While on the march in pursuit of Price down the "Telegraph road," the main column passed through the little town of Cassville.  Some of the passing throng broke into a drug store and appropriated such of its contents as their needs or inclinations suggested.  One of the Sergeants of Company A Cavalry, discovered a package of white powder, which he conceived to be saleratus, and at once confiscated it for the use of the Sergeant's mess.  Not being quite sure of the chemical properties of his plunder, he submitted the stuff to comrade Judd -- who had at one time officiated as a druggist's clerk -- for his opinion.  Judd pronounced it "saleratus, and no mistake."  That night the cavalry companies encamped on a hill near Sugar Creek, and though tired, were jubilant over the prospect of raised cakes for supper, in place of the usual cold water "slap jacks."  The fires were soon fiercely blazing, the cakes mixed, and a liberal quantity of "saleratus" sprinkled in.

It was fun to cook pancakes in the army: A little flour, salt and water, a good fire, a long handled skillet, a little grease, and one is ready for business.  Warm the pan, pour in the grease, douse in the dough, let it sizzle a while, then give it a shake, a twitch and a flop, and over it goes, just as easy as falling off a log -- if one only knows how.

On this occasion the cakes were soon cooked, and the large-hearted, generous Sergeants of Company A cheerfully shared their good fortune with Lieuts. Sherer, Ferre and Reynolds, who composed the officers' mess.  That was a delightful repast, heartily eaten and praised by nearly all.  One or two of the boys, however, remarked the cakes did not appear much lighter than those made without saleratus.  Supper over, the men composing the mess stood around the camp fire talking over the events of the day and prospects of the morrow, satisfied with their surroundings, and even jolly.  In a few moments there was a lull in the conversation, the boys were less blithesome and more uncomfortable than usual; a deathly pallor was observed in the faces of some, which but a moment before were wreathed in smiles.  Sergeant Snow was seen retreating into the woods, and Sergeant White stole silently away in another direction, followed soon after by Collins, Dynan, Sherer and the balance, and such another entertainment, consisting entirely of vomiting, was seldom ever gotten up on short notice.  Oh, the "hee-ups" and "hoo-ups," the tears and groans of that sick crowd will very likely never be forgotten.  It was the event of the campaign in the line of gastronomic achievements.  It was good bye to supper and to much of the inner mechanism of the mortal corporosity.  After a time "the show," like all things else, had an end, and when the performers were restored to their usual equanimity, the question was anxiously asked, "What made those cakes rise at that particular time? and what made them rise so high?  Could it be the saleratus? and if so, why?"  A quantity of the material was taken to Surgeon Young for examination, who kindly informed the boys they had been raising their cakes with tartar emetic!  Ever after Sergt. Judd was known in his Company as, "The Apothecary."

SOURCE:  L. G. Bennett and William M. Haigh, History of the Thirty-Sixth Illinois Volunteers, During the War of the Rebellion (1876), pages 117-119.

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