Frying Pans Get Panned
It's morning at a Civil War living history event. Reveille has sounded, and you have answered the first roll call of the day. Everyone huddles around fire at the head of the company street. One of your pards starts frying up his salt pork - on a skillet unlike any ever used by a soldier during the Civil War.
Cast iron cookware was certainly available during the Civil War era, but the heavy black skillets used by many reenactors are of a style that postdates the war. They are usually too heavy to have been practical on campaign anyway. Several other equally anachronistic skillet types are offered by some sutlers and used by reenactors.
The standard skillet of the Civil War era, and the one we should be using to simulate Civil War soldiers, is shown in the accompanying drawing. There were many minor variations on this type, but nearly all featured shallow, sheet metal pans and wrought iron handles riveted together. Handles usually had loops or hooks. There is a good photograph of an original skillet of this style on page 134 of William C. Davis' Fighting Men of the Civil War, New York: Gallery Books, 1989, and on page 214 of Time-Life's Echoes of Glory, Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy, Alexandria: 1991. To see photographs of originals in use during the war, look at pages 189 and 196 of William C. Davis' The Image of War: 1861-1865, Volume II, The Guns of '62, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1982. An actual example, recovered from a Confederate warship, is on exhibit at the Confederate Naval Museum at Columbus, Georgia. To see well-reproduced early 19th century cookware in use, visit Fort Snelling at Minneapolis (or see a photograph of their gear, including a skillet, in "Where Are The Spatulas?" by Sanders and Shaw in the Summer/Fall, 1992 number of Midwest Open-Air Museum Magazine.
The writer has two reproduction skillets of this style, one 6 inches in diameter, which fits nicely into a haversack, and a larger one 12-inches acrosss. Unfortunately, he cannot recall from whom he acquired them. The Watchdog invites suppliers to step forward and identify themselves.
- N.H.
The staff of The Watchdog welcomes Barbara Kelly as our resident artist. We hope soon to have the capability of using photographic images, also, but we are grateful to Barbaraf for volunteering her services and her talents. - Editor
Cast iron cookware was certainly available during the Civil War era, but the heavy black skillets used by many reenactors are of a style that postdates the war. They are usually too heavy to have been practical on campaign anyway. Several other equally anachronistic skillet types are offered by some sutlers and used by reenactors.
The standard skillet of the Civil War era, and the one we should be using to simulate Civil War soldiers, is shown in the accompanying drawing. There were many minor variations on this type, but nearly all featured shallow, sheet metal pans and wrought iron handles riveted together. Handles usually had loops or hooks. There is a good photograph of an original skillet of this style on page 134 of William C. Davis' Fighting Men of the Civil War, New York: Gallery Books, 1989, and on page 214 of Time-Life's Echoes of Glory, Arms and Equipment of the Confederacy, Alexandria: 1991. To see photographs of originals in use during the war, look at pages 189 and 196 of William C. Davis' The Image of War: 1861-1865, Volume II, The Guns of '62, Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1982. An actual example, recovered from a Confederate warship, is on exhibit at the Confederate Naval Museum at Columbus, Georgia. To see well-reproduced early 19th century cookware in use, visit Fort Snelling at Minneapolis (or see a photograph of their gear, including a skillet, in "Where Are The Spatulas?" by Sanders and Shaw in the Summer/Fall, 1992 number of Midwest Open-Air Museum Magazine.
The writer has two reproduction skillets of this style, one 6 inches in diameter, which fits nicely into a haversack, and a larger one 12-inches acrosss. Unfortunately, he cannot recall from whom he acquired them. The Watchdog invites suppliers to step forward and identify themselves.
- N.H.
The staff of The Watchdog welcomes Barbara Kelly as our resident artist. We hope soon to have the capability of using photographic images, also, but we are grateful to Barbaraf for volunteering her services and her talents. - Editor