From the First Shot fired at Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861, to the last shot fired at Appomattox, food played a crucial role in the Civil War. In Starving the South, culinary historian Andrew Smith takes a fascinating gastronomical look at the war and its aftermath. At the time, the North mobilized its agricultural resources, fed its civilians and military, and still had massive amounts of food to export to Europe. The South did not; while people starved, the morale of their soldiers waned and desertions from the Army of the Confederacy increased.

The legacy of this divide lives on today. The necessity of providing food transformed local markets into large, nationalized, and industrialized food suppliers. It forced the development of the northern canning industry, solidified the celebration of Thanksgiving as a national holiday, and forged the first truly national cuisine as emancipated slaves immigrated northward carrying the recipes and favors of the South with them. On the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Sumter, culinary historian Andrew F. Smith is the first to ask, "Did hunger defeat the Confederacy?"--Jacket.