munitions onto Beaches

There's a Word for That: Presentism

 "presentism /'prezen,tizəm/ n. uncritical adherence to present-day attitudes, esp. the tendency to interpret past events in terms of modern values and concepts." -The New Oxford American Dictionary

This is a relatively new word to me although I have long noted the existence of this phenomenon in the history field. This kind of viewpoint is often shown when discussing the more gruesome parts of history such as slavery, the oppression of women, styles of warfare, and daily life choices.


In the history field, we constantly hear "I would never do that!" But, it is far more complicated than that. Just like many of us would not harbor a fugitive today, many people understood the real 1800s risks of harboring a fugitive slave.



Today, very few of us would let a doctor operate on us with the fresh blood of another patient on his arms and apron or squeeze their internal organs to get a tiny waist.     


 
 Information and knowledge builds upon existing knowledge, things that are obvious to us or "common knowledge" may not have been to people in the past. Today, every child knows that germs can make you sick and that washing your hands can keep you safe. Three-hundred  years ago the technology to prove the existence of germs didn't exist. People responded to the modern scientific and medical information at their disposal.

 People in the past were not any less intelligent than people today. In 300 years, schoolchildren everywhere will laugh at the stupidity and ignorance of the inhabitants of 2012. You cannot judge people of the past by modern standards, values or ideas, you can only try to understand them through the lens of the time period in which they lived. Many people fall into this trap but study can help create a fuller understanding of the people of the past, what motivated them, and their experiences.      

Trip to Antietam

This past trip, I finally got to visit Antietam. It was my first time going and although it was very windy, we still got to see everything we planned to. I was very excited to finally get to see this battlefield, as it was a battle that my Civil War ancestor fought in. He was in the 124th Pennsylvania which fought there only six weeks after enlisting.











We took with us an excerpt of a journal from a Sergeant in the 124th, Charles Broomhall. He was in a different company from my ancestor but their experiences were probably similar. The boys in company D are familiar local names. In fact, I work at the house of company D's 1st Lieutenant.

The journal, while probably based on a real journal, reads more like memoirs and may have been in the process of being prepared for publication.

For September 17th 1862, he wrote:

" At the commencement of the battle at day dawn, our boys had been listening to the stray shots on the edge of the 1st named woods called the East Woods, the rebels had come through the corn and deployed pickets on the edge of the East Woods. Our pickets were deployed in the edge of this woods, consequently, at daylight the two picket lines found themselves face to face and that caused the suddenness of the onset. Our brigade was about æ of a mile to the right and rear, and our regiment was brought up to near the clear sod field first spoken of while shot and shell went fluttering over our heads like partridges for sound. We were soon formed in line of battle at right angles to the turnpike and also at right angles to the lines which were doing the fighting, about 700 yards distant. A good number of wounded were now passing to the rear and this was the first sight of battle we had seen and the blood also, and it shook the nerves of some of the boys. The shells crashing through the trees and fluttering overhead as well as the musketry in advance of the left, all contributed to mark the time, and place, fixed in one's memory forever. We now advanced to the edge of the cleared field adjoining the cornfield. There we halted for a few minutes, our right resting on or a little across the pike and in a small grove. Here old Gen. Mansfield rode up to Gen Crawford who was within a few feet of me, and told him to hold this woods as we were hard pressed on the center. Fine old man that was the last I ever saw of him, as he was shot a few moments after, but we advanced with fixed bayonets across this open field on the cornfield, with a great hurrah, and as our regiment was a large one compared with those of a year old, the rebels got out of that corn in a hurry across the fire into a field near J.  Miller's barn and into the woods a little further to the South, but they had been roughly handled before we got to this part of the field we now advanced into this cornfield and were halted. Our company was among the rebel wounded. We got the order to lie down. I was so close to the rebel wounded, one in particular, that I had to separate myself from the company. One man was moaning and asking for water. Ben Green gave him some, had to pour it down him. I hadn't a drop in my canteen. The poor fellow said he was from South Carolina and had been forced into the war. He died while we laid there."

Taken from in the Sunken Road

 His journal is very interesting and descriptive, especially his details about the physical landscape. Not having seen the field before, I would never have believed it was so hilly. Broomhall elaborates " We marched over a most circuitous, rough, hilly road," which was an understatement. It was chilling reading his account. The battlefield is small but well worth the visit. It seems insane that any fighting could have taken place there at all. 

A larger excerpt of his diary about the battle of Antietam can be read at History Lost and Found. It was transcribed by Carolyn Ivanoff. 

Confederate Prices "What a Dinner Cost in 1864"

When reading primary sources from the Civil War, people of the time often mention the prices of various items. Many times you can feel their astonishment such as Kate Cumming, a confederate nurse who admitted in her journal that while at a wedding she saw a gown made from Swiss muslin and could not help but wonder about the price, "The article was very scarce at present; the last I heard of cost fifty dollars per yard." She also tells of items so scare that they could not be had at any price.





However, it is very hard to put these prices into comparable terms. The blockade seriously affected the supply of many items including fabric, medicines, books, and foodstuffs. When these items became available, the prices could be high or low depending on area and scarcity. Frequently, items would be available in pockets. Milk might be available in one town and scarce in the next and the prices reflected the supply.    

The type of money also was reflected in the prices. Confederate money fluctuated frequently. Union money was more stable, but when traveling in the south, some people were hesitant to accept it.

What could $13 a month army pay buy?

- 8.67 pounds of cheese ( $1.50 a pound)
- 130 apples ( 10 cents a piece)
- 52 oranges ( 25 cents an orange)
- 13 small pies ($1 a pie)
- 17.3 pairs of wool socks ( 75 cents a pair)
- 6.5 bottles of bad whiskey, ($2 a bottle according to William McCarter in My Life in the Irish Brigade.) 
-156 Cartes de Visite ($1 per dozen at the cheapest in Philadelphia, according to West Philadelphia Hospital Register published in 1863. 
- 3.54 "dates" with a lady of the night (3 for $11 according to Hugh D. Cameron of the 3rd North Carolina Cavalry as stated in The Story the Soldiers Wouldn't Tell by Thomas P. Lowry.)
-Soap, candles, coffee, flour, tea, and sugar in the South? Priceless. 

The prices above are generally from Northerners, traveling in the South. Due to the shortages and the inflation of confederate currency, it is very difficult to put an amount on any goods. Dolly Burge, who was living in Georgia wrote in her diary in November of 1864 that she "Paid seven dollars a pound for coffee, six dollars an ounce for indigo, twenty dollars for a quire of paper, five dollars for ten cents' worth of flax thread, six dollars for pins, and forty dollars for a bunch of factory thread." Burge was originally from Maine and was used to the prewar, northern pricing. We gain the best comparison of Confederate to Union in "five dollars for ten cents' worth of flax thread." 

There is a really interesting summary of the inflation in the Confederacy from 1861-1865 at Confederate Inflation Rates.  This site has a chart that shows the purchasing power of a Confederate dollar throughout the war.