A Piece of History

PEA RIDGE — On any given day, visitors can peruse the grounds of the Pea Ridge National Military Park, where a significant battle took place during the Civil War. But on Saturday afternoon, it was about more than just the land.

There was the smell of Civil War era cooking — and it attracted a significant crowd.

Doug Laman was all smiles underneath his leather hat, cooking over his hot pan in front of the old Elkhorn Tavern, one of the most recognizable and important structures at Pea Ridge National Military Park. Laman, a Civil War re-enactor, spent the afternoon putting on a cooking demonstration for visitors interested in learning what life was like as a soldier fighting the war.

It was all there, steaming and laid out on the table in front of him.

Parched corn. Roasted peanuts. Beans. Chicken stew. Turnip greens with bacon. Extremely thick hunks of bacon. And cornbread, fried and baked.

“ If you were a soldier, you were marching a long, long way, ” Laman said. “ So you didn’t carry anything more than you absolutely had to. When it came to food, you ate whatever you could get your hands on — whatever was around. So these soldiers ate a lot of corn. They made corn everything. ”

Laman stood over his hot dish, cutting up a freshly baked cornbread cake. And he did it the old fashioned way. Everything he made was cooked in old tin cans with metal hooks, so they could be hung over the campfire. The cornbread was a big hit with visitors on Saturday, as just about every person who passed through the park grabbed a piece. Some came back for seconds.

“ This baked cornbread is what they would have made at winter camp, ” Laman said. “ The menu varied slightly depending on the season and if you were on the march or not. But the bacon was always thick. A lot of times, the rind was left on. It was a big hunk of pork. That’s the way they liked it. ”

Marilyn Vits of Bella Vista was among the many visitors at the park on Saturday who was particularly interested to get a closer look at Civil War cooking.

“ I still have a few letters my great grandfather wrote while he was in the war, ” Vits said. “ He mentions several times how glad he was just to have food. So this is all fascinating to me. To see what he ate and what he had to do. It makes those letters come alive. ”

(Benton County Daily Record)