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What did Revolutionary War soldiers eat? Colonals, Loyalists, and Allies on Both Sides? · Family Tree Food Stories

0:00
Nancy A. May: Hello everybody, I'm Nancy May, a lifelong Connecticut
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Yankee and brand new Floridian
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Sylvia France: Hi, I'm Sylvia Frantz, a fourth-generation Floridian.
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My family came to Florida before statehood in the 1820s, so anyone who came after
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1845 would be considered a new Floridian.
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We're starting off America 250 celebrations with a nod to what our
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Revolutionary War soldiers and allies ate.
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Nancy A. May: Yep, and welcome to this episode of Family Tree Food Stories.
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Before we start, would you do us a favor?
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If you go to Podcast.FamilyTreeFoodStories.com,
0:35
follow the show, share it with a friend, and tell us more of your stories.
0:40
Because, well, that's how we're gonna get better for you and for others, and us too.
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So on that note, Sylvia, let's jump in, because there's a
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guy I need to tell you about.
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A soldier, a real patriot, like some of our own ancestors might have been, and he
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kept a diary the entire Revolutionary War
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Sylvia France: Oh, I already love him since documentation
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is priceless in genealogy,
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Nancy A. May: Okay, so this guy wrote down the best meal that he ever had in months,
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and I mean he really wrote it down with passion, like a teenager with a crush
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Sylvia France: What could that possibly be?
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Nancy A. May: You're not gonna guess.
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It was pumpkin seeds
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Sylvia France: That's it?
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The whole meal eloquently defined pumpkin seeds?
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Nancy A. May: Y- yeah, apparently.
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It was just a simple handful of pumpkin seeds, that he found
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in the bottom of a horse trough
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that is so sad,
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Sylvia France: No.
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That can't be right
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Nancy A. May: Yep, It seems so wrong, yet, yet so right.
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But he said, and I quote directly from his notes, "It was the most delicious feast."
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Sylvia France: Out of a trough?
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A horse trough?
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Ick.
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I really love horses, but that's taking it a tad bit too far
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Nancy A. May: Yeah, probably talking green, slimy at the bottom too.
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I think I'll look at the bottom of the bucket next time I take a, a look
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Sylvia France: Ew.
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desperate times needed desperate measures, and we consider ourselves
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culinary curious, but still, ugh
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Nancy A. May: Honestly, that's just the kind of thing we're getting up to around
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here because every meal has a story and every story's a feast and every kitchen
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has a secret, even if it is in a trough
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Sylvia France: And every horse trough apparently has
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a feast or at least a snack.
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Nancy A. May: Yeah.
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Okay, , so here's the big picture that we're talking about
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today, and for the next month.
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We're starting with this big month, because we're celebrating
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the 250th - anniversary of the Declaration of Independence
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Sylvia France: It's been 250 years since we said we're free on paper,
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Nancy A. May: Yay.
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Sylvia France: was the easy part.
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It was like receiving an invitation to a birthday party.
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Actually winning the Revolutionary War, , that took eight years, eight
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years of cold, broke, hungry men with the help of courageous women
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I might add somehow pulling it off
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Nancy A. May: Yeah.
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I love that.
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In fact, nobody puts that part on the sizzle reel
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Sylvia France: So today's topic, what did the soldiers really eat?
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The Continental Army, our French, Spanish, and Dutch friends who
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helped us, and yes, the British and German soldiers called Hessians too.
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Same war, very, very different plates
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Nancy A. May: So we're gonna find out who ate what and who
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ate well and who ate the bugs.
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Yep, who ate the bugs, and others that we shouldn't probably say out loud
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Sylvia France: So buckle up.
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It's about to get very interesting here
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Nancy A. May: Very interesting.
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Stick around.
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There's a woman later on in this episode who takes the guns away from three
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enemy soldiers and using nothing but a turkey dinner to, well, entice them
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Sylvia France: I'm picturing a frozen turkey dinner here or
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just Revolutionary War style?
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Nancy A. May: Well, exactly Revolutionary War style.
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I'd leave the Butterball at home.
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But you'll have to wait for that one, because that's Just a little tease
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Sylvia France: worth the wait, I promise.
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. Quick thing is if, this is your first time with us, go ahead and hit the follow now.
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This is one of four on the food of the Revolutionary War.
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You don't wanna miss where the rest of this goes
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Nancy A. May: Okay, let's just get into it, Sylvia, because we're, been enough of
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the promo here, but , here's what gets me about the whole topic of the Revolutionary
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War and food, especially for our soldiers.
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, Our soldiers were supposed to eat really, really well
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Sylvia France: uh, define on paper
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Nancy A. May: Okay.
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Congress wrote out daily food plans for each soldier, kind
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of like they probably do today.
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A pound of meat, a pound of bread or flour.
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There were peas, beans, and milk when they could get it, and a drink
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every day, beer or cider, even vinegar so they wouldn't get sick
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Sylvia France: Wait, That's better than I have on most Tuesdays
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Nancy A. May: Yeah, right.
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Or Wednesdays, maybe even both.
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On paper it reads like a feast, but almost none of it actually showed up
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Sylvia France: None of it.
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How disappointing.
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Nancy A. May: I know, right?
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The truth is that barely any of it was ever delivered.
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Can you imagine being hungry and never getting food?
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And here's the part that got me.
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Everybody thinks that the British starved us out.
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They didn't have to.
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We did that ourselves because our supply chain was so broken
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Sylvia France: We all heard that The revolutionary tale is
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that wagons are pulled by mules.
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The roads were bad or nonexistent.
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and Drivers switched routes halfway through and just lost track of
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where they were even headed.
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Food sitting out in the rain, rotting before it got there.
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One supply officer wrote that he didn't even have a single barrel
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of flour to hand out, not one.
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Nancy A. May: And that wasn't all bad luck either
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Sylvia France: Nope.
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Some of it got stolen on purpose.
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There's a real stretch of the war that historians call the Forage War.
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Armies raided each other for hay, cows, and grain wagons.
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Food wasn't just hard to find, it was a target
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Nancy A. May: So our soldiers fought over hay.
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That's pretty dramatic and also pretty pathetic
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Sylvia France: It sure is, but it was true.
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People got shot over hay and it didn't get lost in a ditch somewhere.
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It got sold off of the back of a wagon by the same men who
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were supposed to deliver it
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Nancy A. May: Oh, that's even so… I can't even begin to explain that one.
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They're stealing their own food so they can sell it back to their own guys?
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Sylvia France: Yes.
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Exactly.
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And it happened everywhere.
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Congress was furious about it, but they couldn't really do anything to stop it.
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Nancy A. May: So when flour finally showed up late and, hmm, as I
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understand, also full of bugs
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Sylvia France: Yes, literally full of bugs, weevils and maggots.
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were baked right into the bread.
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Using much of that flour, they made something which they called a fire cake.
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That's just flour, water, mixed, and then slapped into a hot rock by the fire.
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No yeast or sourdough starter.
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Half the time there was no salt.
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Ugh.
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Nancy A. May: Yeah, I know, right?
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And bugs.
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Boy, that actually sounds like papier-mâché without the paper.
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Yuck, and bugs
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Sylvia France: Oh, wait, they called it free
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Nancy A. May: Well, please tell me that wasn't a joke because that's really,
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like, I, I'm like totally grossed out.
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I can't get this out of my mind
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Sylvia France: It's barely a joke
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Nancy A. May: You know, it's kind of funny that you mention bugs.
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All right, well, I gotta plug here.
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Because we did a whole show, or whole episode, about how to eat
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bugs back in August of last year.
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So if weevil's are your thing, you might wanna listen in to that episode.
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We'll put a link into the show notes just in case you wanna give a bite to Sylvia
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Sylvia France: Well, I'm not eating a bug because, well,
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you're fascinated by bugs, Nancy
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Nancy A. May: Oh, come on, Sylvia, humor me.
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but note for the record.
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, So let's move on and talk about the entire camp and how it was set up.
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Here's what it looked like.
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There were six guys to a squad, and there was one pot between all six guys, and it
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basically never got cleaned or changed because they always were on the move.
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They just kept it going on and on and on.
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More water, - more salt pork, more flour right up to the top.
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Whatever was left over week after week after week, they just kept piling it in
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Sylvia France: Ew, that - is disgusting
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Nancy A. May: Honestly, I'm not so sure it was that bad because, well, I'm
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gonna let you in on a little secret.
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That's what Bob does for us when we have… He calls his
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endless winter pot or stew soup
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Sylvia France: Excuse me?
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Nancy A. May: Yep, my Bob runs an Instant Pot throughout the cold winter
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months, even here in Florida when it can drop down to 20s overnight.
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You know that one.
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It's the same pot week after week, and he rarely empties it.
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He just keeps adding stuff to it.
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He could add sherry one week.
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Now, there is some meat in there.
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Roasted garlic may be the next.
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A little bit of basic running of something new, some vegetables, and
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he's got his own revolutionary stew war pot, and he didn't even know it.
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It was the endless pot of soup.
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Well, that's what we call it at least
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Sylvia France: 250 years and men still don't wanna do the dishes
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Nancy A. May: Nope, and he's proud of it.
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But it's actually pretty good.
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I haven't died yet.
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uh, , and here's another thing.
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Our Revolutionary War patriots didn't use forks.
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Although forks and soup probably aren't a good combo, unless it's a stew.
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But forks were considered a little too fancy and upper class, and a
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soldier just cut the meat right out of the pot with the same pocket knife
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that he used for everything else.
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Think, I don't know, cleaning off the off the bottom of your shoes?
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Sylvia France: Yuck.
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The fork was the snob at the table this whole time.
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I've heard stories that in my family did exactly the same
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thing in southwest Florida while tending their cattle in the 1800s.
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They would just clean off their knives by wiping it on their denim jeans.
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Nancy A. May: Yeah, we do that now too.
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The fork has always been a snob though.
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But I have to ask you one thing that I think everybody's heard about, but
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I didn't hear about this one before.
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What about the soup shoes?
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Sylvia France: The shoes I wish I could tell you it was just a story
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Nancy A. May: So it's not a story, it's real?
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Sylvia France: Actually, it is real.
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At the worst camps, Valley Forge and Morristown, men wrote about
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boiling their shoe leather, tree bark, sometimes even camp dogs.
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Don't repeat that to your pups.
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Nancy A. May: No.
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BB and The Mighty Quinn want to put it on record, they are totally disgusted.
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They are sitting at our feet under the dinner table, and will not be
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the main course for dinner this week
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Sylvia France: They should be growling at you now because
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that's not a normal hungry night.
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That's a type of nothing has come for days kind of hungry when you boil your shoes
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Nancy A. May: Yeah, for sure.
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And quick question, because if somebody listening to this is wondering,
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how do we even know all this stuff?
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Well, here's where it comes from.
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It comes from notes and journals that were saved from family members passed down
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through the generations, their complaints, and honestly, yeah, even their trash.
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Sylvia France: The trash
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Nancy A. May: Yep, the trash.
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So you probably heard in school over the years as a kid that archeologists
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dug up these old campsites and found animal bones that have been cracked
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open for the marrow, you know, the soft part inside, the kind that's
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being served on gourmet menus in restaurant today, and skulls opened
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for the brains, also on gourmet menus.
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I'm not eating that.
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But nothing was wasted.
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Trash always tells on people
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Sylvia France: Trash really does, the good, bad, and disgusting in this case.
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Nancy A. May: Yes.
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And disgusting or gourmet, depending upon who you're talking about.
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Sylvia France: how much they charge.
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Nancy A. May: That's right.
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And speaking of digging things up, I lived right next to one of these
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old camps for 30 years back in Redding, Connecticut, and walked those
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trails many a time with our pups.
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And there's a place called Putnam Park, which is also known as
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the Valley Forge of the North
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Sylvia France: Wait, that was your backyard?
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I'm curious, did you find any musket balls?
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Nancy A. May: No, we didn't find musket balls there, but there is
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one in a tavern up in Ridgefield that's stuck in the wall still today.
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But actually, it was in our backyard.
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3,000 soldiers in the winter of 1778 , camped right in Putnam Park, and food
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was supposed to be supplied in a storage area not too far from them down the road
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Sylvia France: right next to the food, so they must have
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been happy campers or soldiers
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Nancy A. May: Well, not quite.
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Turnips alone cost $2 to $3 a bushel
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Sylvia France: Oh, that's even more than Publix today
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Nancy A. May: talk about inflation.
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And for these guys, they had to pay for some of their own food.
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That was an entire month's pay, and they wanted to eat.
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So they decided to go hunt down the local farmers.
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But those local farmers were not gonna feed these guys for free.
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So the Reading farmers, to save themselves and their families' stomachs,
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they stored and hid , their own food in their basements, including animals
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Sylvia France: Are you talking pigs and cows in the basement with people?
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Nancy A. May: I am pigs and cows in the basement with people.
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Grandma's food jars, maybe even grandma's rhubarb wine.
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We've talked about that.
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Sylvia France: Hopefully that helped with the animal stench.
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Nancy A. May: Right.
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And winter turnips and a very nervous pig all sharing space in the basement.
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I don't know how they got the cows down there, but freedom did come at a very
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expensive price and a very hungry one.
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and that same soldier who ate pumpkin seeds from a horse trough, well, he was
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supposedly camped right there in Reading too, and he complained that the beef was
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barely edible, and described it in the way that, well, the steaks might actually
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have said, "Neigh"," instead of moo"
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Sylvia France: Of course it's that same guy
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Nancy A. May: Isn't it always the same guy that's complaining, uh, then and now?
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Sylvia France: Exactly.
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And weirdly, starving wasn't the most dangerous food problem out there
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Nancy A. May: What could be worse than starving?
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Sylvia France: Monotony, eating exactly the same thing every single day, salt,
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meat, flour, and no vegetables ever.
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That gives you scurvy, which we most commonly think of
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as a disease for sailors.
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It's a sickness that you get when your body doesn't get enough vitamin
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C, and it was the most common illness of the whole war, which surprised me
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Nancy A. May: And nobody knew why they were getting sick, right?
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Sylvia France: Nobody knew why.
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They knew vegetables somehow helped, but vitamin C itself wasn't
14:23
actually identified until 1932.
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They were treating a sickness that they didn't even know the name of
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Nancy A. May: And so that actually worked?
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Sylvia France: Whatever they happened to try, vinegar, dried beans, sauerkraut,
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and something called spruce beer, which they learned from the Native
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Americans, and it actually worked.
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Nancy A. May: Woo-hoo, spruce beer.
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Sylvia France: They boiled spruce tree needles and twigs with molasses.
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It tastes like pine cleaner, but it's loaded with vitamin C. It saved
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lives, yet tasted like Pine-Sol
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Nancy A. May: Well, I'm gonna challenge you on that one.
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. Because now we have a second show that we did a few years back, well,
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now two years back, two Decembers back, which is all about how to
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eat your leftover Christmas tree.
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And guess what?
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Pine needles plays a part there, of course, too, in holiday food
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And I have drank and enjoyed pine needle Christmas tree tea
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Sylvia France: Of course you did.
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Nancy A. May: Yes.
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Next time I'll add some bugs.
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But this sets us up for the Hessians because sauerkraut is a
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story that is truly unbelievable
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Sylvia France: Oh, it's so good.
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Hold that thought.
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That's exactly where we're headed
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time to talk about the actual enemy, the British.
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You'd think the most powerful empire on earth actually eats like kings.
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You know, tea and crumpets
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Nancy A. May: Yeah, you would think.
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Woo-hoo, tea and crumpets
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Sylvia France: Their food had to cross an entire ocean in a wooden barrel first.
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By the time it got there, the salted beef was so old and
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dark they called it mahogany.
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They had to boil it three times just to get a bite off of it, and their hard
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biscuits were tough enough that soldiers joked they could crack a rat's tooth on it
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Nancy A. May: Ugh, I've just been to the dentist, so I can't
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even begin to think about that.
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And I believe they also had bugs again.
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Sylvia France: You're just fascinated by bugs.
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Yes, bugs again.
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You tap it on the table to knock them loose or dunk it in something hot so the
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bugs would float to the top and you'd skim your own dinner off the surface.
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Nancy A. May: See, you do know how to eat bugs.
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But both armies somehow still have that comfort in a weird way
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because they both ate the same thing, a different kind of protein
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Sylvia France: Y- we know that misery loves company, and apparently
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it doesn't pick sides either
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Nancy A. May: Nope, and Empire ruled the seeds.
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Still love their bugs.
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Sylvia France: They thankfully lost it badly
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Nancy A. May: Okay, so now let's get on to the cabbage and the Haitians.
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But a quick heads up first, because when you hear the word Haitian, I automatically
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think of the movie villain, right?
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And these were the German soldiers, not movie villains necessarily, and
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they were from a place called Hesse.
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Now the Brits paid the German rulers to rent out their soldiers, and
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tens of thousands of them fought for the British side during the war
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Sylvia France: So you're talking hired guns basically?
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Nancy A. May: Yeah, hired soldiers, hired guns.
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They weren't fighting for a cause, sadly.
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They were fighting for a paycheck, which is probably why their food and
17:21
supplies were just as messy as ours
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Sylvia France: Well, you know, a rented army still needs to eat
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Nancy A. May: yes, they still need to eat dinner, and they loved their cabbage.
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Germans after all.
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A lot of cabbage
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Sylvia France: So they liked it more than just a topping on a hot dog or on a
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Reuben sandwich, , which is my favorite.
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Nancy A. May: Yeah, I don't think they had those back then, but, cabbage was
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a total comfort food for these guys, and it also just happened to keep
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scurvy away, even though they didn't know that that was part of the deal.
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On Christmas night in 1776, Washington crossed the Delaware , and surprised
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the Hessian camps at Trenton, and captured almost 1,000 of them
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Sylvia France: And what happened after the battle?
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Nancy A. May: Well, the continental soldiers go through the German
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camp , and find their winter stored food supplies loaded with, you
18:08
got it, cabbage, and barrels and barrels and barrels of sauerkraut
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Sylvia France: Hidden cabbage.
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Hmm, that's a little intriguing
18:16
Nancy A. May: Well, a little I would say, and as the story goes, they'd been to the
18:19
local New Jersey farms asking the farmers to save it for them, the cabbage that is.
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So after the win, there's no meat left for our side, and for a while, the continental
18:29
army is eating all that captured German sauerkraut, minus the hot dogs
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Sylvia France: We win the battle and the prize is cabbage
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Nancy A. May: I know.
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Pretty pathetic, right?
18:39
Sylvia France: Hey, gotta eat
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Nancy A. May: but the Germans were right about needing the
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veggies, though, annoyingly so
18:44
Sylvia France: Okay.
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Before the break, get ready because wait until you hear what 2,000 cows
18:49
from Texas have to do with this war
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Nancy A. May: There's our cue.
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Hang tight because we'll be right back
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Sylvia France: And we're back
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Nancy A. May: So where were we?
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Oh, yeah, right.
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So almost everybody else is eating better than us, our patriot soldier friends
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Sylvia France: So while our guys were chewing on buggy fire cake,
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we had allies helping us, and they were absolutely not eating like us
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Nancy A. May: no, they weren't unfortunately.
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But let's start with France
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Sylvia France: Yes, our French friends.
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I like starting with France for the obvious reasons.
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France shows up in 1780, General Rochambeau with thousands of troops
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landing in Newport, and they bring their whole food culture with them.
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On the march, they build real bread ovens.
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At one camp in Chatham, New Jersey, those ovens were baking about
20:09
3,000 loaves of fresh bread a day.
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I just can't imagine.
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Nancy A. May: Right?
20:15
We both baked bread.
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I can't imagine doing that either, but 3,000 loaves, and our guys one
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camp over were eating their own shoes.
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Now, that's pretty pathetic
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Sylvia France: And there's a twist.
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Those ovens were partly a trick
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Nancy A. May: A trick?
20:31
Sylvia France: Washington and the French cooked it up together.
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Yes, pun intended.
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all those ovens made the British think the whole army
20:38
was staying put for a long time.
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Meanwhile, the troops were actually sneaking south to Yorktown.
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They tricked an empire with a very large bakery
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Nancy A. May: I can see it now or I can smell it now, the aroma of
20:51
bread wafting through the fields.
20:53
Pretty sneaky, almost as bad as, like, when you walk into the
20:56
grocery store and the first smell that you get bread , right?
21:00
Sylvia France: Or chocolate chip cookies.
21:02
Yes, - it was very sneaky bread.
21:05
But the sad part of it that the two armies marched more than 600 miles side by side,
21:10
and yet still ate completely separate meals, and our guys didn't even enjoy
21:16
a single fresh loaf of French bread.
21:19
Nancy A. May: Oh, sad
21:20
Sylvia France: But they loved our ham.
21:21
There's a note from a French officer who wrote about trying Virginia ham.
21:25
He said, "We cured it almost as good as the French back home."
21:30
Nancy A. May: That's so French and so obnoxious.
21:33
Sylvia France: Yes, it is.
21:33
But the French also would gather wild food along the way, fresh
21:37
greens, wild herbs, real salads.
21:40
The colonist made fun of them for it, and said the French ate weeds and frogs.
21:46
I wonder if that's why they still call them frogs today, the French
21:50
Nancy A. May: No, right?
21:51
But let me guess, weeds and frogs.
21:53
The French guys didn't get scurvy either
21:55
Sylvia France: No, they didn't.
21:56
Just like today, salad wins every single time
22:00
Nancy A. May: Honestly, I'd have eaten the salad too.
22:03
I'm not dying on a hill for a Firecake, for sure
22:07
Sylvia France: No, but he should.
22:07
Because that's not a hill, that's a grave and a stomach ache
22:11
Nancy A. May: Yeah.
22:12
Okay, it's my turn now.
22:14
Let's talk about Spain.
22:16
I get to tell this one because I didn't see it coming
22:18
Sylvia France: Oh, please tell me everything
22:21
Nancy A. May: All righty.
22:22
So here we go.
22:23
Bernardo de Gal- Bernardo de Galvez, I love that name, was the Spanish
22:27
governor based in New Orleans, and he was secretly moving guns and
22:30
gunpowder up the Mississippi River to help our patriot guys, sneaking past
22:35
the British ships the entire way.
22:37
And to feed his own troops, he had soldiers drive thousands of cattle all the
22:42
way from Texas, 2,000 longhorn in total.
22:45
That was back in 1779
22:48
Sylvia France: Wait, all the way from Texas?
22:50
Nancy A. May: All the way from San Antonio east to Louisiana,
22:53
driven by Spanish cowboys.
22:55
Yee-haw.
22:56
The vaqueros, I think that's how you pronounce it.
22:59
it's often called the first official long-distance
23:02
cattle drive in Texas history
23:04
Sylvia France: so this is basically where the whole Texas cattle drive thing begins
23:09
Nancy A. May: Yeah, pretty much so.
23:10
though true to this entire episode, , the records can't
23:14
prove the cattle ever made it
23:16
Sylvia France: Of course they didn't.
23:17
Nothing in the Revolutionary War shows up on time
23:20
Nancy A. May: Of course.
23:21
and here's a little something to bend your spoon or fork lore, as we've said before,
23:26
right?
23:27
Sylvia France: We're gonna, patent that.
23:28
We're gonna trademark
23:29
Nancy A. May: I think we should do, yeah, that.
23:31
Because people picture the cowboy as a Texas and, well, California thing.
23:36
the oldest cattle in America, they actually came ashore first in
23:39
Florida , in 1521, Ponce de Leon brought seven Spanish cows off a
23:45
boat, and their great-great-great grand calves, we'll call them,
23:49
basically became the original longhorn
23:52
. Sylvia France: So the whole American cattle story actually starts in Florida
23:56
more than 250 years before any of this.
23:58
We had cowboys before a cowboy was even a word.
24:02
They actually called them cow hunters and later crackers, and
24:05
those are actually my people
24:07
Nancy A. May: And Spanish soldiers ate very well.
24:10
Thick stews made with rice and chickpeas, garlic, and olive oil of
24:14
all things, plus oranges and lemons straight from Florida and the Caribbean.
24:19
Sign me up for that dinner
24:21
Sylvia France: Oh, me too garlic, olive oil, and fresh fruit I
24:24
would've signed up for that alone, especially being , a good Florida girl
24:28
Nancy A. May: Meanwhile, we're over here proud of ourselves for
24:31
finding flour that's only got a little bug in it here and there
24:35
Sylvia France: So basically for the Spanish, there was
24:37
no scurvy for them at all
24:38
Nancy A. May: No, basically none, and they didn't have to worry about
24:41
cracking a rat's tooth either.
24:43
Here's the part that nobody taught us in school.
24:46
There was a real fight right here in Florida in 1781 at the Siege of
24:50
Pensacola … Where Galvez again led one of the biggest and most mixed
24:54
battles of the entire Revolutionary War.
24:57
, Soldiers from all over were fighting side by side
25:00
Sylvia France: And that mattered up north somehow?
25:02
Nancy A. May: It did.
25:03
It mattered a lot.
25:04
. He kept so many British troops busy along the whole Gulf Coast they
25:08
couldn't go help defend Cornwallis in Virginia, and that helped us
25:12
win the final battle up in Yorktown
25:15
Sylvia France: A battle in Florida helped to win the war of Virginia.
25:19
I'm so proud.
25:20
Nancy A. May: I'm proud to be a Floridian now, too.
25:22
But here's the twist on top of the twist: Florida wasn't even on our side
25:28
Sylvia France: I know.
25:28
That's what I heard
25:29
Nancy A. May: So Florida was British back then, split into two colonies,
25:33
East Florida and West Florida, and you can honestly call them the
25:36
14th and maybe the 15th colonies.
25:39
They got invited to join the rebellion and sent people to the Continental
25:43
Congress, and then after attending, they said, "Eh, no thanks," and stayed loyal
25:49
to the king the entire Revolutionary War
25:52
Sylvia France: So our own home state turned down the Revolution
25:55
Nancy A. May: I know, how rude, flat out.
25:58
When the word of the Declaration of Independence reaches St. Augustine,
26:02
people there were so angry that they burned effigies of John Hancock and Sam
26:07
Adams right there in the town square
26:09
Sylvia France: Loyal in rugged Florida, yet still helped the
26:12
colonists win just a bit sideways
26:15
Nancy A. May: Always a little bit sideways here in Florida, to
26:16
be honest with you.
26:18
Right?
26:19
Florida was such a headache for the Brits to hold on to that it tied up
26:22
the troops and ships right down here.
26:24
So
26:24
the soldiers never made it north to fight
26:27
. Sylvia France: Two Florida girls could have told them all of this, and the Dutch.
26:31
Did I tell you that the Dutch side of my family settled Manhattan in the 1620s?
26:36
Nancy A. May: The Dutch.
26:37
Can we just stick to the Revolutionary War?
26:39
Sylvia France: I'll try.
26:40
It's hard.
26:42
The Dutch ran the warehouse basically.
26:45
There's a tiny island off the Caribbean called Sint
26:48
Eustatius, named the Golden Rock.
26:50
It became the biggest smuggling spot of the whole war.
26:53
Gunpowder, supplies, rum, sugar syrup, all of it got sent to our side.
26:58
Some of that gunpowder was hidden in barrels marked tea or rice so the
27:02
British wouldn't bother checking them
27:04
Nancy A. May: smuggled gunpowder in a tea barrel.
27:07
That's straight out of a spy movie
27:09
Sylvia France: So France brought the bread ovens, Spain brought
27:12
the cattle and the fruit.
27:13
The Dutch ran a secret supply depot
27:17
Nancy A. May: And nobody was sharing recipes
27:19
. Sylvia France: Nobody.
27:20
It was all about who could get food and supplies to the fight first.
27:24
Nancy A. May: And the wagons again
27:25
Sylvia France: Oh, goodness, you must love wagons.
27:27
Always the wagons.
27:29
We go back to it.
27:32
Nancy A. May: Before we wrap up, we keep saying they cooked,
27:35
but who was really they anyway?
27:38
Sylvia France: Right.
27:38
Because left on their own, soldiers were not great cooks.
27:42
Unlike today, most men were not- taught to cook because it
27:46
was considered a woman's job.
27:48
There are plenty of stories of men getting sick just from trying to
27:51
cook and eating undercooked meat
27:54
Nancy A. May: And an army able to take down an empire beaten
27:57
daily by a undercooked steak
27:59
Sylvia France: the real kitchen experts were the camp followers, mostly women,
28:03
wives, widows, and mothers who traveled with the army for the entire war.
28:08
Washington complained that they slowed down everyone, but he soon
28:13
realized that the whole army fell apart without them, which we both
28:17
know is true in many households today.
28:20
Nancy A. May: Yeah, for sure.
28:21
although I do know a few good cooks who are guys, but they knew how to
28:24
turn almost nothing into a real meal.
28:27
Vinegar they used to soften up old, tough salted beef, wild garlic and dandelion
28:32
leaves to cover up meat that was, eh, already going bad, maybe even green, and
28:38
bread that was baked in ovens that they dug straight into the grounds themself
28:41
Sylvia France: And for that, cooking, taking care of the sick, doing laundry,
28:44
they were paid half a normal ration.
28:47
Kids who traveled with them got a quarter of one.
28:50
Most of them did not receive the paperwork that would qualify
28:53
them to be official Patriots.
28:55
Less than 10% are documented since they did not receive a pay stub.
28:59
I am fortunate to have found Anna Rickenbacher, my female Patriot, while
29:03
I was actually looking for her husband
29:05
Nancy A. May: Half a ration?
29:06
Kid's only getting a quarter.
29:08
First of all, that's child labor.
29:10
Second of all, women are still getting only half, well, maybe
29:14
three-quarters of what men are.
29:16
but that'll be for another story, and keeping the whole army running
29:20
in the shadows at the same time
29:22
Sylvia France: And there's one story I want everyone listening
29:24
to remember by name, Polly Cooper
29:27
Nancy A. May: Ooh, tell me about Polly
29:29
Sylvia France: Oh, she was an Oneida woman.
29:31
Right after the brutal Valley Forge winter, they set out in late April.
29:35
She and about 40 other women roughly walked 250 miles carrying
29:40
baskets of corn to the starving army
29:43
Nancy A. May: 250 miles on foot.
29:46
I better get my Nikes going.
29:47
But carrying them to people she didn't even have to help
29:50
Sylvia France: Correct.
29:51
And she didn't just drop off and leave.
29:53
She stayed and taught the soldiers how to actually cook the corn the right
29:56
way so it wouldn't make them sick
29:58
Nancy A. May: That's a saint, and she wouldn't take any payment, as I understand
30:02
Sylvia France: Not a cent.
30:04
She said, "You don't get paid for feeding hungry people." She
30:08
sounds like a Mother Teresa to me
30:10
Nancy A. May: I agree.
30:11
And then there's Nancy Hart.
30:12
Gotta love that name, don't
30:14
Sylvia France: another Nancy.
30:15
You know, we have Nancy's yogurt, now we have Nancy Hart
30:19
Nancy A. May: Nancy is French, but anyway.
30:22
And honestly, it's the closest thing to the high story that we've got here today.
30:26
It's a story that's been told in Georgia for over 200 years.
30:30
Nancy was a tall and tough patriot with a quiet temper.
30:34
Yep, another Nancy trait.
30:36
And a group of loyalist soldiers, burst into her cabin one day.
30:41
They had shot her last turkey, and then ordered her to cook the darn thing
30:45
Sylvia France: So does she actually cook it?
30:47
Nancy A. May: Well, temper in control, she does cook it, and she serves the turkey,
30:51
pours them plenty of her homemade, brew.
30:54
And then after they're eating and bragging she's quietly sliding
30:59
their guns one at a time out through the back wall in her cabin
31:03
Sylvia France: She's my kind of girl, taking their guns away during dinner.
31:07
That's so clever
31:08
Nancy A. May: and sneaky.
31:09
But by the time they noticed, she was holding a gun on them, , she
31:13
keeps them there at gunpoint, likely shotgun, until help arrives.
31:18
A whole county in Georgia is still named after her,
31:21
And it's the only one in the entire state named for a woman.
31:25
And you know what?
31:25
That's really saying something, since there are 154 counties
31:29
in the state of Georgia
31:30
Sylvia France: Now, whether every single detail is exactly true after
31:34
200 years of retelling, who knows?
31:37
Nancy A. May: but that Georgia story has been a proud story told for 200 years.
31:42
And either way, never underestimate who's holding the spoon, the
31:46
shotgun, or who's named Nancy.
31:50
Sylvia France: Never.
31:51
I won't.
31:52
Nancy A. May: For sure, right?
31:53
Okay, if you only remember three things from this episode today, here they are
31:58
Sylvia France: One, the British weren't what starved the continental army.
32:01
It was a broken supplies chain.
32:03
The enemy showed up plenty of times, the food didn't
32:06
Nancy A. May: Two, our allies basically won the food war even without trying.
32:10
French bread, gotta love it, Spanish cattle and fruit, and the Dutch
32:15
gunpowder hidden in a tea barrel.
32:17
they fed and armed a revolution while our guys were eating their shoes
32:22
Sylvia France: And three, nobody did this alone.
32:24
Hungry soldiers, the women who traveled with the army, and Oneida women who
32:28
refused to be paid, they all helped build a country with whatever they had on hand
32:33
Nancy A. May: So this month, especially on the 4th of July, tell somebody
32:37
about the gunpowder hidden in a tea barrel, and the woman who held the
32:40
Brits at gunpoint over a turkey.
32:43
And that's honestly why we do all this
32:45
Sylvia France: Share the wild untold stories that sound like
32:48
fiction but are actually true.
32:50
That's how people actually remember history.
32:53
Nancy A. May: I love that.
32:54
So that's the soldiers, the French bread ovens, - the cabbage that was
32:58
captured, borrowed corn, and then occasionally a… I'm stuck on this
33:02
shoe story, I have to tell you.
33:05
Sylvia France: I know you are, just like the wagons.
33:07
And somehow all of that, they fed a whole country into being
33:11
Nancy A. May: And here's the question that's been on my mind the entire episode.
33:14
If that's what the soldiers ate, what's happening back on the home front?
33:20
Sylvia France: Exactly.
33:21
Next time, it's the home front.
33:23
What did regular families eat while the men were off freezing and fighting?
33:27
Farmers, shop owners, mothers running entire households alone.
33:31
That's episode two or deux.
33:34
Nancy A. May: Yes., So come and join us over on Facebook between episodes
33:38
and tell us what you know , and what you've been eating on your table,
33:41
whether it's the corn side or the wheat side or maybe the bug side.
33:46
Leave us a review, and send this episode to a family member
33:49
who maybe makes the gravy
33:51
Sylvia France: I'm sure they'll get it
33:52
Happy cooking and happy experimenting
33:55
Nancy A. May: bye-bye for now.
33:56
Happy eating and happy 250th birthday, America