Tobacco timeline in the Civil War

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Mar 2, 2012
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  • 1860: The Census for Virginia and North Carolina list 348 tobacco factories, virtually all producing chewing tobacco. Only 6 list smoking tobacco as a side-product (which is manufactured from scraps left over from plug production).
  • 1860: BUSINESS: Manufactured cigarettes appear. A popular early brand is Blackwell Tobacco Company's Bull Durham, which rose to become the most famous brand in world, and gave rise to the term "bull pen" for a baseball dugout.
  • 1860: BUSINESS: MARKETING: Lorillard wraps $100 bills at random in packages of cigarette tobacco named "Century," in order to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of the firm (BD)
  • 1861-1865: USA: THE CIVIL WAR: Tobacco is given with rations by both North and South; many Northerners are introduced to tobacco this way. During Sherman's march, Union soldiers, now attracted to the mild, sweet "bright" tobacco of the South, raided warehouses--including Washington Duke's--for some chew on the way home. Some bright made it all the way back. Bright tobacco becomes the rage in the North.
  • 1862: THE CIVIL WAR: First federal USA tax on tobacco; instituted to help pay for the Civil War, yields about three million dollars.(TSW)
  • 1863: SUMATRA: Nienhuys creates Indonesian tobacco industry. Dutch businessman Jacobus Nienhuys travels to Sumatra seeking to buy tobacco, but finds poor growing and production facilities; his efforts to rectify the situation are credited with establishing the indonesian tobacco industry.
  • 1863: US Mandates Cigar Boxes.Congress passes a law calling for manufacturers to create cigar boxes on which IRS agents can paste Civil War excise tax stamps. The beginning of "cigar box art."
  • 1864: CIVIL WAR: The first federal cigarette excise tax is imposed to help pay for the Civil War.
  • 1864: AGRICULTURE: WHITE BURLEY first cultivated in Ohio Valley; highly absorbent, chlorophyll-deficient new leaf proves ideal for sweetened chewing tobacco.
  • 1864: BUSINESS: 1st American cigarette factory opens and produces almost 20 million cigarettes.
  • 1865-70: NEW YORK CITY: Demand for exotic Turkish cigarettes grows in New York City; skilled European rollers imported by New York tobacco shops. (ATS)
  • 1868: UK: Parliament passes the Railway Bill of 1868, which mandates smoke-free cars to prevent injury to non-smokers.
  • http://archive.tobacco.org/resources/history/tobacco_history19.html
 
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