Both Confederate and Union soldiers had a diet high

in salt, scurvy was common. The food was inadequate. The water was poor. They ate Cowpea Bread made from black-eyed peas. In Vicksburg it was said that rats sold for $2.50. During the Civil War about 20% of farm workers eventually served in the Union army creating an acute farm labor shortage.
The New York Times 1863..."Women do not get up street riots, break open provision shops, and pillage bakeries and flour stores from political sympathies. When their children are in peril of starvation, they become capable of anything."

(from deb's reading....)