What did Revolutionary War soldiers eat? One of the questions that a group of American leaders debated was what and how much should food should be given to the soldiers. They decided on:
One Pound of Beef or ¾ lb. Pork or one Pound of Salt Fish.
One Pound of Bread or Flour per Diem.
Three Pints of Pease or Beans per Week or Vegetables equivalent at 6/ [i.e., 6 shillings] per Bushel for Pease & Beans.
One Pint of Milk per Man per Day or at the Rate of 1d [i.e., 1 penny] per Pint.
One half Pint of Rice or one Pint of Indian Meal per Man per Week.
One Quart of Spruce Beer or Cyder per Man per Day or 9 Gallons of Molasses per Compy [company] of 100 Men per Week.
Three Pounds of Candles to 100 Men per Week for Guards &c.
Twenty four lb. of soft Soap or 8 lb. hard Soap for 100 Men per Week.
Whether they always got all of those things was a different question, but the American soldiers besieging Boston generally seemed to have enough to eat.
Notes
This was one of many things decided on during a conference of New England political leaders and George Washington at Cambridge (the Continental Army headquarters) on October 18-24, 1775.
Note that they didn’t actually write the word “per.” Instead, they used a symbol that looked like a fancy “P”.
I think that “Indian Meal” was cornmeal. As for spruce beer, I hadn’t heard of it except in Revolutionary War writings, so I was a little surprised when I found out that people still drink it today.
Source
“II. Minutes of the Conference, 18–24 October 1775,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed September 29, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/03-02-02-0175-0003. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, vol. 2, 16 September 1775 – 31 December 1775, ed. Philander D. Chase. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1987, pp. 190–205.]
“I think it best to introduce Mr. Maxwell to General Washington,” wrote Henry Ward to General Nathanael Greene, “and for you and the General, with not more than one trusty person besides, to consider as to the most prudent measures to discover the traitor.” This was the first hint that George Washington and his fellow officers had of a high-ranking spy in their midst.
Dr. Benjamin Church, a prominent revolutionary, was arrested as a spy in September 1775.
The detection of the spy happened largely by accident. A baker named Godfrey Wainwood, living in Newport, Rhode Island, had received a visit from an acquaintance of his, a young woman from Massachusetts. She wanted his help to deliver a letter to a British official who could send it into Boston (then besieged by American troops) by ship. Wainwood thought this a bit odd, but he agreed to help. She left the letter with him, trusting that he would deliver it soon, and went back to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
That was in late July 1775. Wainwood was suspicious that somebody at Cambridge — the American army headquarters — might be acting as a spy and trying to secretly send information to the British army in Boston. But if the letter had been written by a spy, what should he do about it? Who should he tell?
Weeks went by. Unsure what to do, Wainwood simply kept the letter. After a while, in need of advice, he turned to a schoolteacher named Adam Maxwell. Together they decided to open the letter, and found that it was written in code, which increased their suspicions. When the woman wrote to Wainwood, expressing uneasiness that he might not have delivered the letter, they decided to share their suspicions with Henry Ward, secretary of Rhode Island.
So it was that Ward wrote to General Greene in late September, urging him to “discover the traitor.” Greene immediately told Washington, and the molehunt began. The woman, “a suttle, shrewd Jade,” was arrested; after a night of being in custody and a great deal of questioning, she finally admitted that Doctor Benjamin Church had written the letter and given it to her to take to Newport.
That was enough to rock the world of the American revolutionaries. Dr. Church had seemed to be an outstanding patriot for years. He was a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives and the Committee of Safety, and he was currently serving as director of the American army hospitals. But on 29 September 1775, after the woman (who was Church’s mistress) had confessed, he was arrested and the detective work began.
Three people — Samuel West, Elisha Porter, and Elbridge Gerry — went to work on the letter. As they deciphered it, they learned what Church had been trying to communicate to the British in Boston:
I hope this will reach you—three Attempts have I made without Success in effecting the last the Man was discovered in attempting his Escape, but fortunately my Letter was sewed in the Waisband of his Breeches…. for the Sake of the miserable convulsed Empire solicit Peace, repeal the Acts, or Britain is undone. this Advice is the Result of warm Affection to my King & to the Realm. … A View to Independance gr[ows] more & more General—should Britain declare War against the Colonies they are lost forever. … I wish you could contrive to write me largely in Cypher by the Way of New Port…. make Use of every Precaution or I Perish.
Church admitted that he had written and sent the letter, which was intended for his brother-in-law, John Fleming, “a warm stickler for the Honour, Dignity & Power of Britain”, in Boston. But he still claimed that he wasn’t a traitor: the letter, he said, intentionally exaggerated American military strength; by feeding this information to Fleming (and, through him, to the British commanders), Church was trying to influence the British to give up the war and make a peaceful compromise with the colonists’ demands — or so he said.
It was hard to absolutely prove that Church was a spy, but a council of war and the Massachusetts House of Representatives both pronounced him guilty — and they were right. However, the Articles of War — the regulations established by the Continental Congress for the American army — didn’t provide a severe enough punishment for the kind of crime he had committed, and nobody was quite sure what to do with him. After being imprisoned for a couple of years, Church was finally allowed to leave the country in January 1778. He sailed for the West Indies, but the ship he sailed on was lost at sea.
I have nothing Remarkebel to rite Except that geaneral Washington & Leas got into Cambridge yesterday and to Day thay are to take a vew of ye Army & that will be atended with a grate deal of grandor there is at this time one & twenty Drummers & as many feffors a Beting and Playing Round the Prayde.
No, that’s not a foreign language. It’s just a beautiful example of why spellcheck and grammar check were invented. Here’s how it would be with correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation:
I have nothing remarkable to write except that Generals Washington and Lee got into Cambridge yesterday, and today they are to take a view of the army, and that will be attended with a great deal of grandeur; there are at this time one-and-twenty drummers and as many fifers a-beating and playing round the parade.
This was a letter from Massachusetts Lieutenant Joseph Hodgkins to his wife, Sarah. Besides being interesting from a historical standpoint, their letters are all kinds of fun to read; sometimes a word is spelled so strangely that it takes a minute to figure out what it is.
Hodgkins was at the American army camp around Boston, and he was writing about how General George Washington, the newly-appointed commander-in-chief, was taking command of the American forces. Washington arrived at Cambridge, which was the army’s headquarters, on Sunday, July 2, along with Charles Lee, who had been appointed a major-general. The next day they “reviewed” the army; that is, the army marched around the parade ground, and the generals observed them. (Maybe that’s not the most accurate description of it, but it’ll do.) Washington and Lee had been welcomed and honored all along their way from Philadelphia to Cambridge, but now they were up against their real work. And neither one of them realized how hard it would turn out to be.
Here’s an artistic rendition of General Washington “reviewing” the colonial troops at Cambridge, Massachusetts, on July 3, 1775. Although it’s not historically accurate in some things — such as the stars-and-stripes flag, which hadn’t been designed yet — it gives an idea of what a “review” might have been like. The smoke in the background is from a salute being fired.
Source
This Glorious Cause: The Adventures of Two Company Officers in Washington’s Army, p. 171.
