After our time in Philadelphia, we headed out the next day to Delaware, a state I had never been to (if you have never read up on it, it has a fascinating colonial era history: at one time there was Swedish settlement there that preceded the Dutch, and there was even a war about it). Our first stop was Fort Delaware.
Fort Delaware (accessed via ferry from Delaware City) is a fort built on Pea Patch Island in the middle of the Delaware River - that shore you see on the other side is New Jersey. It was built following the War of 1812 to provide a more outwardly defense to Philadelphia.
The island itself was naturally occurring, but was built up over the years.
The fort's most significant use came during the American Civil War, where it both guarded to route to Philadelphia as well as be used as a prisoner of war camp for Confederate prisoners.
We were fortunate in that it was Living History Day. A number of young people (young to me, anyway) were in period costume and acts. Here, they fire one of the larger guns:
Blacksmith's shop:
What you got as a Union soldier to eat:
A place to spend quality time:
If one finds one's self in the area, highly recommended for an hour or three.
15 pounds beans/peas per 100 men, good thing that fort was so open........
ReplyDeleteNylon12, it was probably just as much to show everyone was getting "fairly" treated as much as anything.
DeleteA note from the young volunteer there: cooks were not formally trained, but voted on by the company. A cook actually got paid more, but also was liable to being "reassigned" if their cooking was not edible.
I am always amazed at the amounts of meat eaten by citizens of that era. These soldiers "only" ate 2 lbs of meat a day along with nearly 3 lbs of other things. On the Lewis and Clark expedition, those soldiers consumed nearly nine pounds of meat a day! Flash forward to modern times when I'm lucky to consume 8 oz of meat a day.
ReplyDeleteEd, I think it had a lot to do with what one could get that was preserved and would last. I think most of this was salted in one way or another; with no modern transportation lines, fresh vegetables (perish the thought of fruits) was limited to what was local.
DeleteAll very interesting. Thank you, TB
ReplyDelete:-)
You all be safe and God bless.
You are welcome Linda. It was terribly interesting.
DeleteI'm a tiny bit embarrassed to admit that I'd not ever heard of Fort Delaware.
ReplyDeleteWe will be doing our research and adding a visit to our list.
Thank you for the information!
John - Do not be embarrassed; I had not heard of it either. It was about an hour for Philadelphia. There were actually a few intriguing restaurants in Delaware City; had we more time, we might have eaten there.
DeleteNot being a soldier (a fighting one, no less) I have no idea if that's a reasonable amount of daily food, but seeing no green veggies on the menu, I imagine that food, while satisfying, must have set heavy in their bellies. Oh wait a minute... there I see it. "Occasional Vegetables". :^(
ReplyDeleteBecki, I cannot imagine that limited amounts of vegetables.
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