The Young Campaigner

Experimenting With Brick Baking Ovens, Part 3

As most of you probably know, I have been experimenting with baking bread in a brick and mud oven. The first attempt didn't work out so well, so I rebuilt the oven and tried again. This time was finally a sucess.

The new oven was a simpler and mor efficient design. After the first attempt, I posted on the Authentic Campaigner for suggestions and got a number of good responses. I chose to pattern the new oven after one used at the Fort Granger event in 2006.

I simply built a fire on the inside and let it burn down to coals. Once the oven was hot, I shoveled the fire from the inside of the oven to the top and put the bread on the inside. I made yeast bread in two loaves and placed them directly on the floor of the oven. After that, I bricked up the front and let it bake.

The bread stayed in the oven for about an hour and fifteen minutes. I opened it up and the bread was perfect (It tasted great as well). This oven was a success. Thanks to everyone for their helpful suggestions.

Experimenting With Brick Baking Ovens, Part 2.

by William Chapman

I decided to try out the brick oven yesterday. First, I built a fire inside the oven (this was probably a bad idea. What I should have done was started the fire on the outside and then raked the coals inside the oven).

The chimney worked surprisingly well and almost no smoke left through the other holes.

After about half an hour, parts of the wooden chimney began to catch on fire. Pieces of it crumbled and fell in, but the oven remained standing.

I decided to go ahead and put the bread in before the oven self-destructed, so I used a period recipe for batter bread, a yeastless bread that takes little time to cook. Unfortunately, the recipe called for four eggs, which I put in it, only to realize later that our modern "jumbo-sized" eggs are a lot bigger than 19th century eggs.

I waited about 40 minutes for the bread to be ready. Finally it came out, ugly and spongy. The vast quantity of eggs had given my "bread" the texture of an omelette with a bad attitude. Although it was a fun experience, the bread was totally inedible (it tasted like eggs and had a texture like dryrotted rubber). I think I officially proclaim this experiment a failure for now. I'm not giving up yet, though. I am going to keep trying. Suggestions are welcome.

Experimenting With Brick Baking Ovens, Part 1.

by William Chapman

I had the day off of school today, so I decided to build a brick baking oven of the style that was used in army bakeries and permanent camps during the Civil War. I used old bricks (many of which were 1850s/1860's era), wood, and mud to build the oven, plus an old cooking grate.

The oven is constructed in a circular fashion with two doors, one for feeding the fire and one to access the rack. Both doors are constructed in a post-and-lintel style with a wooden slat holding up the top of the door. The chimney on top is constructed out of sticks crossed in log-cabin style and then covered with about two inches of mud. When the mud dries, I will try the oven out and see if it works.

When I was looking around for designs, I found this description of the construction of a Union army bakery near Savannah, Ga. in 1864. It is a lot more elaborate than my design, but it is still interesting.

"Here's how they build a bake oven in the army: About fifteen or twenty men get a large log or a piece of timber and proceed to the next empty brick house and, with their improvised battering ram bust the corner out of it. The bricks were cleaned as well as possible and carried to the site of the oven. The heavy work was done mostly by the colored camp followers of whome there were thousands everywhere. And willing workers they were, too. When the bricks arrived at the camp six posts were erected in the form of a rectangle, their tops about three feet above ground. A frame of joists was mortised on the tops of these posts, the lumber of which was appropriated from a dwelling nearby. A floor was nailed on top of this with nails that came from the lumber. In the meantime the carperenters had been constructing a number of semi-circular frames. These were erected on the floor of the oven and when covered with thin siding from the house formed a perfect arch. This was then overlaid with bricks laid in mortar of blue clay and water. The ends were then filled in leaving a hole for the door, and one for the chimney for which we commandeered the smoke stack of a nearby tannery. A fire was now built inside the oven and all the interior woodwork burned out. The brick arch held up beautifully." - Corporal Thomas W. Moffatt, 12th Illinois Infantry

Making Hardtack the Correct Way

Hardtack (AKA: worm castles, sheet iron crackers, army bread, hard crackers) was the staple food of the Union army during the American Civil War (The Confederates were quite familiar with it as well, but they were more frequently issued corn pone than any other bread). It is a hard, 2" by 3" unleavened cracker with several rows of holes punched in it. A person unfamiliar with hardtack might liken its appearance to an oversized saltine, but when they bit in to it, they would find that the texture and taste of the cracker is rather undesirable. Nonetheless, this non-nutritional hunk of flour and water was what many of the boys in blue and gray subsisted on throughout the war.

Keep in mind that hardtack was not made in the field by the soldiers themselves. It was made by contractors such as G.H. Bent in factories on the homefront and then shipped to the front in fifty pound crates. For this reason, this recipe is intended for use in a modern kitchen at home. If you are very ambitious and you desire a more primitive baking experience, construct a brick or mud oven in your back yard with the help of an adult. I recommend using a kitchen simply because it is a more predictable environment for an inexperienced baker. Here is a good recipe for hardtack from a favorite book of mine:

(Recipe taken from "Rebel Cornbread and Yankee Coffee", by Garry Fisher)

You Will Need:

"4 Cups of presifted flour (William- sometimes I like to use 2 cups of presifted and 2 cups of whole wheat flour in order to simulate flour from a more primitive mill)
2 Teaspoons of Shortening
1 Cup of Water

In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour with the shortening. Mix them together with your hands until thouroghly blended. Add the water, knead the mixture into dough which should be stiff and elastic, not at all sticky to the touch.

Place the dough on a counter or breadboard that has been dusted with flour. Using a heavy mallet, pound the dough out until it is about 1/2 inch thick. Next, fold the dough into 5 or 6 layers, and pound it out again. Repeat the pounding and folding process a total of 5 or 6 times.

Using a flour dusted rolling pin, roll out the dough until it is smooth and about 1/2 inch thick. Cut into three inch squares and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. For added realism and better baking results, use a shish kebab skewer to poke 4 rows of 4 holes in each square (William- Many sutlers also sell hardtack cutters. These are like cookie cutters that are really handy for making hardtack. You can also follow my instructions below on making a template.)

Place the cookie sheet in a preheated oven and bake for about 35 minutes at 325 degrees. After baking, turn off the heat and leave the hardtack in the oven until the oven is cool, in order to further dry it. The hardtack is now ready to eat. Makes 10-12 squares." -by Garry Fisher

The Hardtack Template-

In order to make a hardtack template for cutting out exact shapes every time, you will need a piece of cardboard (shoebox cardboard works best), an exacto knife, and an icepick. Hardtack is slightly rectangular, so you will need to draw a shape on your cardboard that is 2 7/8 inches on the short sides by 3 1/8 on the long sides. These are the regulation dimensions. Punch four rows of four holes in the middle of the shape with the icepick and then use the exacto to cut out the rectangle with adult supervision. You should now have a template that you can use to cut around when you are cutting out the dough for your hardtack. Stick the skewer through the holes to get them in the right place every time.

Sources-

Rebel Cornbread and Yankee Coffee, by Garry Fisher. pp. 37-39. Copyright, 2001

Make Your Own Confederate Haversack

Haversacks are a genuinely useful and necessary piece of equipment in your kit.  For beginners reading this, a haversack is a durable cloth bag with a shoulder strap that was carried by every soldier on both sides during the Civil War.  It is an integral part of your accoutrements that is used to hold rations, and occasionally small personal items (this practice wasn't common, due to the amount of grease from the rations that would soil anything placed in it).

All haversacks in the Union army were issued by the government and were much better made than Confederate ones.  To make one yourself is a VERY ambitious project because each haversack is made of tarred canvas with a leather strap and a muslin liner inside.  With this in mind, I won't be giving instructions on how to make one of those! 

This haversack in this article is a Confederate haversack that was modeled after an original in the Museum of the Confederacy.  Confederates made their own haversacks at home, so they were generally more rugged and varying in degrees of quality.  People made them out of whatever tough fabric they had hanging around the house, so the appearance of them was extremely irregular.  Here are my instructions for making a haversack.

Project: Moses Alexander Haversack

Difficulty Level: Novice

Materials: 1 half of a yard of heavy canvas
               thread
               1 wooden or shell button

 

Download haversack.cwk (DR).pdf

Download the file above for a template of the dimensions of the pieces you will need to cut out for this haversack.  All dimensions are given there.  Spread the canvas out on a table and measure out all of the pieces so that you can cut them out.  It is a good idea to make pattern pieces out of paper before you cut the fabric just to be exact. 

Once you have all of the pieces cut out, take the largest piece and fold it in the middle so that it looks like an envelope.  Fold the sides in about a quarter of an inch and sew the sides of the piece together so that it makes a bag with the pointed part as a flap at the top.  Take the diamond-shaped piece and sew it to the point of the flap on the inside.  On the flap, fold the edge in about a quarter of an inch on top of the diamond-shaped piece and sew it.

Cut the long strap piece so that it will reach from the right side of your lower back, over your left shoulder and to your right hip on the front.  Take the long strap piece and fold it lengthways in thirds.  Sew the two halves in the back where they meet together so that you create a long tube.  Once you have a tube, turn it inside out so that the seem doesn't show.  Iron it flat and sew it to the back of the bag.  For strength, make the stitch on the strap in a square shape with an x through the middle.  That way, the strap won't pull off.

The last thing that you need to do is cut a buttonhole on the flap in the middle of the diamond piece.  Sew that and put a button on the front of the bag so that you can close it.

Make Your Own Mechanic's Cap

The mechanic's cap (also known as a wheel hat or pinwheel hat) was a common form of headwear for civilians and the military in the 19th century.  They are commonly seen in photographs of the army during the Civil War, especially on the Confederate side.  The standard forage cap from the Mexican War was basically a pinwheel hat.  After the war was over, that style of hat became popular with common people.  By the time of the Civil War, mechanic's caps were extremely common with children, working class men, and even wealthier planters as a casual alternative to the top hats common in that time. 
So how do you make your own?  Just follow the instructions below and you will have a pinwheel hat in no time. 

Materials: 1/2 yard of fabric (wool works well but heavy ticking or canvas is also good)
               thread that matches the color of your fabric
               sewing needle
               pins
               interfacing
               scissors
               medium sized saucepan lid
               large sheet of paper
               1/2 inch wide strip of canvas (optional)
               black paint (optional)
               2 buttons (optional)

Spread the fabric out on a flat surface that you can cut on like a self-healing mat.  On the paper, trace the pot lid.  The resulting circle should be somewhere around 9 to 13 inches in diameter.  Cut out the paper circle.  This will be your pattern piece for the top of the hat.  Now cut out another circle with the same diameter from the paper.  About 1 to 3 inches from the edge of the circle (this will depend on the size of your head and the size of the circle), cut another circle with the diameter of your head.  If you have a larger head, try making the top of the hat bigger to accomodate your big ole' melon.  Smaller heads can get away with a nine inch diameter on the top.  Once you have your pattern pieces, cut them out of the fabric. 

Sew the two circles together.  If you want to, turn it inside out to make the edge neater.  You can also just leave it raw.  It was commonly done either way during that period.  Go back to your piece of fabric and cut out a band piece to go around your head and a semicircle for the brim.  The band should be like a long rectangle.  The band can be up to 2 1/2 inches tall.  Just remember to double the desired height when you cut out your band or else you will not be able to fold it.

Fold the band and sew the top and bottom edges of it together with the brim in between them.  The brim should be made of two identical pieces with interfacing in between them to keep it stiff.  Then, turn the band inside out and sew the ends together to make a circular tube that should fit snugly around your head.

Sew the band and the top together and you have a pinwheel hat.

For decoration, you can take the piece of canvas and paint it.  Sew buttons on either side of the hat like in the picture below and button the canvas on to them once the paint dries.