First and foremost, thanks to all Veterans and those who are serving now.Following the attack on Fort Sumter in April 1861, four thousand soldiers moved into the newly remodeled Capitol. Men from Mass. quickly built two ovens in the basement to make the bread portion of their rations. Other ovens were built, producing 65,000 loaves a day (24/7) for a year and a half.
The Brooklyn Sanitary Fair in 1864 featured a New England kitchen with cooks in colonial garb, spinning wheels on left, and tables to eat. During the Civil War several Sanitary Fairs were held to raise money for Union troops. Click to enlarge the Library of Congress image.
Salt was important to preserve meat (like salt pork) in order to feed the soldiers. Thus, the Union navy conducted raids on Confederate salt-works, as illustrated and described in Harper's Weekly, Nov. 15, 1862.
18th Century British campaign tables, George Washington, and 19th Century American Civil War army tables. 40 sketches and photographs show some ingenious ways tables were taken apart, folded and transported by the army.
Placing sweet potatoes in or on coals from a fire is an easy way to cook them...and that is how they were cooked in the painting "General Marion Inviting a British Officer to Share His Meal." The image was on the $10 bill of the Confederate States, and on a post war South Carolina $5 bill...
A Civil War treat sold in Alexandria, Virginia stores for a penny was a gingerbread cookie "cut in the flat, rude shape of a prancing horse with very prominent ears and very stubbed legs. 
An interesting way to make a peach pot pie or cobbler is to roll out pie crust and line the sides of a stew pot or dutch oven. Add the peach slices and top with crust. Put the pot over the fire and the crust will be amazingly crispy.
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