"Possum is not so bad."

Tuesday, January 31, 1864, in the Trenches

We have been told the most monstrous lies. The newspapers have said that Hood and Price were winning great victories. Hood was poised to cross the Ohio and take the war into Yankeedom. Taylor was poised to join Hood in this movement. All this is a pack of lies. Hood has been whipped and nearly destroyed at Nashville. Price is used up and might not ever fight again. Where Taylor is is anyone's guess.
                                       

General John Bell Hood

Major General Sterling Price.

Major General Samuel Curtis, who defeated Price.

Major General George Thomas, who broke Hood.

Lieutenant General Richard Taylor

All we know is whatever is in front of us. We can trust nothing else and no one else.
Except our own Lee, of course. He has not and would never mislead us. Lord, give us Spring and let us out of these works. We need to show the Yankees that every gain they make elsewhere can be undone here, by us.

The Commissary has not done well by us so we must trust in our own devices. Hancock and Castles have been boasting that they were good possum hunters back home. We have all grown tired of this bragging but it was White who challenged them to make good or be quiet. We are fortunate that they both rose to the challenge. They said that the rest of the mess, less Terry and Vincent, go forth and forage whatever fixings might be eaten with possum. While the four valiant possum hunters pursued their quarry, Will Crenshaw and myself found some very frozen wild onions. Troy Crenshaw said he might know where he could, "obtain," was the word he used, a sweet potato or two.

Hancock and Castles certainly have a knack for finding the wintering possum in his burrow. They brought back two, neither very large but no one complained. Terry and Vincent were put to skinning while White melted snow for water to cook with. Troy did, indeed, find two sweet potatoes and we asked no questions. One after another, the skinned possums were fried in their own fat of which there was plenty, along with the onions. The potatoes were boiled with a smart bit of rice that Hancock had. We mixed in some corn meal to thicken the pot. Possum is not so bad. We ate every part of the meal and pronounced it first rate. We hope to get some more.

Supper.

I Send You These Few Lines

Tooms and his pads have every right to be angry at the newspapers. I cannot say whether the papers were deliberately lying or just incompetent but either way, they got it so very, very wrong. The Richmond Dispatch of January 16 reported that Hood had been defeated at Nashville but offered no details. The same paper, of the 19th, quoting a Charleston paper, said that Hood's losses during the entire Tennessee campaign were only 8,000 and that he still had plenty of artillery. On the 25th, the casualties for the battle of Nashville the previous month were reported to be 4,000 and that the retreat was, "masterful." 

The truth, which will become common knowledge at some point, is that Hood lost half his Army of Tennessee for the campaign as a whole and was given a proper smashing by Thomas at Nashville. Hood and what was left of his army retreated to Tupelo, Mississippi. His losses in artillery amounted to 65 of 124 guns. Counting the loss of horses, wagons, supplies and manpower, these were losses that the Confederacy could not afford to lose. By the time Tooms and his pads learned the truth, Hood had resigned command.

"Pap" Price fared no better. Union General Curtis ran him into the ground in several states, including Kansas. Price started his campaign with 12,000 men and ended with 6,000. Confederate offensive operations west of the Mississippi were finished for the duration of the war.

For those of you readers who have a taste for possum, just Google, "possum recipes," and enjoy yourselves. And yes, possums are greasy.