Three Squares a Day

[RJ Samp]

Here's a cite for 'lunch' (and the use of the 'Attention' on the bugle to resume a march:

"Late 1st Lieut. 16th Regt. Mich. Vol. Infantry


"Tuesday, June 30th [1863]. Up again before daylight. It does seem as though we were being marched to death. We passed through several very pretty villages; at one called Uniontown we stopped for an hour to eat a cold lunch. The surgeon and myself availed ourselves on an invitation to step into the house of the village doctor, and his wife regaled us with music until the bugle called us to line of march. Just before sundown we arrived in the little town of Union Mills. The rebel cavalry under one of the Lees has been here for several days, only leaving about five hours before we entered it. We were met by the inhabitants with loud cheers, and a flag which had been carefully concealed during the rebel stay was proudly waving on the principal house of the town."

[Robert Braun]

Sure... we see the term "lunch" enter into the American lexicon around 1812, according to Mr. Webster.

Lunch was generally regarded as light fare in the middle of the day. More substantial fair at mid-day was called "dinner;" the meal at the end of the day was known as "supper." We have seen a transiiton in calling supper "dinner" from about the 1950's on.

Unfortunately, the Army had not caught up with the civilian convention of lunch by the outbreak of the ACW. As RJ has commented so well in the past, the Army only had two recognized meal periods. These were breakfast (using the call "Pease on the Trencher") and dinner (using the call "Roast Beef") supposedly recognized six hours after breakfast. Antebellum army records and letters do indicate a light supper or ther such snack eaten by officers and married soldiers...however this was not a recognized Army meal period.

During the ACW, America's citizen soldiers brought the concept of lunch with them... and there are certainly accounts like the one offered by RJ that confirm this practice.