Combat Food: Contractors and Untrained Chefs

In 1790, after the war, Congress revised the ration, first turning it over to private contractors and then, in 1790, taking out vegetables and other perishables and replacing them with two ounces (raised to four ounces in 1798) of rum, brandy, or whiskey. This kind of thinking set the tone for the next hundred years. Dr. Benjamin Rush, noted army surgeon of the Revolutionary War, wrote of the new ration, “Fatal experience … has taught … that a greater proportion of men have perished with sickness in our armies than have fallen by the sword. … The diet of soldiers should consist chiefly of vegetables” (Dickson, 1978).