Via chat. Kyle good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us on this new program were trying out. We are having a morning conversation over coffee. Im kyle dalton, membership and development coordinator. Jake im jake wynn. I am the director of interpretation for the National Museum of civil war medicine. And i am in washington, d. C. Kyle and im in frederick, maryland. We are happy to have you joining us bright and early. Today, we are talking about coffee. Ive got my cup of joe right here in my appropriately branded mug. I see you got yours. Jake im supporting james Mason George Mason university today. Kyle you support education. So my coffee, you can see a here, its really tasty. If you havent tried it, give it a shot. I made it with my french press with filtered water. Fresh ground is best because that releases the flavors. If you buy Ground Coffee, Ground Coffee loses its flavor. As soon as you grind it, it starts losing the flavor, so youve got to get the whole been, grind it yourself, and then we do the fresh pressed. Jake, what are you drinking . Jake ive been a bad boy this morning. Im not Drinking Coffee that i ground myself. I am having a cup of folgers made on a pour over. To boot, its decaf. If you saw the post yesterday where i said tune into caffeinated history, i was lying to you. Kyle were not going to get hit with false advertising. Jake if you are tuning in from maine and maryland and shepherdstown, many other places across the country, hopefully around the world, get you all in here, as well, yeah, i have proven myself to be a liar already at 10 00 on a monday morning, so it is going to be a long week, but thank you for tuning in with us today. Kyle is it snowing in maine . Jake according to mike he is tuning in from snowy maine. Kyle i cant see the comments. Jake ill be the comment guy. So bear with us. If you have questions, well do our best to answer for you and find you the right answer as best we can. If we are really struggling, we can drop a story or a link into our social media accounts down the line once we do a little more research. But if youre having any questions as we are going through the conversations this morning, want us to address anything coffee related, food related, i will let you know. We have a conversation with on wednesday and we will be talking about nutrition and hygiene and Civil War Soldiers. We are doing a little bit of talking about this older experience, even the civilian experience during the civil war, focused on food and the Civil War Soldiers favorite morning, afternoon, and evening beverage, coffee. They did prefer the caffeinated kind as opposed to the craft that im drinking. Kyle did they have decaf in the 1860s . Was that even an option . Jake the confederates did, but they werent Drinking Coffee. They were grinding up sweet potatoes. We can get into that. I see you making a face. Kyle im trying to imagine that, what it would taste like. Jake George Pickett thought it was great. George pickett loved it. It might explain kyle George Pickett will forever be associated with success. Jake if your two notable things for the civil war is one, the gettysburg debacle, which again, is not really George Picketts fault. What is his fault is the shad bake. But down at shoot, the battle, april 1, 1865, down in virginia. Somebody in the comments can help me out with the name of this battle. He misses the battle because he was eating fish they caught out of the river. Yeah, not a great look for George Pickett. But he did have beautiful ringlets, and he did enjoy his morning, not coffee, but sweet potato, ground up and made into a nice, warm liquid. Kyle i love sweet potatoes, but that sounds disgusting. Jake good thing to just kind of dive into, talk about some of the coffee substitutes. Confederates did not have access to coffee. You are importing coffee from abroad up to the 1860s. With the blockade and the famous anaconda plan that Winfield Scott is going to put in place, southern blockade, this means confederates are not going to be able to import coffee. Prices in coffee are going to shoot up, make it impossible to get your hands on. Because they can get their hands on her and they want something that kind of reminds them of coffee, they are going to be grinding up. Thank you, battle of five forks. Kyle eating fish. Jake instead of commanding his troops. George pickett, may he rest in peace. Kyle it was 150 years ago. [laughter] jake but yeah, so confederates are really using anything they can get their hands onto grind up. Some of that is pretty nasty. Sweet potatoes, corn is another one. Roasted corn ground down. Kyle wouldnt that just be corn grits . Jake yeah, but made in the same way you would make coffee. So you would grind it up and then heated and then you are and then yeah, youre making a face. Heres the worst one. Acorns. Kyle actually, that doesnt sound too bad. Jake youre crazy. That sounds terrible. Kyle you have to winnow it, but if you take that out, that to me, sounds fine. Jake well, i, you know, i cant. That sounds like bad taste to me. I dont know. Kyle youre the one that brought up the sweet potatoes. [laughter] jake george liked them, not me. Kyle you should tell us in the comments whether you would rather have sweet potato coffee or acorn coffee. Jake yeah, let us know. Im going to ask you a question. One of the most famous coffee additives is chicory. Have you had chicory in coffee . This is still a new orleans thing, a louisiana thing. Its still a thing down south, specifically in the louisiana, new orleans. I really enjoy it, but its a super acquired taste. But funny story, allison will kill me for telling this, but my girlfriends grandmother did, back in the 1930s, she lived for a brief time in new orleans and for years and years afterwards, she hated new orleans. She lived there for like a year. But she hated, hated chicory and in coffee. And up to unfortunately, she passed away a little ways back but up until her dying day, she said anytime new orleans came up, can you believe they put chicory in their coffee . Terrible, terrible. But i actually quite enjoyed it. Kyle i would be willing to try it. Im not willing to say i would love it because ive never had it, but i would be willing to try it. It sounds interesting. Jake it is an interesting concept, and something that is interestingly connected to the civil war and you talked about relevance to the civil war. But if you look at how taste evolves over time and thats an interesting one because it sticks with us over all of these, and chicory has been used since before the civil war. But it becomes much more common and becomes a standard part of the fair that is included up to the present day. And we love this at the museum, things you can touch and taste. We had a video last week talking about sensory history. You can find a couple videos from last week, go back and check our videos, both here on facebook, but also on youtube. If you havent subscribed to the civil war medicine youtube channel, go ahead and do that now. Sensory history is really interesting because it is that connection that we could all have to the past. You can taste, you can smell. Here is an example from new orleans, something that they were adding during the civil war that you can taste today and became part of the culture, which is pretty interesting. Kyle sounds a little bit like spam in hawaii. Now it is a big part of it. Jake there is another question. How do you feel about spam . Kyle [laughter] eh. I dont think its that great. If youre going to have a canned meat, why not just do corned beef . Jake hard disagreement here. Im a big spam advocate. I was very disappointed during the pandemic run on the grocery store, when everybody was picking up toilet paper, they were also taking spam. I couldnt find it. I was like come on, this is a national emergency. I expect to have tinned meat. And then its gone. So, i was left spamless. Not that i eat it super regularly, but i am a fan. Kyle if youre going to stock up, you might as well grab the things that are going to last. Jake i can see people talking in comments that spam needs much mustard and fry it, too. I agree. Spam sandwiches. Kyle you can fry almost anything and make it better. Jake just ask George Pickett. Kyle so, was there any difference in the way they prepared coffee in the civil war than the way we do it today . I imagine the chemical process has to be the same. Were they grinding it in different ways . Jake yeah, so any way a Civil War Soldier was getting their hands on coffee, they were consuming it. So, grinding it up, using the butt of their musket to grind it up, to make coffee, chewing on the beans or, you know i mean hey, you eat espresso beans, same concept. While these guys are on the march, you hear one of the biggest complaints. Soldiers, when they are on the march, especially a forced march, and they dont have time to stop and brew coffee is the worst time. Being woken up at 2 00 in the morning and have to go march 30 miles and youre addicted to coffee because you are tricking every day sorry, i got sirens here. You can hear it. But no, youre addicted to coffee, we five cups every day, and youre expected to get up without coffee, youre going to be chewing on those coffee beans. But yeah, they really were drinking and consuming it anyway that they could. And they werent too worried about the chemical makeup and how to best make a cup of coffee. Kyle they werent doing the fancy new mexico coffee with the french press and the filtered water. Jake no, thats a good question, though. I have a question about your coffee. Its from new mexico . Kyle yeah. Its the pinion pine stuff. Jake im interested about this. I just read megan kate nelsons fantastic book. Kyle such a good book. Jake now im wondering, where they growing that there during the civil war era . Were they drinking local brew . Kyle thats a good question. I dont know either. I dont know if they actually used it. I know the apaches were eating it. That is one of the reasons i was like, hey acorns, not a big deal. I was doing some historical programming for the city of cupertino, and we talked about the native people of the region and how they would eat acorn meal. Thats something people eat on the regular, and it seems like a flavor that wouldnt be that different from the earthy flavors of coffee. But i dont know what they were doing for coffee out there. I know supply lines were really thin for both sides. Jake yeah. There is another great book out there about westward trying to remember i think the book from npr, he wrote about about john fremont. Kyle freon . Jake no, john fremont, the explorer. Before the civil war, at one point, they were crossing the river and the entire supply, you have hundreds of pounds of coffee, and they lost all of their coffee. Kyle thats another interesting point. You mentioned the confederates largely didnt have access to coffee. They were trying to rely on this other stuff. Under extreme circumstances, northern troops arent getting it either. Do you have accounts of soldiers experiencing withdrawal from caffeine . It sounds like this is an important part of their diet. Its their favorite drink, you said. Jake yeah, its interesting. I dont have specific ones here, but when you look at accounts of soldiers and you can see when theyre miserable when they dont have coffee. They write about that. This is a good question. Im not sure how much they made the connection of coffee being a drug. There is the most commonly used drug in america is coffee. Im not sure how much they were aware of that. These are not chemists by and large serving in these armies. Kyle i was doing the research on opioid addiction crisis after the war. Theres this one historian who argued addiction didnt exist because they didnt understand addiction, which is a bad argument, but it does get to even the chemists dont understand this isnt a moral failing. This is a chemical imbalance. Jake right, and thats an important thing. I will say, from reading many thousands of accounts of Civil War Soldiers, both from working at the museum and also privately and in my personal life, you know, you can definitely tell the difference. And people will note in their diaries that they didnt have coffee, especially those northern soldiers. We do have a great question here from the comments that i think this is a good time to address this. Paul says, what is the difference in miles per day a regiment could march with caffeine versus without . I will say right off the bat, i dont know the answer to this, but this is something kyle and i, especially kyle, has been working on doing a kind of march, a test march, versus soldiers back in the day in the civil war versus soldiers marching today. Do you want to talk about that . I know its on hiatus. As is everything. Kyle yeah, the idea is working with the u. S. Marine corps historical company, which is a semiofficial part of the marine corps, going to manassas around the anniversary, if not on the anniversary of the battle, and recreating a route that the marines took. There was a regiment of marines that fought at manassas, famously. And we wanted to get soldiers in both civil war, uniform, gear, water, all things they would have been carrying in battle, and then we wanted to get modern soldiers in modern combat load and have them recreate the route together, running when they were running, firing when they were firing, or at least mocking that. Im not sure. And then afterward, checking that out, seeing what is there their hydration level, which we already know is going to be vastly different between the modern and civil war. How many calories did they burn . Heart rate, that kind of thing, and then drawing conclusions about what effects combat load has between the civil war and today. There are some snags we hit, obviously the pandemic being the main one. It is not going to happen this year. It might happen next year. There are legal and medical concerns, like the hydration of Civil War Soldiers was really low. You see in civil war accounts about these Wounded Soldiers begging for water. I remember it was because of lead poisoning, which is total bull. They were not getting enough water. They were wearing wool in july in virginia and they are carrying a single canteen of water. So, that is actually dangerous, even to a very fit twentysomething marine running around in wool, running around is a dangerous thing. We need to be careful. Understandably, the marine corps has concerns about that. Hopefully this will go forward. If we dont do it with the marine corps next july, i think were going to do something similar. We could recreate the route around South Mountain or maybe a winter skirmish or something. But i think it is a project that is worth looking into, and i think caffeine is going to be something to take into account because some of these guys are heavily dosing with coffee. Jake i think i saw a figure that it was on the order of the average soldier consumes 36 pounds of coffee a year. How does that compare to today . Jake thats a great question. Im not sure what average americans, but i can use the google machine to see if we can find the answer here. But i know this is something theres a lot of great articles about this progression of coffee usage from the civil war in the army and military through the present day. Coffee, since the civil war, has always had this place of love with the u. S. Military, just because ever since Andrew Jackson banned the whiskey ration. We can thank Andrew Jackson for this. Kyle we can go even further back to the revolution. Jake yes. Take us there, kyle. Take us there. Kyle i was just telling you about this earlier today. Theres a case in quebec, the siege of quebec, 1776, where an american soldier was wounded, captured by the british, and the soldier says you need to drink tea. You need this stimulant or you will die. And he says no, i will not drink tea, and he dies. Thats symptomatic of this shift, this cultural shift from tea to coffee. Thats where you see it explode into american society. It had been there before. There were coffeehouses. There is a legal designation that separates the coffeehouse from the tavern. The coffeehouse, you dont need rooms available. But it doesnt become the major cultural force that it is until the revolution, and that continues into the 19th century. So the siege of civil war seeds of civil war addiction to coffee begins in the 1700s. Jake i wasnt able to find a specific number for how many pounds American Consumers consume per year. Thats what im finding on the internet, we know the most reliable source of information that exists. Kyle thats a simple google search. Thats all you need. Jake exactly, exactly. There was another i think i lost the comment now. Another comment. Oh, good old emily hebner commenting, bringing one of the highlights that the concept of coffee as a drug may have existed at the time and that quakers told people to stay away from coffee, because you are all feeling all the emotions, feeling all the feelings hyped up on coffee. I wanted to go back to paul to answer the question about the march. Sorry we dont have a specific answer for you. Sorry i like both decaf and spam. Im realizing doing these live streams more and more people are going to hate me everyday. Kyle anybody commented on sweet potato versus acorn . Jake there was a whole thread going on about this. Drew says i need to switch to pork roll. I agree. Pork roll is amazing. If i lived in new jersey, i would probably eat it everyday. Well have to do a scientific tabulation. Our poll of sweet potato versus acorn . Kyle yeah, which one would be the Better Coffee . I think we could put that into a fancy graphic, share on our social media. Jake there will be many gifs, jiffs not gifs, another reason people will hate me. Kyle emilys comment about it gets me wondering about the number of stimulants Civil War Soldiers are interested in, tobacco, coffee alcohol can be a stimulant, initially anyway. They are eating and smoking and drinking a lot, all these. So, do we know does that affect their sleep pattern . Is there research on that . I wouldnt imagine there would be, but maybe. Jake i havent come across anything about sleep patterns. Its important to remember just how active these soldiers are all the time, even in camp. They are out drilling, procuring firewood. Even when they are not on the march, they are still busy. I havent seen that, whether or not that is a thing. Probably, this is why i switched to decaf is because i drink it. I was well above the average american, Drinking Coffee, a few months ago. So i was having those problems. I imagine thats probably something Civil War Soldiers may have experienced. I dont know whether or not they would have made that connection. You brought up tobacco, and this is an interesting one. There is a lot of communication, especially in virginia during the civil war with Union Confederate forces occupying the same ground very close to each other. Usually with a river between them. There is a lot of cross lines trade. Amongst that trade is union coffee for confederate tobacco. Thats something that you see that trade, it was not frowned upon by army command, but this is something that there was fraternization. Kyle fraternization. Jake fraternization. Kyle now youve got me doing it. Jake sorry, making you mess up words. Yeah, so army command did not like that. But soldiers at the frontline were doing it, and thats one of the things they were exchanging would be coffee for tobacco. Confederates couldnt get their hands on coffee and Union Soldiers didnt always have access to tobacco, so that trade was going to be pretty common during the war. Kyle i also think its interesting because in my very broken up talk on anesthesia, there is talk about getting chloroform and ether through the lines. There isnt a lot coming through the blockades, but confederates prioritized it. They see it as a military necessity. Is there any indication they prioritized coffee or was it seen more as a luxury item or leisure item . Jake not a priority. Anything they could get through the blockade, the price of that good was just astronomical. I mean, they are struggling to get their hands on basic goods. Things are sneaking through the blockade, and there is a priority put on military and medical supply. Some of those items are going to be coveted coming through. But yeah, i have not seen this. I am not an expert on blockade runners, but just know that even if you could get those goods through, the price would be basically unattainable for the average person to have that, even for soldiers to get their hands on those goods. Kyle it reminds me i forget his name, one of the more popular historians of the civil war but in one of his books, he basically argues the blockade wasnt that big of a deal, which is a shockingly bad argument to make. And his argument was, well when they announced the blockade, they didnt have enough ships. It took them a long time to get the ships built and thats true, but there is a psychological effect. Just announcing the blockade dropped importation by half. That was just them saying we have a blockade on paper. By the end of the war, nothing is getting through. I think it is important to acknowledge it does have a very dramatic effect on stuff coming in. I am also not an expert on what is coming in, but it would be interesting to see is the coffee coming through . And how much coffee is coming through, both value wise and how jake yeah, its interesting. I think its a good point you mentioned, the pesky thing of economics, maritime trade. Youre talking about these ships coming, even if youre announcing a paper blockade, that is going to increase risk for all of those doing shipping. That is going to jack the price up, and that is going to lead to escalation. Even by the time the blockade becomes effective, 1862 to 1863, trade is going to be way down. And its going to be required by the confederate war effort, think muskets, think medical supplies, that sort of thing. So i want to jump in. Thank you for tuning in. We have had a great audience. Ive seen a lot of questions. A lot of questions. I dont know if we will get to all of them. Thank you so much for commenting and asking those questions and engaging with us in conversation. We appreciate that. If you are enjoying the video, please go like the video if you havent already. Share it, get more people into this conversation. As kyle mentioned earlier, for those of you who werent here at the beginning, we are a member supported museum. We are having many of these digital programs about all topics related to civil war medicine and tying into today. If you are enjoying these conversations and want to support us, consider becoming a member. We are a member supported organization. We havent been open since midmarch to the public. Every little bit helps us. Right, kyle . Kyle yes. Everything jake just said. Im not sure which way what jake said. Jake its on my left, but im sure its on everybody elses right. I think. So, want to transition. I have a few favorite coffee stories. I saw one person ask about scrapple. Kyle like the meat . Jake since were on coffee, coffee goes great with breakfast. I also have a scrapple story as well. Another thing kyle are you flying your pennsylvania flag . Jake yes. I should actually be having my pennsylvania flag behind me. I should wear it as a cape. Kyle what is the pennsylvania flag . Im not familiar with it. Jake it looks like 30 other state flags. Kyle blue with the state seal . Jake exactly. Kyle boring, ok. Jake it is boring. Love the new mexico flag. That is by far the best one. Kyle i love the new mexico flag. Jake marylanders love that flag. Kyle it is a good flag. Jake pennsylvania, im just. Kyle right. So, scrapple. Get us back on track. And that was chris who asked. There was a unit in philadelphia that dug the mine that exploded at petersburg. Kyle they dug the tunnel . Jake yeah. They were from my part of pennsylvania. My coal region roots. Theres a great letter collection thats been published. Im trying to remember the soldiers last name was pollock. The book was put together by a friend of mine, a ranger at gettysburg, fantastic historian. And in that letter collection, as the 48th pennsylvania was sitting in camp by fredericksburg in december of 1862 just prior to the battle, they received a shipment from home, and included in that shipment was scrapple. And the soldiers just devoured it. And he even notes, you might have thought us monsters for devouring this scrapple. But they loved it. Sure, other soldiers probably ate it, too. Kyle just imagining the orcs from lord of the rings when they eat that guy and pieces are flying everywhere. Jake another reason for you guys to hate me, i have never seen or read lord of the rings. Kyle really . That seems like a deliberate choice, like you are taking pride in avoiding something because its popular. Jake wow, i feel like you called me out. [laughter] kyle i didnt think scrapple was that old, actually, not being a pennsylvania. I didnt realize it was not a modern invention. Jake i just saw a comment, scrapple equals crapple. It is a love or hate thing. Scrapple, you can trace it back to other Midatlantic States who also have it. Scrapple culture . Thats a weird thing to say. Scrapple culture. Well go with that. Down south, i have seen people referred to a bunch of Different Things that are very close to scrapple. Basically, the idea is it is the bits that dont always make it into the other cuts of meat, and it is definitely an acquired thing. It tastes good. I think its the what its made of concept that makes people a little kyle not visually appealing. Jake no. It is like a loaf of weird meat. Kyle its kind of gray, at least the ones i have had. Im not a scrapple eeater. Jake scrapple aside, transition back to coffee. Kyle why were here. Jake it is why we are here. One of the more famous coffee stories, we have the Field Hospital museum at antietam. Kyle it is a great place. Come visit when this is all over. Jake theres a lot of exteriors, so you can come visit even if you dont go in the house. Kyle thats true. I was just hiking in antietam the other day and i didnt see anybody on the trail, which was nice. Jake and the grounds are still open. Remember, social distance, everybody. If youre going to the grocery store, put on a mask. All that said, one of the more famous monuments, a monument to William Mckinley. Kyle i know that one. Jake William Mckinley was part of the 23rd infantry in ohio. He was one of two future president s that served in that unit. Colonel rutherford b. Hayes served. Kyle i didnt realize they were in the same unit. Jake yep. Lieutenant colonel hayes was wounded at South Mountain, shot through the elbow, and is going to be knocked out, so he is not at antietam. But William Mckinley is. Mckinley was a commissary sergeant for the regiment. So while hes not going to take active part in the fighting at antietam, he is going to be remembered for delivering coffee and sandwiches to the regiment while they were just after taking the bridge, while they were waiting to make what is known as the final assault towards the town of sharpsburg on september 17, 1862. So after his death, after his assassination, the survivors of the 23rd ohio decided to remember mckinleys actions at antietam, and so they put up a monument to mckinley just above burnside bridge. I always joked that its the monument dedicated to coffee in the civil war, dedicated to the efforts of William Mckinley. That regiment after the war and after both rutherford b. Hayes and mckinley go on to be president , that regiment is going to be nicknamed the president s regiment. They did have two members of that unit that become United States president , which is cool. Im fascinated by Rutherford B Hayes part in the civil war. If you search for him in the box, youll find my article about his wounding at South Mountain. He was shot four times and survived, including a round hit him in the forehead. Yeah, knocked him senseless, but luckily did not cause any permanent damage. And he went on to become president in 1876. Thats one side. Do you have any comments . Kyle a footnote, there is a mckinley coffee. You can order bags of mckinley coffee, and they will send it to you. I forgot the other one. Now i remember. There was a documentary on the History Channel years ago and originally, they planned the show, the dramatization of the assassination of William Mckinley. And i was cast to be the assassin. It didnt pan out and that got cut from the documentary anyway, but a couple fun little footnotes for mckinley and his assassination and coffee. Jake im so sad your movie career didnt take off. Kyle yeah, with a face like this, i could have been the next brad pitt. [laughter] silence. Nned take it away. Do you think kyle dalton looks like brad pitt . [laughter] so, my other coffee story i want to talk about is what i wrote about one i wrote about for one of my side projects. And that is, so i wrote an article about a soldier from the 45th pennsylvania. His name was efraim myers. He wrote about some of his experiences in the civil war. He was severely wounded at the battle of petersburg, in some of the early assaults at the battle of petersburg in late summer late spring, early summer of 1864. I wrote about this. If you want to see the article, thats where you can find it. But he, in his history of his service, he writes about how much he loves coffee. Hes filling up his canteen, hes walking on the march, hes taking it with him everywhere. Coffee is really important to him. This is something common in the civil war. You see it everywhere in the histories of the civil war. If you go through and look for coffee in a Civil War Soldiers diary, memory, or memoir, youre going to see it time and time again. It brought cultures together. Theres a camaraderie to it. Youre bonding over this common activity. Kyle it sounds like, in the study of the 18thcentury food culture, they talk about rum punch as a social lubricant. That was the drink everybody had. It wasnt just because it was good drinking, but also because it was a way of getting people talking, people gathered around the table. It sounds like the same for coffee, a social lubricant. Jake its definitely this bonding activity that is going to bring people together. And so you see it in lots of other accounts of the civil war. And myers is a coffee lover, and he writes about it frequently in his recollection of his wartime service. He notes about it going into battle at petersburg. This is from his account june 18, 1864 . Let me confirm. June 16, 1864. This is what he writes. As soon as we got in place, our cook went to boiling water. Fall in. I managed to fill my canteen. This is going to be important in his account. I thought if a miniball hits the skillet, it will glance. We were ordered to the right. We had not gone far when we had gotten orders. Close up, boys. I repeated his command. A cannon ball went through a tree and struck me on the left leg, above the knee. That wouldve been the last of sweaty myers. His nickname was sweaty myers. Kyle really . That sounds like a character in a mob movie. Jake it flew me 1015 feet. Four or five boys carried me to the rear. At first i thought my leg was broken. Thankfully it was not. It grew dark. I said, boys, go back to the company. They told me two months later they did not go back that night. The boys would laid me down to in the woods. Our hospital steward, a sympathetic man, went into action. He found me lying up against a tree, Still Holding onto my canteen of coffee. Kyle [laughter] jake coffee got him through. Kyle he put boiling coffee into his metal canteen and carries it off to battle. That just seems uncomfortable. Jake yeah, along with throwing the skillet over his back. What a look, you know . Kyle wow. That makes me think of Clint Eastwood in, what was it, a few dollars more . Hes wearing the metal plate and uses it to stop the bullets. Jake sorry, what was that . I missed that. Kyle Clint Eastwood, one of the sergio leone movies. He uses the metal plate to stop the bullets. It was back to the future three. Jake another story for you. Kyle [laughter] jake ive never seen any of the back to the future movies all the way through. Ive never watched them all the way through. I feed off the hate, everybody. Kyle speaking of Clint Eastwood, one thing we have been talking about, a reason for you to stick to this channel, subscribe to youtube, follow us on facebook, we are thinking about doing scenes from civil war medicine from Popular Culture mercy street good, the bad, the ugly has a few, which is why i thought of it. Gettysburg. We want to see some of the scenes and react, talk about what is accurate, whats not, how it works as entertainment. Keep an eye on our channel. Jake another one im excited about is kyle is going to be doing some cooking for you all. So, were trying to figure out the logistics of it, how this will work, but think civil war cooking show. Kyle youve seen my kitchen, so. Jake yes. Free preview. Yeah, i feel bad for emily, who is going to have to sample all of your fare that you are going to make. Kyle i think some of it is going to be good. Some of it will be disgusting, but all the recipes will come from the steward hospital manual, union hospitals, and it has the recipes in there with some degree of peculiarity. This is an era where recipes are getting more specific, so is ts easy to recreate those even if the ingredients arent going to be quite the same. Im looking forward to trying some of these. Im not looking forward to trying some of the others. Jake yeah, so questions. First one im seeing, and im going to go back to the top, but this is relevant oh, kyles got a refill. Everybody watch him pour his fancy new mexico coffee. Alright, welcome back. Question for you about where you got this recipes that youre kind of looking at. Kyle the hospital stewards manual. Its public domain. This is sort of related to the move within the Movement Toward professionalization. It was a soughtafter position. It was noncombatant. It is very well paid. It was the highestpaid noncommissioned officer in the army. You were away from combat, getting a lot of money, archives all kinds of perks, something people liked. Unfortunately, that meant officers would reward soldiers with that, whether they were qualified or not. You were supposed to have pharmaceutical knowledge. Stewards were also in charge of very important things behind the lines, helping administrate hospitals. Thats a life or death situation. These guys are well paid for a reason, but there were a lot of them that were underqualified. They created this manual to basically say hey, are you completely inept at your job . Heres how you do it. That included the various recipes you would be called on to have prepared, whether you did the cooking or there was a cook with hospital. This is also because surgeons in longterm care were getting specific dietary prescriptions. You had to eat a certain kind of food. This manual walked you through how to make them. Well be trying to prepare some of those. You can find a recipe for yourself, try it for yourself. There is a gross stuff in there. Theres also pretty good looking stuff, like a beef stew that i think will be tasty. Check it out. You can find it on google books. I think archive. Org has it, as well. Its all over the place. Its not hard to find. Jake another question just came in, and is asking about a link to our Museum Online store. We dont, at the moment, have an online store. Were kind of in between websites, and were about to make some changes that were trying to get an online store. Weve had it in the past. In the meantime, you can contact if youre looking for information on what is available in the store, you can contact our store manager. That is trish. Im putting her email into the comments right now. There you go. You can contact her. She can let you know if youre looking for a specific book, any merchandise. Thats how kyles doing a good job showing off the swag. We have tshirts, hats. On that note, i want to thank david heinz, who just dropped a comment in and i saw his membership come through. Kyle thank you for supporting us. Jake im trying to go back through some of the comments here. If you dropped a comment in way up top, currently theres 267 comments. Kyle holy cow jake if you have a burning question, please ask it again because i am having a hard time going back through all the comments. Kyle i assume most of those are in support of acorn coffee over sweet potato coffee. Jake i have no dog in that hunt. I want nothing to do with any of it. Kyle you said acorn coffee was the most disgusting to you. You picked a side to this battle. Jake i didnt know i was picking a side kyle you said it. You made a judgment call. Jake i dont want to drink either of them. [laughter] so heres the question. Can you go through, stepbystep, how they brewed their coffee . This is a great question that i dont fully know the answer to. Kyle, youve done a little bit of living history. Kyle i have. I started living history when i was 13. I dont really do it as much anymore, but i did it professionally for a long time. And when i was a teenager in california, i went out to arizona. We talked earlier about the book about the new mexico campaign. The furthest west they got is a National Park now, maybe stay te park, and i did a reenactment there. And we tried making coffee the way they did back then when they were really stretching for it. So we wrapped up the coffee beans in a cloth. We stuck it on a rock and we hit it with the butts of our musket. It did not grind up well at all. We put that dirt covered sack into a kettle and boiled it, and it was terrible. It was so bad. [laughter] it was not fun. But that was the way that we did it. Presumably, maybe the quartermaster or commissary would have had some grinders because thats going to be way more efficient. I dont know if they provided the beans whole or ground to the troops. You would think ground would be easier and quicker, but i have no idea. Jake on this topic, there is a great series of videos that encompasses all aspects of the civil war, with a living history angle, and thats the civil war digital digest, which is over on kyle im in a couple of those. Jake if you want to learn about cooking in the field, kind of every aspect of soldiers life, highly recommend checking that out over on youtube. Youre going to find a lot of great information. We just crossed over an hour mark, so were going to start to wrap up here. Kyle probably a good idea. Jake im going to start and then kyle, ill let you do conclusion. Thank you for tuning in. If you havent yet liked the video, go ahead and do that. Still helps us at the end, even if you dont like me because i like scrapple and i eat spam and drink decaf and havent seen lord of the rings or back to the future. You can go ahead and put the angry emoji. You can say youre mad at me. But that helps people see these videos and get engaged in the conversation. I help to manage the facebook page, twitter, instagram, and youtube, as well as other Staff Members here at the museum. So every little bit helps, and your participation and sharing your interest in these topics helps us to reach more people. Thats a big goal of what were trying to do is have more people be aware of the National Museum of civil war medicine, of what we do. And the fun that we can have in fulfilling our mission. This was a long, rambling discussion. We talked about lots of things other than coffee in the civil war, but this, you know, these kinds of videos and programs help more people to see what we do, and your participation, thank you so much. I feel i made so many digital friends. Thank you for tuning in. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] you are watching American History tv, covering history cspan style with event coverage, eyewitness accounts, archival films, lectures in College Classrooms, and visits to museums and historic places, all weekend, every weekend on cspan three. Every saturday night, American History tv takes you to College Classrooms for American History tv. Raise your hand if you have ever heard of this murder before this class . The deepest cause where we will find the true meaning of the revolution was in this transformation that took place in the minds of the american people. We are going to talk about both sides of the story. The tools and techniques of slave owner power and the tools and techniques of power that were practiced by enslaved people. Watch history professors lead discussions with their students on topics ranging from the American Revolution to september 11. Lectures in history on cspan3, every saturday on American History tv. Lectures in history is available as a podcast. Find it where you listen to podcasts. American history tv is on cspan3 every weekend, and all of our programs are archived on our website at cspan. Org history. You can watch lectures and College Classrooms, archival films, and see our schedule of upcoming programs at cspan. Org history. Is cspan. Org history. Matt atkinson has worked as a ranger at the gettysburg and Vicksburg National military parks. He compares the two 1863 campaigns as turning points in the civil war and explores why gettysburg looms larger in historical memory than western theater battles such as vicksburg. This talk was part of a symposium hosted by the emerging civil war blog in 2018. I am happy to introduce my good friend, matt atkinson. Matt has an undergrad degree from the university of mississippi and a masters degree from the university of louisiana says they which matt beat alabama one time