More on Food for Powder from Infoplease:

• Food for Powder - Food for Powder Raw recruits levied in times of war. Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. ...
• A. E. Housman: On the idle hill of summer, - On the idle hill of summer, Sleepy with the flow of streams, Far I hear the steady drummer Drumming like a noise in dreams.
• William Shakespeare: Henry IV (Pt 1), Act IV, Scene II - Bardolph, get thee before to Coventry; fill me a bottle of sack: our soldiers shall march through; we'll to Sutton Co'fil' tonight.
• Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: F - Definitions, origins, and illustrative excerpts for words, phases, and literary allusions starting with "F"