One hundred and fifty years ago, on January 19, 1863, A.F. Sperry and the 33rd Iowa Infantry suffer some lean times: Company drills were resumed on the 19th of January, as the weather was now mild and beautiful. Instead of cold and snow, and wind and storms of an Iowa Winter ,we had warmth and sun-shine. But things were not all agreeable, by any means. For some cause or other, there came and unprecedented scarcity of rations. For several days about the last of January, not only our regiment, but most of the troops at Little Rock, had actually no rations on hand for several meals before the times of drawing. In our regiment a complaint was made to the lieutenant-colonel commanding, and an extra, or advance-ration was obtained and issued. The mere reading of the abstract statement that men were out of rations for a day or two, may not sound very bad; but the actual reality of going down to the mess-table at noon, and finding nothing to eat but a rusty piece of bacon, and having no means of getting any thing elsewhere, is decidedly a disagreeable matter to a soldier.
Posted on: Sun, 19 Jan 2014 13:10:00 +0000
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