“Our main stay is, of course, hard bread (hard tack), salt pork, and fresh beef, killed on the hoof…,” –Diary of Josiah Marshall Favill.

July 25th. Weather still fine. Had a capital brigade drill in the afternoon, Colonel J. R. Brooke commanding, French still being in command of the division. General Richardson absent on sick leave. For the first time this summer the rations included new potatoes, cabbage, and tomatoes; the country hereabout produces nothing but corn, and all we have comes from the North; our main stay is, of course, hard bread (hard tack), salt pork, and fresh beef, killed on the hoof, and dressed and served on the ground, the animals’ skins being used to cut up the meat on. As the beef is issued immediately after being killed, it is generally warm and full of sand, due to the carelessness of the butchers.