Canteen Skillet??

[pvt_jb]

Hello everyone,

I have found a canteen half skillet with a iron handle from Blockade Runner. They say it is a copy from an original. I thought this might be another good option beside the traditional skillet but not sure if it is a good idea. Any opinions?

http://www.blockaderunner.com/Catalog/catpg26.htm

Thank you for your input.

Jeremy Bevard

[jurgitemvaletem]

I reccomend purchasing the canteen half itself, not the one with the handle. You can later add to it to suit your needs and wishes. I purchsed the plain canteen half several years ago and cut a half circle in the top and completed the circle with wire. It works great for me. I know a guy who poked 2 holes in the side and uses a long forked piece of wire to hold it with. They prove to invaluable when going long distances on the march, but still needing to cook your food.

thanks,
Jurgitem Valetem

[John Legg]

My Pard punched One hole in His canteen half. So he can use his bayonet to pick it up/move it away from the fire. As Bayonets are useful for every think.


The Story is, from what i have herd. Soldiers would take their fallen Brother in Arms Canteens, and throw them into the fire. This would Melt the soldering(or what ever it is) and dis-connect the two halves. Then they can use it for cooking.

Cheers,

John

[Jim Mayo]

Canteen halves are usually found in yankee winter camps. Notice I said usually. I have never seen one either CS or US that was not found in a winter camp or frequently used pickett camp. The ones with any kind of handle or evidence of a handle ever being attached are even rarer. IMO these were used more for plates than skillets.

[bob 125th nysvi]

Canteen halves are usually found in yankee winter camps. Notice I said usually. I have never seen one either CS or US that was not found in a winter camp or frequently used pickett camp. The ones with any kind of handle or evidence of a handle ever being attached are even rarer. IMO these were used more for plates than skillets.

makes no sense Jim.

What were they using as plates the rest of the time?


As for me I use one with just a wire to hang it from the canteen with serves as skillet and plate. Light weight, doesn't take up any packing room and is with me always (never know when a meal might just come my way.)

Bob Sandusky
Co C 125th NYSVI
Esperance, NY

[Jim Mayo]

makes no sense Jim.

What were they using as plates the rest of the time?

I have often wondered the same thing. It is easier to document the use of plates and such in camp than on campaign.

For camp or garrison, either the plates have rusted away to nothing or else they didn't use them much. Once in a while you will find remains of a tin plate or more often shards from china in a hut site or trash pit but not in the quantity you would expect to be left by a lot of soldiers. It is also possible that many of these type items were picked up in the early days of relic hunting or right after the war for civilian use.

From reading accounts while looking for clues on what they used as eating implements on campaign, I think they must have used bannana leaves and sticks. Seriously, I think they either cooked and ate from the skillet, cooked in tin cups or cooked bread or cone pone on rocks and boards. I have read of that happening more than the use of cooking gear. It is also possible that one or two guys in a mess may have carried a plate. Just not everybody. When you look at what rations were issued while on the march it is possible to cook most everything that needs cooking on the above type items without having a plate. I also think they used their hands much more than we do in the preparation of food. I have read of how dirty one got while on campaign and the wiping of hands on coat tails or pants. When it comes down to it, corn meal and water can be mixed on a tarred haversack and cooked on a hot rock. I think a lot of that went on. I think Yankees may have had it a little better because of the supply situation. It still doesn't take a plate to hold hardtack.

[Ohioreb1861]

I will have to agree with Jim, and I have also never seen a skillet made of a canteen half with a handle.

I think its a cheap way out of using a real skillet. I'm also not a fan of using a canteen half, wait till you use the bayonet to pick up the half and dump dinner in the fire. I'd be going to the sutler next

[bob 125th nysvi]

I will have to agree with Jim, and I have also never seen a skillet made of a canteen half with a handle.

I think its a cheap way out of using a real skillet. I'm also not a fan of using a canteen half, wait till you use the bayonet to pick up the half and dump dinner in the fire. I'd be going to the sutler next

Too many of you guys don't spend enough time in the kitchen.

It is actually very easy to reach for a canteen half on a well mannered fire using a huckabuck towel to snatch it off the fire. Where do you think the idea for hot mitts came from?

Notice I said 'well mannered' fire. Too often campfires become the province of the unit pyromaniac.

Bob Sandusky
Co C 125th NYSVI
Esperance, NY

[Dignann]

Out of curiosity, where does our practice of using canteen halves for cooking originate? I'm guessing from Hardtack and Coffee, Life of Billy Yank, or some similar source.

If anyone has specifice period references to cooking on canteen halves, please post them. I'm asking for specific accounts, not "I remember reading once."

Thanks.

Eric

[Minieball577]

John Billings writes of using the canteen half as a frying pan in Hardtack and Coffee, page 133-134, the Chapter entitled Army Rations.

"It was common sight on the march to see them (regular frying pans) borne aloft on a musket, to which they were lashed, or tucked beneath the straps of a knapsack. But there was another fry-pan which distanced these both in the respect of lightness and space. The soldier called in his own ingenuity to aid him here as in so many other directions and consequently the men could be seen by scores frying the food in their tin plate, held in the jaws of a split stick, or FULLY AS OFTEN an old canteen was unsoldered and its concave sides mustered into active duty as fry-pans."

I use this book as a "text book" in the class I teach about the war, and students (High School) get a kick out of references about soldier's ability to adapt things to their needs.