8. Southern troops made a soup from weeds, herbs, and inedible parts of vegetable plants
In the Confederate Army, particularly as rations dwindled to almost nothing near the end of the war, soldiers made soups out of whatever plant life they could find, including thistles, pokeweed, lambs quarter, tree bark, and anything else. Soldie’s retreating across Georgia before Sherman’s Army were in many ways better off than those in the trenches at Richmond, where the ground had long been stripped bare and offered little in the way of sustenance. The mixture of plants was often such that it induced violent diarrhea, further weakening the men who were already suffering from malnutrition and dehydration.