Coffee, Beer, and the Civil War

How can you be near that much water and have that much time to make 5 quarts of coffee? Incredible! I know the guys also nibbled on beans to get the benefits of coffee. That's the only reason I can think of to do that. Maybe that's why Stonewall Jackson's foot cavalry moved so fast. :bounce:
Coffee beans are delicious, especially when covered with dark chocolate!
 
How can you be near that much water and have that much time to make 5 quarts of coffee? Incredible! I know the guys also nibbled on beans to get the benefits of coffee. That's the only reason I can think of to do that. Maybe that's why Stonewall Jackson's foot cavalry moved so fast. :bounce:

FIVE QUARTS?????? Maybe they were moving so fast to find a tree to umm, well, you know...
 
Five quarts:frantic:whoa! This is pure speculation, but I have this feeling that the coffee must have been quite a bit more diluted for soldiers in camp or on the march. I know it was a prized commodity, and I can only assume they weren't making it jet black the way many people (such as myself as I type this :smile coffee:) make it today. This would make it last longer in addition to making the 'five quarts' statistic much more comprehensible.
Again though, I actually have no idea whether this would have been the case or not, just pure speculation. Can anyone confirm or deny this?
 
5 quarts a day wouldn't be too far off as they were supposed to get 10 lbs green or 8 lb roasted beans per day. The Union army ran on coffee! There was no blockade to keep it from being imported, either, and it was often a trade item with the rebels. They had tobacco and the Yankees had coffee! More than a few truces were arranged for a mutually happy exchange.

For many generations, Americans drank awful coffee. Didn't have no fetchin' up! That's why we developed the habit of milk and sugar in the drink. Later, beatnik coffee houses and later still Starbucks and others like them imported much better beans and American taste in coffee was upgraded.

The Civil War soldier often ground or mashed his beans and mixed the result with his sugar ration, so a boiled pot of coffee had the sugar right with it. The beans were issued because it was pretty hard for conniving merchants to pad the ground coffee with dirt or other substances - coffee was something the government rarely was cheated on. Quite a few years before the government had stopped liquor rations, including beer, to the army and coffee was substituted.

Several soldiers wrote that they were always very grateful for a nice wash if they had the water, a pipe and a cuppa joe!
 
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