Rations in the army during the Revolution were not quite up to home style eating. The daily rations, when available, consisted of bread, half pound of beef and half pound of pork, or salt fish: milk, rice, peas or beans, butter, and half a pint of vinegar. Food was always to be boiled or roasted never fried, baked or broiled becuse these methods were considered very unhealthy, Vinegar, lots of it, was supposed to be good for you. But army food of any kind was often scarce, rancid and wormy. at times biscuits captured 15 years before from the French, were served after being softened by dropping cannon balls on them. Peas served to soldiers on one occasion were referred to, in a letter home, as "hard enough for musket flints..they would break the teeth of a rat!" It is ironic that throughout the Revolution there was never a shortage of food and clothing in the colonies. Soldiers went ragged and hungry because the Continental Congress couldn't get the goods to camp. Bad roads and lack of drivers and vehicles often delayed or prevented delivery. Even more tragic was the fact that many farmers preferred to sell their wheat and flour to the British for soild gold or silver coins. The Patriots' paper dollars were of such doutful value that Washington himself once exclaimed he couldn't get a wagon load of food for a wagon load of money. War profiteers in general were condemned by General Washington as men with "a dirty mercenary spirit" ..strong words for the leader who almost never lost his temper. From:"American Revolution , Notes Quotes and Anecdotes" A Sedgewick Archives book with text by Lee M. White p44 Ann