Tobacco

[major bill]

Although we hear of the issue of cotton shortages in England and France we never hear of the effect of the Union blockade on tobacco. The Union blockade must have caused a tobacco shortage. Not only in Europe but in the North as well. Not much worse than a smoker who can not get their smokes. Grant alone could have put a dent in the diminished supply of tobacco.

 

[huskerblitz]

Indeed

 

[rhettbutler1865]

Although we hear of the issue of cotton shortages in England and France we never hear of the effect of the Union blockade on tobacco. The Union blockade must have caused a tobacco shortage. Not only in Europe but in the North as well. Not much worse than a smoker who can not get their smokes. Grant alone could have put a dent in the diminished supply of tobacco.

Yes, Grant and those cigars--but who am I to talk?

 

[BrrrBRRRR]

Everything that I have ever read about trading across picket lines talks about coffee(the North) trading for tobacco(the South) as well as newspapers. Granted I am not an expert on anything like most you guys are on the forum. Plus KY grows tobacco even today. I also assume that Turkey grows it too as Turkish blends are readily available in Europe and Camel cigarettes advertise as a being a Turkish blend. Thanks as well for making this ex smoker crave cigarettes just by reading the post. I guess all those years of smoking and growing up in a tobacco town in a tobacco state must of done me some good.

 

[DaveBrt]

From the Richmond Dispatch of March 9, 1865:

For some days past parties in this city have been sending large quantities of manufactured tobacco hence to Fredericksburg. Report said that this tobacco was to be traded with the Yankees for bacon, and that General Singleton was the prime mover in the arrangement, this being the business that brought him again to Richmond. It was transported to Hamilton's crossing by rail, and thence hauled to Fredericksburg, five miles distant, in wagons. The Yankees were expected to come up in vessels to Fredericksburg, bring bacon, and carry off the tobacco.

On Monday last, two hundred thousand pounds of tobacco had been sent up the Fredericksburg railroad {Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac RR}, forty thousand pounds of which had been hauled to Fredericksburg and stored in a warehouse on the Rappahannock, convenient for shipping, and the other hundred and sixty thousand pounds was in thirty-one box railroad cars at Hamilton's crossing. The enemy came up to Fredericksburg in gunboats on Monday night, but brought no bacon that we have been able to hear of. Their first step was to send a part of cavalry to Hamilton's crossing, who set fire to and destroyed all the cars and all the tobacco there. This party also burnt the bridge over the Massaponax creek, a short distance this side of Hamilton's crossing.

There are two reports as to what was done with the tobacco in Fredericksburg -- one, that the enemy carried it off; the other, that they set fire to the warehouse and destroyed both house and tobacco. It is ascertained that they burned the wagons (five in number) employed in hauling the tobacco from Hamilton's to Fredericksburg, and carried off the teams. So ends one of the most brilliant schemes of our latter-day speculators. The only thing to be seriously regretted about the business is the loss by the Fredericksburg Railroad Company of the thirty-one valuable freight cars. We presume the company would not have risked its property by leaving it at so exposed a point as Hamilton's crossing unless they had felt satisfied that some understanding had been come to with the enemy that it would not be molested.

The common report was, that the enemy would interfere neither with the road nor the tobacco while this bacon tobacco traffic was going on. The whole thing seemed ridiculous enough, it must be admitted; but there can, at the present time, be no report so absurd as not to find believers. The loss of the tobacco is a small matter. There is much more of the article still left in Richmond than either Government or people know what to do with.

 

[major bill]

I know Canada grows tobacco, but not sure it did during the Civil War. I do know the blockade caused a shortage of turpentine and pine tar in England but have not heard of a tobacco shortage.

 

[Chattahooch33]

The blockade did not influence availability in the south due to it being grown there.

I would assume that Europe and the north could get tobacco from the Caribbean, but I do not know this for sure.


The most common way (at least in the south) to use tobacco at that time was chewing. A man would have a dried rope of tobacco that they would pull out and chew a plug off of. Second to this was pipe tobacco which men and women alike would use, but not in a corb cob pipe. Those were not around until later. Clay and wood were the most common materials for pipes. I have made myself two wooden pipes, one of a thick oak branch that I burned the bowl out with a red hot railroad spike. This one is nice because it adds a nice oak-bbq flavor to the tobacco.