Hi everyone,
I've become interested in Karolinian soldiers' daily lives (especially in regards to food rations) in the Great Northern War after reading the following bit on Wikipedia.
"The rules were very strict in the Karolinian army. For example, stealing food from another soldier led to very severe punishment. Plundering, often used to be part of the daily lives of soldiers, was forbidden. This prohibition was not always met, for example, at Narva and Lemberg. ...
The food tonnage for a soldier in the army could be 625 grams of dry bread, 850 grams of butter or pork, one-third of peas and 2.5 liters of beer a day."
That is a hefty amount of food daily, and I'd like to know more about this. However, the source quoted by Wikipedia is obscure, and I haven't seen much research done on this topic at all.
Anyone have information, suggestions or sources for such a topic?
The Carolean army had a base ration of,
Hard Swedish crisp bread.
Peas.
Grouts.
Butter or pork or pork lard.
Meat (sometimes supplemented by fish).
Beer (dark and cloudy small beer of 1-2% ABV).
Foraging for food or plundering was, as you mention, strictly forbidden. The supply services of the army would forage and acquire food from the land and distribute it fairly. Most of the time, this meant that food was scarce in supply. Before the Battle of Narva, 1700, the soldiers were supplied with 4 days rations on the 23rd of November, which had to last them until the 30th of November, when the battle commenced, as the land around Narva had been looted utterly by the large Russian army.
On the other hand, when the army occupied Saxony in 1707, letters from soldiers indicate the hard crips bread was replaced with freshly baked soft wheat bread buns and the beer with Saxonian wine.
The Hälsinge Regiment war diary (from the 1718 campaign against Norway) lists the rations when marching into Norway as;
Bread 637 grams.
Grouts 1/3 liter.
Meat 283 grams.
Salt 16 grams.
It also mentions that the supposed ration of pork or butter of 170 grams cannot be supplied.
Ellen Fries wrote "Teckningar ur svenska adelns familjelif i gamla tider" in 1900. Fries had access to the personal letters between Major Jon Stålhammar and his wife Sofia Drake, where the Major lists the rations as;
Almost 2 pounds bread and as much meat and half a pound butter or pork. In addition thereof 1/8 kanna grouts or peas. The soldier also got a small amount of salt and to that some money for tobacco. On top of this 1 kanna of beer.
A "kanna" was roughly 2,6 liters. A Swedish pound was 425 grams.
Solders were organised into 25-men korpralskap lead by a corporal and these men would often cook together. Boiling food was considered the best way to get salt out of salted meat and fish, and getting a hot meal essential to the wellbeing of the soldier. Grouts were boiled into porridges or gruel, often with added dried meat or dried fish, peas were often put into classic pea soups with pork.