My grandfather was a member of an Indiana Volunteer company that served through the Civil War with the Union Army. He has often told of the food shortage for the soldiers during the last campaigns.
The Southerners burned all supplies they could not carry as they retreated. The farmers had so little for the quartermasters to confiscate, and supply lines were too long to provide for all their needs.
The soldiers were often so hungry that they would go to the feeding places of the mules and salvage the com knocked from their feed boxes. They washed the com and parched it on shovels held over the fires. Grandfather said it tasted better to him than the finest bread eaten in peace time.
Clarice Rhoads Green
Castle, Missouri
Back in 1955 a call went out from the editors of the then CAPPER’s Weekly asking for readers to send in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first My Folks title – My Folks Came in a Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine other books have since been published in the My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from CAPPER’s readers, and we are proud to make those stories available to our growing online community.
