A mess was a group of soldiers who would “chip in” or combine food and effort in the preparation of a meal. While the Civil War dragged on small group messes were normally reserved for on the march while in place camps field kitchens quickly sprung up to feed the soldiers. This was in no small part due to the more organized Medical Department. Cleanliness and quality food preparation became more of a focal point following 1862 in the U.S. due to the health toll of the previous year’s experiences. Sickness killed more soldiers than the millions of bullets fired during the four year war.

After the American Civil War the military made it a standard to have hot meals served behind the main lines of battle. When World War I rolled in, U.S. soldiers were given fresh hot meals whenever possible. It is noted among military historians that the U.S. Doughboys were fed on average better than their allied counterparts. When a hot meal was unable to be sent to the front lines the U.S. soldier carried on them emergency field rations which consisted of over 3,000 calories, plenty for a day’s worth of fighting or labor.

By military tradition, officer’s generally ate separate from their enlisted soldiers and in the early army up to mid 20th century officers were expected to pay for their own meals. Since January 2002 Enlisted soldiers receive full Basic Allowance for Sustenance or BAS while officers receive less. This reduced level of pay is mainly due to military tradition. Officers were always paid more than enlisted and historically came from better economic social and financial positions in society, these economic considerations and and the traditions that came from it has been maintained.

Outfitting officer’s mess needs from the U.S. Quartermaster Department is a fairly new expectation. The transition from private outfitting to state or federal outfitting started during the Civil War in part to the various states having control on what their militias went to the field with. The vast majority of officers had to outfit themselves with their cooking and eating implements during the American Civil War, lucky ones who had a wealthy commanding officer or patrons would provide their officer corps with mess chests. This created some problems though with consistency and transportation. There were regulations in place that limited the size of officer’s baggage and articles which certainly helped the Quartermasters determine how many wagons was needed and get the articles where they were needed but with so many inconsistencies that added to the trouble of it all, after the war many changes took place.

When the American Civil War ended entire regiments were mustered out and the standing fighting force went back to a much smaller size as the country focused on reconstruction and mending itself. The reduced military force, the incredible records that were kept during the war, and all the experimentation that went on with organization finally permitted the U.S. Quartermaster’s Department to regroup and tidy things up, especially regulations and creating a sense of universal standards. The Army regulations have long listed what was to be contained in the officer’s mess chest and there were efforts to standardize sizes and patterns but very often the items varied in pattern and quality with no true standardization. Military inspectors had very loose guidelines to go by to fill the vast needs of the war in which the country was not well prepared for.

Guidelines and intense effort by the Quartermaster’s Department was put into being specific with patterns, markings, and inspections so standards could be maintained which made the whole job of the quartermasters much easier. If something needed replaced in a mess chest for example, a new one that would certainly fit could be ordered or drawn from Quartermaster stores. Shipping the expansive baggage and equipment could be more accurately calculated and space could be accounted for and to their credit, efficiency of using every inch of space was utilized. Much less waste was achieved. With the establishment of universal standards of state militias, later to be called National Guard units, the same level of efficiency of Regular units could be achieved. This encouraged or even enabled state and federal military forces to support each other logistically. We can give some of the credit to universal standards to military officers like Jonathan Letterman who fought hard, even at the expense of some of their credibility to seize the opportunities to make changes and better the lives of the soldiers. Change in the military is often extremely slow due to the bureaucratic nature of the organization as a whole and military and social traditions. The “we’ve always done it this way and it works” can be a seemingly small speedbump but in reality is more often a monstrous mountain with all the red tape and gate keepers in the way of making progress.

The M1937 Officer’s Mess Chest was another iteration of boxes that came before with some very new adaptations. Earlier versions of mess chests contained the cooking implements and the eating plates and utensils. The newest rendition instead only held the plates, bowls, platter, cups, serving coffee pot, sugar bowl, salt and pepper shakers, and eating utensils. The newer style of warfare that required quick movements of soldiers and advancing lines did not dictate a need for an all in one cooking and serving set. The M1937 mess chests were primarily only used for stable camps and bases of operations, officers were issued the traditional mess kits and served food either in mess lines or reheated their field rations in their mess kits.

Before and after World War II the M1937 mess chests contained serving dishes made of aluminum which permitted the light transport of the implements. Due to metal rationing in the U.S. after Pearl Harbor and the United States entering the war, the Quartermaster’s department used enamelware of the same pattern. The enamelware was well suited for field ware, it had been used extensively by campers, explorers, and in kitchens all over the United States in the early 20th century. Enamelware is durable, does not rust if cared for, and was hygienic. The problems included the tendency to crackle and chip if changes in extreme temperatures occurred which would invariably lead to rust and was significantly heavier than the aluminum ware.

Bibliography:

Army Heritage Center Foundation. “World War I Rations: Full Belly, Fully Ready.” Army Heritage Center Foundation, September 9, 2020. https://www.armyheritage.org/soldier-stories-information/world-war-i-rations-full-belly-fully-ready/.

THE ARMY EMERGENCY RATION. JAMA. 1895;XXV(23):1004–1005. doi:10.1001/jama.1895.02430490032013

Moss, James A. 1917. Officer’s Manual. Menasha: George Banta Pub. Co.