Video
The Food that Fueled the Civil War and Built America
Transcript
Hello, my name is Will Wilson. I'm one of the park rangers here at Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park. Today we are here at the horse un-loading area on the Chickamauga Battlefield, and off to my left is what would have been the Dry Valley Road and that road is actually where much of the Union army's wagons would have been in place and this would have been a route off of the battlefield for the Union army, but that's really not what we're going to be talking about just yet. What I would like to ask you is, what is one thing we as as humans need in order to survive? Well, it's food, of course, and it would have been no different for that Union or Confederate soldier at the time of the Civil War. He would have had to have some kind of sustenance to be able to make those long marches and endure the trials of a battle. How would he have gotten those food stores that he relied on? Well, it came through the quartermaster department for both Union and Confederate armies. Now, the Federal quartermaster department had a budget of a little over a billion dollars at that time that's over 30 billion dollars in today's money.
Unlike, not unlike, the armies themselves, the quartermaster department was organized. You would have had a regimental quartermaster, usually a lieutenant, that was the one to issue those goods and stuff to to the soldier themselves. You would have had a brigade quartermaster, typically a captain. You would have then had the division quartermaster, usually a major. The corps chief quartermaster was typically a lieutenant colonel and then, of course, the chief quartermaster of an army was typically a colonel, and they would have all had their associates and staff as well. Now, this job of being a quartermaster is a demanding one. The responsibilities are huge and the reward is very little, particularly if you're looking to gain some glory, if you will, from fighting in battles and such. But nonetheless, it was something that was absolutely imperative that these armies had and had very good logistics of. How did they do that? How did they supply these soldiers? Well, it was with this, what you see behind me here. This is the Model-1858 six-mule team wagon, and it would have been just like the 18 wheelers that we see on our interstates today, of the Civil War. The wagon itself, on the inside, is roughly 120 inches long, so almost 10 feet; about 43 inches wide, about three and a half feet; by 22 inches high, so almost two feet, and you see here on the front would have been a box for for tools. The pole here is where mules would have been hitched and in the rear, where our feed box is situated right now, actually would have been hitched to the to the rear of the wagon, and underneath the axle, the rear axle, there would have been a bucket of water, a bucket of grease. Now we, of course, have our feed trough here on on the pole and as the wagon comes to rest, those animals would have been unhitched and allowed to feed here, right at the the wagon itself. Now, the mule skinner, or or the driver if you will, unlike what you might think, is not sitting up here on the seat. He's actually riding in a saddle on the pole mule, the mule that is on the left side and closest to the wheel here. He does have reins leading out to the lead mules, and he's going to be giving commands like "Yay," to tell those mules to go forward , or "Haw" and a little tug on the rein to make them go left, or "Gee," to make them go right. Of course, a good team, that perhaps had been together a while, they could just go off the voice commands themselves, but these wagons typically, and if it's a good road, not to mention a dry road and you had a healthy team of animals to pull that load, it could pull about 2,500 up to 2,800 pounds. But that's not going to be the case for the Union Army of the Cumberland, in particular during the Chattanooga Campaign. You see, the the Army of the Cumberland and and the Confederate Army of Tennessee have been fighting each other in middle Tennessee, making their way back towards Chattanooga. In doing so, they're going to have to cross up and over the Cumberland Plateau. Now, as the Army of the Cumberland is doing this, one thing that they did do, we have actually accounts of them hitching a log to the rear of the wagons, to act as a drag as they're making their descent coming off of the Cumberland Plateau down into the Sequatchie Valley. But then guess what, they have to come up Walden's Ridge, that eastern escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau and then back down it once more. So it was a very arduous task at best, and those loads, which on a good day as mentioned could be about 2,500 pounds, those had to be reduced by half. So, these wagons are really a lifeline for these soldiers.
Here's where it gets complicated though. So, if we were to take our six-mule team and one wagon, and let's just say we lined them up nose to wagon, nose to wagon, that would have stretched for 88 wagons in one mile. Now, it is certainly unlikely that they would have traveled one mile with 88 wagons within that mile. Now, it is certainly possible that you could have seen about 60 maybe even 70 wagons within a mile. Now, these wagons, and in particular the ones with the Union Army of the Cumberland, we actually have accounts from just the 20th Corps. Now keep in mind the the Army of the Cumberland consists of about five different corps, but we have accounts and reports within the 20th Corps, that stated they had 438 wagons for just those food stores alone. When you consider the baggage, the ammunition wagons, the tool wagons, and wagons carrying medical supplies, it would have been a total of 751 wagons. Now of course, we multiply 751 by six, you're going to get 4,506 mules to pull those wagons. Now additionally, there would have been 105 ambulances accompanying the 20th Corps. Ambulances were a little bit different though. They would have been pulled by horses, but you add additional 210 horses, you're gonna get a total of 856 vehicles and 4,716 animals, just for the 20th Corps, and that is excluding the artillery. Now, it is estimated that the Army of the Cumberland is going to have about 4,000 vehicles accompanying it and about 45,000 animals. Just think of the logistics in feeding those animals alone.
So, what were those rations that these soldiers would have been issued? Rations that could have been carried by them for five, six, and maybe even up to ten days, before they could have been resupplied with wagons, like this one. Well, the staple of the Union soldier's
diet consisted of hard tack. A three by three square piece of bread, that would have been arriving in boxes like you see here. Boxes from the Bent & Company, from Milton, Massachusetts, and we'll talk a little bit more about Josiah Bent and Bent & Company a little later in the program.
But the hard tack is really going to be what is the number one thing that is used for food sustenance by a Civil War soldier. It is, of course, where we get the "cracker line's" nickname from. Now, they would have been issued other food stores as well. Of course, as far as a a meat product go, if the army did not have meat on the hoof, if you will, or beef that might be accompanying along with the army, they would have used a pickling type of mixture in barrels to put beef in. That was supposed to keep that beef good for about two years, but oftentimes that meat became, arrived rancid. A lot of times these soldiers would actually let it soak in a creek for several hours to try and draw some of that brine out, as it was just so salty, but another staple, of course, would be salted pork. Again salted, and the pork fat that had been salted and been able to be kept for long periods of time. Of course, when it was first issued to the soldier probably been sitting up for a while itself so it's not very fresh all the way around but, nonetheless, something for those soldiers to eat. Other items that soldiers would have been issued,
and again little cloth sacks to hold rice, flour, some peas and beans would have also been a staple of the soldier's diet. But if I were to ask you, what is one thing that you think could have saved more lives on the Civil War battlefield than anything else? Medical historians point to this one thing; how about coffee. What do you have to do with the coffee?
Well, you got to boil the water, right, for that nice cup of joe. Well, boiling that water is going to kill any of the pathogens that might be in some tainted water, and so by doing that coffee is probably the one thing that saved more lives than anything else.
Now, as we go to our next location, I just want you to think of how difficult it is for, again, these soldiers to have to rely on wagons like this, trying to get through mountains and muddy roads and how they endured, with living again, rationing out something that they were given five, six, ten days ago before they can get resupplied, and now think about how it is so easy for us to just go to the store and get what it is that we need. So, our next stop we're going to talk a little bit more about how the Industrial Revolution is going to play the role in how mass food production is going to come into existence in our country, and how it is going to be what we all recognize, as we make our way to our local grocery store or supermarket today. So, we'll see you at our next stop.
Well, welcome back everybody, and welcome to my kitchen. Probably not where you thought we would end up with the conclusion of this program, but I think you'll see real quick why we are here, just like kitchen at your house. So, we left just a minute ago talking about the Civil War soldier, the food that he would have been issued, and of course eaten. Now, we're going to transition a little bit to immediately after the Civil War, during the time of the Industrial Revolution and how food production is going to transform itself. So, in the 1860 census, roughly 65 percent of the country's population at that time worked or lived on a farm, and worked in some farming capacity. So when people live on and work on farms, you're pretty much self-sufficient. You pretty much have all the things that you need for, you know, for yourself your immediate family. You can raise crops. You can have livestock, but after the Civil War, our country's population shifts. It begins to move to the cities. Of course, when you move to the city you can't take the chicken coop. You can't take the hogs. So you have to rely on somebody to feed you. Now today, the food industry drives more than one-fifth of the U.S. economy and it is responsible for one in four American jobs, and generates more than five billion dollars - a day. Now, we'll be talking a little bit about some of the products you see here that we all know, and you probably even have some in your kitchen, in your fridge or your pantry. Just know that we're not endorsing any of these products, we are just going to talk a little bit about the history of them. We'll start with something pretty simple, something that actually pretty much everybody probably has in their pantry, their cupboard, a can of vegetables, right. But Thomas Kensett, who was born in 1786, in England, and and will immigrate to the United States is first going to be an engraver but in 1825, he has moved to New York and he and his uncle will obtain the first patent for storing food in tin cans, and this really is America's first way of storing food like fish and fruits and vegetables and meats, but originally Kensett had stored them in glass containers, glass jars, but he finds that this is too expensive of a process to maintain and really they are prone to to breaking, and so that's why he leans towards the tin can. Now, this again is in 1825. So it is certainly possible that as a Civil War soldier, you could have found a tin can of fruits or vegetables, but again, this was a an expensive process, so this was more of a luxury, so it's really unlikely that that many soldiers would have had a tin can issued to them, really kind of as a ration on a daily basis. Now, as we were talking again a minute ago, about that number one staple, certainly for the Union soldier, that hardtack cracker and and the box that it came in, 50 pounds of of that hard bread, and on that lid you would have seen the Bent & Company in Milton, Massachusetts, logo on that box. Josiah Bent is going to actually sell his company to the American Biscuit Company. Later on, the American Biscuit Company sells to the National Biscuit Company, NABISCO, who makes, of course, our saltine crackers, and you can see the saltine cracker, of course a lot thinner than the hardtack. Something that we eat with soup and salad on a daily basis. Now, if we could just get them to let us know how to get into these cracker sleeves a little bit easier. But you know one thing that a Civil War soldier certainly could have had, and particularly again a Union soldier, would have been some condensed milk and, of course, you can see here by Borden, the Eagle Brand, if you will. Gail Borden, who was born in 1801, in New York, will, in 1856, receive a patent for his process of condensing milk by vacuum. Now during the Civil War, Borden's condensed milk was ordered in vast quantities to supply the Union army. So, it is very likely that a Union soldier could have very easily had Borden's condensed milk, and that is 160 years ago, and here it is today, 2021, we have the same thing in our kitchens. Now, as we look at some of the other things here, of course, the one thing that is going to stand out to you, just like everybody else, and really only needs one word to to describe it, Coke. Of course, I'm talking of Coca-Cola. John Pemberton, not to be confused with the Confederate general of the same name, who was the commander of the Confederate Army of Vicksburg, of course engaged against Ulysses S. Grant during the Vicksburg Campaign, nonetheless John Pemberton will be a lieutenant colonel in the 3rd Calvary Battalion of the Georgia State Guard. He will see action at the Battle of Columbus, where he is wounded with a saber and that wound is going to leave lasting pain for the rest of his life. Pemberton will eventually become a pharmacist and will be working on a way to try and create an elixir, a medicine, that he can use without morphine, because of his addiction to morphine, to try and ease that pain, and so he will actually create the formula for Coca-Cola in 1886. It is said that it was "beneficial for ladies and all those whose sedentary employment causes nervous prostration." Of course, today Coca-Cola is one of the largest and most iconic brands in the entire world, but again has its origins in the past immediately after the Civil War. So, earlier we did talk a little bit about the meat that Civil War soldiers were issued, like that one pound of salted pork, and it didn't take long for someone to realize the potential in packaging meat for large numbers of people. That individual is Philip Danforth Armor, who was born in 1832. He founds the Armor and Company in Chicago, Illinois, in 1867. Of course, the location of the main meat packing plant that you can see in this postcard, it ensured that being next to the rail yard that he could ship his product anywhere in the country from Chicago, and we still, even today, will have some of that type of product here in in our kitchens today.
Now, as we sit here in in the kitchen, at a kind of a breakfast bar if you will, it's hard to realize and to think of breakfast without Kellogg's, and Kellogg's is started by Will Keith Kellogg, who was born in 1860. In fact, his half brother Albert will serve in the 25th Michigan Infantry. Will Kellogg and his brother John, who is a physician and ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium, will develop a toasted corn flake in 1894, and it is of course what we know today as Corn Flakes.
But, most everybody that I know, and this probably includes you, has a sweet tooth, and we can probably blame one Milton Hershey for that sweet tooth that we all have.
The Hershey's Milk Chocolate bar is pretty much a staple as well, you know, in American households and throughout the world today. Milton Hershey was born in 1857, in Derry Township, Pennsylvania. He will actually create the Lancaster Caramel Company in 1883, but by 1900, he will have sold the Lancaster Caramel Company and is going to purchase a large track of land just outside of of Lancaster, to create a factory for manufacturing his milk chocolate, again in the countryside, where he knows that he can very easily obtain the the milk from all the dairy farms, and of course, it is today what we know as Hershey, Pennsylvania. Today, 250 million Hershey bars a year are made. Now, the thing I want us to take from all of this is that each of these items are items that are still here. Items that are very prominent in our society today. You can find them in any grocery store, any supermarket, and in your own kitchen, but they all have their origins back, some over 160 years, and these are all, in a way, a tangible link to that past. We can probably sit there and think of an ancestor that used condensed milk to to feed a baby, to open a can of vegetables, that was something that, you know, hadn't been heard of until the can came along, but today we take all of this for granted because all we have to do is just run out to the store to purchase it.
I hope that you enjoyed this program, thanks for watching.
Description
Did you know some of the same foods that we consume today had their origins in companies dating back to the Civil War? Immediately after the Civil War, during the period of the Industrial Revolution, many of the iconic brands that we know of and purchase in supermarkets and grocery stores began as simple ideas from individuals with dreams of making products that had a lasting impact on our society. We hope you can join us as we explore the history of some of your favorite food and drinks and their legacies
Duration
25 minutes, 7 seconds
Credit
NPS
Date Created
05/22/2021
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