America at War : The Common Cup
supply the Southern armies with a hot beverage . Gray-clad soldiers tried everything they could think of to replace the magic bean , including alternatives like roasted acorns , malted barley , cottonseed , sweet potato peels , and the ever-present chicory root . 4 Each was toasted or mixed with a little bit of coffee so that the drink would be brown . It looked like coffee , anyway . The most successful of the substitutes was chicory root . In 1863 , a small stand opened in the French Market , New Orleans . The coffee sold at Café du Monde is still one of the most popular coffees in America . Confederate General George Pickett grew very fond of one of these substitutes , preferring a cup of morning sweet potato to one of actual coffee . No one is certain if this continued after the war . 5
The Union , however , had coffee . Prices went up , but the value of the dollar held up as well . It was plentiful and affordable for most . At 1.25 ounces per day per soldier , the average blueclad drank over thirty-six pounds of coffee in a year . What is known about Civil War soldiers and their beverage of choice comes from several sources : diaries , letters , and memoirs are the primary places in which coffee is mentioned . According to historian Jon Grinspan , the curator of political history at the Smithsonian Institution ’ s National Museum of American History , “ The word ‘ coffee ’ is mentioned more times than ‘ bullets ,’ ‘ war ,’ ‘ cannon ,’ ‘ Lincoln ,’ and even ‘ mother .’ You can only ignore what they ’ re talking about for so long before you realize that ’ s the story .” Even around the campfire , much of the talk centered on the quality of that day ’ s joe . Letters indicated that a soldier was miserable when he missed his cup of coffee . The worst thing possible was for someone to accidentally spill coffee or ground beans , depriving others of their rightful ration . The North ’ s access to caffeine may have given Union soldiers a strategic advantage . General Benjamin Butler ordered his men always to carry coffee in their canteens . He was said to have planned attacks based on when his men would be most wired . His advice to other generals : “ If your men get their coffee early in the morning , you can hold .” 6
John D . Billings , in his appropriately named book Hardtack & Coffee , wrote :
The rations may have been small , the commissary or quartermaster may have given us a short allowance , but what we got was good . And what a perfect Godsend it seemed to us at times ! How often , after being completely jaded by a night march ,— and this is an experience common to thousands ,— have I had a wash , if there was water to be had , made and drunk my pint or so of coffee , and felt as fresh and invigorated as if just arisen from a night ’ s sound sleep ! 7 8
Billings argued that bread , not coffee , should top the list of importance to a soldier . He then offers several examples of pertinent coffee information that , collectively , prove him wrong :
Whatever words of condemnation or criticism may have been bestowed on other government
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