Cigarettes in the Civil War

[handy.harris]

Hy guys,

I came to appreciate you guys here. Your inputs are very valuable to me and my comrades of the 5th GA. Therefore I decided to ask you about this, maybe neverending, discussion about cigarettes during the war.

Is it true, as somebody told me, that white cigarettes without a filter at the end actually existed?

Cigarettes are a common problem in Austria and Germany. Lots of folks smoke, and they want to do so at the reenactments as well. We genereally go ahead and tolerate them as long as they are smoked in a way that is not too visible to bystanders. Basically hiding behind a Tent or in the woods (as long as there are some! *g*)

I would appreciate your input on this subject.

Greetings from Austria,
Handy

[johan_steele]

Cigarettes as you describe them existed, more common among Texas troops than any other as they were starting in that neck of the woods coming up from Mexico and the French troops stationed there. Most appropriate for a CS re-enactor would be hand rolled.

US troops and many CS troops considered them an effete item prefering a pipe or chewing tobacco. Cigars were expensive, prohibitive for the private soldier. A pipe was easy to acquire and very inexpensive. I would suggest asking your smokers to switch to a pipe for the weekend. It's a viable alternative and over here at least a lot cheaper than cigarettes.

[handy.harris]

Thanks for the fast answere!
I personally take your word for it... and here comes the but:
Do you have any links or documents which would back that up? I have to try and convince a bunch of people, and as you might know from own experience, they usually do not accept a "I was told".
Even though I do trust your word, could you be so kind and provide some proov?

Confederately
Handy

[handy.harris]

Another thing:
Would the paper of the cigarettes have been white or a brownish color?

[ole]

Without actual provenance, your best bet is to keep the smokers out of sight. Cigarettes were, with very few exceptions, non-existent. The chaw or the pipe are the way to go. As I would imagine that period pipes are all but impossible to acquire in Austria, your smokers are limited to the chaw or the woods.

As Johan mentioned, cigars were beyond the means of the grunt. I'd guess you could occasionally celebrate having acquired some Yankee colonel's stash, but if your aim is to be authentic, lose the filtered cigarettes -- or hide them in the woods with the coolers.

ole

[johan_steele]

Ask them to provide a CDV, letter or document showing soldiers smoking a cigarette. The only refererence I have ever read to cigarettes in the CW dealt w/ a man of the 8th TX Cav in north Georgia using newspapers to roll his own cigarettes. And the reference used the term "cigarello" I no longer have the letter or I would quote it for you. For me the pipe is the way to go. I own one that is CW era +/- 20 years and two more that are 1885 +/- 20. Chew was also heavily used and that can be found in almost any reference to the war.

Good Luck

[M E Wolf]

Dear Handy.Harris;

This may be helpful:
Recollections of a Confederate Staff Officer (Sorrel)
Chapter V—Our National Hymn
[excerpt]
My brother, Dr. Francis Sorrel, was some years my senior. He had served in the United States Army as assistant surgeon, but had resigned and was in California when the war began. He immediately came to share the fortunes of his State. Dr. Moore, the Confederate Surgeon-General, without delay had him appointed to full rank and assigned for service as his close confidential assistant (the pair were forever rolling cigarettes). There his influence and powers were considerable and the Doctor was always helpful to his friends. He was instrumental in assigning Dr. James B. Read, of Savannah, to the officers' hospital in Richmond, and in Read's hands it became celebrated. He kept a good lookout for his two junior brothers in the field and we had many evidences of his thoughtfulness.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Southern Historical Society Papers.
Vol. XXVII. Richmond, Va, January-December. 1899.
Sharpsburg.
Graphic Description of the Battle and Its Results.
The Courage and Self-Sacrifice of the Confederates During the Campaign.
[From the Richmond, Va., Times, May 28, 1899.]
[excerpt]
I say "whipped," and say so deliberately; they never whipped us, but wore us out; and on April 8th and 9th of 1865, there was as much fight in the eight or ten thousand veterans who had followed General Lee to Appomattox as there had ever been, and some as <shv27_218>gallant stands made by these men then as can be found in the pages of history. We were overwhelmed by numbers in the army and by suffering and starvation at home, where such men as Sheridan and Sherman overran our country and devastated it so that "a crow flying over would have to carry his rations with him." With such a record as that, we old veterans still think we have a right to talk, and if any of the younger generation wish to learn what fighting is, let him attend any "Campfire," and get some of the men around to talk about the old times; old eyes will kindle into flashing fire, old forms, bent with age, straighten up, as first one and then another tells of the charge on such and such a battery, or a stand made behind such a fence, or how such and such a battery--as, for instance, the First Company of Howitzers at Chancellorsville--held the entire right wing of the Union army at bay for a whole day without infantry support, as Rev. William Dame, of Baltimore, will tell him; or get Major Robert Stiles to repeat his lecture on the Second Battle of Cold Harbor, where in eight minutes 13,000 of Grant's splendid army were killed and wounded by the "ragged rebels"; and the youth, if he has any manhood in him, and is not simply a second-class cigarette smoker, will become convinced that the "old man" is not far wrong in claiming a right to talk, and that "there were giants in those days."
[end of excerpt]
-----------------------------------------------------
The cigarette rolling paper was approximately the length of a stick of gum, rather thin but, not as thin as 'onion skin paper' to which really looks more like a current/today's rolling paper for hairdressers rolling women's hair. And, I may add, that they are not as brilliant white as today's commercially made cigarettes. They did not invent filters at that point.

The smoker would have a little sack of tobacco, about 2 inches; with draw strings to close it up.

My uncle Clarence used to roll his cigarettes. He helped my grandmother who grew tobacco in Maryland. Using the leaves that were too crumbled and couldn't be sold; they chopped the leaves with a tobacco cutter (which is like a cutting board but without the board), to about the size of small confette`.

He would hold the paper in between his index finger and thumb to make a "U" and tap the tobacco from the little sack; using his teeth to draw the string open or close it. He filled it only in the middle portion; then rolled it much like people do wrap a 'roach' of marijuana. However, it was just tobacco. My uncle would lick the paper on the inside before closing and twisting the end.

Note:
Name SORREL, Gilbert Moxley
Born February 23 1838, Savannah GA
Died August 10 1901, Roanoke VA
Pre-War Profession Bank clerk, private in state militia.
War Service 1861 took part in capture of Ft Pulaski, Capt. on Longstreet's staff, First Manassas, was present at all of Longstreet's battles, led 4 brigades at the Wilderness, October 1864 Brig. Gen., commanded Sorrel’s Bde/Mahone's Divn at Petersburg (w), Hatcher's Run (w).
Post War Career Merchant, steamship executive, wrote memoirs.


Hope this helps.

Just some thoughts.

Respectfully submitted for consideration,
M. E. Wolf

[gary]

Fascinating! Did the 19th Century cigarette smoker inhale like today's smokers do or did they puff on it like a cigar or pipe smoker would?

[blue_zouave]

Dear Handy, here's a useful link discussing tobacco use during the American Civil War: http://www.shasta.com/suesgoodco/new...ce/tobacco.htm

Also follow the link at the bottom to the Washington Civil War Association's page on the same subject.

The non smoking, non chewing Zou

[blue_zouave]

P.S., while I don't smoke I can roll my own... my grandfather smoked Prince Albert and taught me how to hand roll cigarettes. I was very popular at parties during the 70s.

Zou of the many talents