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This reminds me of how the Continental Congress ended up appointing a Baker General to serve with Washington during the Revolutionary War. After the barrels ha

This reminds me of how the Continental Congress ended up appointing a Baker General to serve with Washington during the Revolutionary War. After the barrels had been transported by wagon out into the field and their contents distributed, soldiers devoid of ovens to make bread pooled their rations and made arrangements for those qualified bakers within their ranks to take the next step. They then went into the local community and used whatever cooking facilities were available, returning later to distribute one pound of bread for every pound of flour a soldier contributed. What they did not tell them was that for every 100 pounds of flour, some 130 one-pound loaves of bread could be produced simply because water was added. This allowed bakers to make a handsome thirty percent profit when they sold the extra loaves in the open market. For those soldiers deciding to keep their flour ration, they either transformed it into a very rough “fire cake” cooked in the coals of a nearby fire or traded it with the local country folk; many instances of straggling and plundering then ensued. There was clearly much room for improvement. https://allthingsliberty.com/2015/05/george-washingtons-baker-master/ https://allthingsliberty.com/2015/05/george-washingtons-bake...

themodelplumber 6y ago
Q: Is the author saying that the straggling & plundering happened because of the annoyance at eating fire cake? That part wasn't clear to me. And is fire cake not made with water?
- masklinn 6y ago
  > And is fire cake not made with water? It is, why?
- artsyca 6y ago
  Fire cake is made with water so soldiers who went that route would get more than a pound of cake for their pound of flour.
- catalogia 6y ago
  I think the firecake eaters had perhaps 30% more calories available to them (assuming their firecakes were cooked adequately), so they might not have been the ones straggling. But if a soldier traded his flour to the locals for booze, that would be a different story.
- jml7c5 6y ago
  After a brief search and glance at the citations, leading to "Supplying Washington's Army" by Erna Risch (written for the US Army Center of Military History), then to the original Washington Papers, here is the original letter from Knox to Washington: https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw3f.003/?sp=2 https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw3f.003/?sp=2 It has been transcribed here: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-05193 https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-... >Of the Articles of subsistence bread is the most essential, and yet of this we have been the most deficient, arising from the want of some general invariable system to govern the whole Army. In the field, all the troops receive flour of the Commissary. Some regiments have soldiers who are bakers and are permitted by the commanding officer to go to some neighbouring house, with other soldiers as their assistants, to bake for the regiment. These bakers receive the flour from the soldiers and return them a pound of bread for a pound of flour, by which means the bakers make a neat profit to themselves of 30 per cent in flour; and often times more, as they put as great a proportion of water as they please, there being no person whose duty it is to superintend them. This flour the bakers sell to the country people in the vicinity of the Camp, to the infinite damage of the public, or occupy public waggons, when the camp happens to move, to carry it away to a better market. Last year at Tappan, one or two soldiers who baked for part of one of the regiments of Artillery, consisting of not more than 250 or 300 men, saved such a stock on hand of the profits of baking for a short time, as to be able, on an Emergency to lend the Commissary of the Park, a sufficiency to issue one thousand rations for eight days. >In other regiments the soldiers are permitted to carry their flour into the country and endeavour to exchange it for bread. This is always done to a disadvantage. besides, it is a pretence for straggling, and affords opportunities to plunder and maraud. Others again make a kind of bread which they bake on stones, this, besides being unpleasant is very unhealthy. So the problem was not that soldiers were so annoyed at eating fire cake that they behaved poorly, but that allowing any soldier to his sell ration of flour gave frequent opportunity to leave camp and engage in distracted (or unscrupulous) countryside wandering. I believe allthingsliberty.com made a mistake in their article. It seems to me that the cut bakers took in the "give 1 pound flour, get 1 pound bread" trade was understood by everyone as a form of payment. In other words, I presume a soldier could choose to make their own flatbread (time-consuming, poor quality, tedious), or they could give their flour ration to the baker and get back a smaller portion of higher-quality food for less trouble. I would be surprised if it was deception, as I cannot imagine mass theft and sale of flour going unpunished by commanders (and by fellow soldiers, particularly during lean times). Though it's possible there is some other primary source that indicate otherwise.

themodelplumber 6y ago

Q: Is the author saying that the straggling & plundering happened because of the annoyance at eating fire cake? That part wasn't clear to me. And is fire cake not made with water?

masklinn 6y ago
> And is fire cake not made with water? It is, why?
artsyca 6y ago
Fire cake is made with water so soldiers who went that route would get more than a pound of cake for their pound of flour.
catalogia 6y ago
I think the firecake eaters had perhaps 30% more calories available to them (assuming their firecakes were cooked adequately), so they might not have been the ones straggling. But if a soldier traded his flour to the locals for booze, that would be a different story.
jml7c5 6y ago
After a brief search and glance at the citations, leading to "Supplying Washington's Army" by Erna Risch (written for the US Army Center of Military History), then to the original Washington Papers, here is the original letter from Knox to Washington: https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw3f.003/?sp=2 https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw3f.003/?sp=2 It has been transcribed here: https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-05193 https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/99-01-02-... >Of the Articles of subsistence bread is the most essential, and yet of this we have been the most deficient, arising from the want of some general invariable system to govern the whole Army. In the field, all the troops receive flour of the Commissary. Some regiments have soldiers who are bakers and are permitted by the commanding officer to go to some neighbouring house, with other soldiers as their assistants, to bake for the regiment. These bakers receive the flour from the soldiers and return them a pound of bread for a pound of flour, by which means the bakers make a neat profit to themselves of 30 per cent in flour; and often times more, as they put as great a proportion of water as they please, there being no person whose duty it is to superintend them. This flour the bakers sell to the country people in the vicinity of the Camp, to the infinite damage of the public, or occupy public waggons, when the camp happens to move, to carry it away to a better market. Last year at Tappan, one or two soldiers who baked for part of one of the regiments of Artillery, consisting of not more than 250 or 300 men, saved such a stock on hand of the profits of baking for a short time, as to be able, on an Emergency to lend the Commissary of the Park, a sufficiency to issue one thousand rations for eight days. >In other regiments the soldiers are permitted to carry their flour into the country and endeavour to exchange it for bread. This is always done to a disadvantage. besides, it is a pretence for straggling, and affords opportunities to plunder and maraud. Others again make a kind of bread which they bake on stones, this, besides being unpleasant is very unhealthy. So the problem was not that soldiers were so annoyed at eating fire cake that they behaved poorly, but that allowing any soldier to his sell ration of flour gave frequent opportunity to leave camp and engage in distracted (or unscrupulous) countryside wandering. I believe allthingsliberty.com made a mistake in their article. It seems to me that the cut bakers took in the "give 1 pound flour, get 1 pound bread" trade was understood by everyone as a form of payment. In other words, I presume a soldier could choose to make their own flatbread (time-consuming, poor quality, tedious), or they could give their flour ration to the baker and get back a smaller portion of higher-quality food for less trouble. I would be surprised if it was deception, as I cannot imagine mass theft and sale of flour going unpunished by commanders (and by fellow soldiers, particularly during lean times). Though it's possible there is some other primary source that indicate otherwise.