Civil War era rations "stewed fruit" & bread

[BOLO]

I saw a menu with the typical foods served at a Civil War era fort and a common everyday meal was

 

bread, coffee, stewed fruit

 

whats stewed fruit? is it like jams they spread on a piece of hard tack or bread?

 

they also served some type of hash every morning probably made from leftover meat from the previous days meal

[Championhilz]

This passage is from Hard Tack and Coffee or The Unwritten Story of Army Life by John D. Billings, who served in the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War:

 

"The dried-apple ration was supplied by the government, 'to swell the ranks of the army' as some one wittily said. There seemed but one practicable way in which this could be prepared, and that was to stew it; thus cooked it made a sauce for hardtack. Sometimes dried peaches were furnished instead, but of such a poor quality that the apples , with the fifty per cent of skins and hulls which they contained, were considered far preferable."

 

 

If you have never read it, I highly recommend Hardtack and Coffee, as it gives one of the best descriptions of everyday life for the Union soldier that has ever been written.