Experience of union and confederate soldiers and take viewer questions via chat. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining us on this new program were trying out. Were having a morning conversation over coffee. Im kyle dalton, the membership and Development Coordinator and yeah, im jake winn. And i am in washington, d. C. And im in frederick, maryland, next to our main location. We are happy to have all of you joining us this Morning Bright and early. Especially for the unfortunate viewers on the west coast. Like i said, today were talking about coffee. So ive got my cup of joe right here in the appropriately branded mug. You got yours there, jake . Yes, im supporting George Mason University today. We support education. Thats so my coffee, you can see it behind me here, its new mexico coffee which is really tasty. I made it in my french press here with filtered water. I do enjoy my coffee, fresh ground is best because that releases the flavors. If you buy Ground Coffee, we were watching this thing the other day, Ground Coffee loses its flavor. As soon as you grind those, it starts releasing the flavor. You need to get the whole bean, grind it yourself and we do it in the french press with filter filtered water. Ive been a bad boy this morning and im not Drinking Coffee that i ground myself. I am having a cup of folgers made on a pourover to boot. Its decaf. If you saw the post yesterday where i was tune in for caffeinated history, i was lying to you. Were not going to get advertisers with false advertising. Im sorry for all of you watching tuning in from maine, maryland, and shepherds town, many other places across the country and 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. It is going to be a long week. Thank you all so much for tuning in with us today. Is it snowing in maine . According to mike it is. Hes tuning in from snowy maine. I cant see the comments. Ill be comment guy. Bear with us as were going through. If you have any questions as well as were going through, well do our best to answer those for you. If we can answer them. Theres two of us so it makes us easier to use the google machine and to find you the right answer as best we can. If we are really struggling, we can drop a story or a, you know, link into our social media accounts down the line once we do a little more research. If you are having any questions as were going through this conversation this morning, i want us to address anything coffeerelated, breakfastrelated, foodrelated. I will let you know. We have another livestream coming up with the tattooed historian himself coming up on wednesday and well be talking about nutrition and hygiene and Civil War Soldiers. This is going to be a theme this week. Were doing a little bit of talking about the soldier experience even the civilian experience during the civil war with a focus on food and the Civil War Soldiers favorite morning, afternoon, and evening beverage coffee. They did prefer the caffeinated kind as opposed to the crap that im drinking. Did they have decaf in the 1860s . Was that an option . The confederates did, but they werent Drinking Coffee. If youre grinding up your Sweet Potatoes into grounds to make coffee we can get into that. I know youre making a face. Im trying to imagine what sweet potato coffee would taste like aside from george picket thought it was great. George picket loved it. It might explain they think it will forever be associated with success. Yes. Yeah, if youre too two notable things about the civil war which is the gettysburg debacle. What is his fault is the shad bake at down at shoot, the battle now its slipping my mind. Down in virginia. Somebody in the comments can help me out with the name of the battle. He misses the battle because hes eats fish that they caught out of the river, yeah. Its not a great look for george picket. He did have beautiful ringlets and he did enjoy his morning not coffee but sweet potato and ground up and made into a nice, warm brown liquid. I love Sweet Potatoes, but that sounds disgusting. Yeah. Thats like good thing to just kind of dive into and talk about some of the coffee substitutes. Confederates didnt have access to coffee. Youre importing coffee from abroad, you know, up to the 1860s and so with the blockade and the, you know, famous an anaconda plan, this means that confederates are not going to be able to import coffee. Prices are going to shoot up and make it impossible to get your hands on. Because they want something that, you know, kind of reminds them of coffee, its going to be grinding up just about thank you, john. Battle of five forks is what i was talking about. Thats where he was eating fish instead of yeah, instead of commanding his troops, yes. George picket, may you rest in peace. But it was 150 years ago. May they all rest in peace. But, yeah, so confederates are using anything that they can get their hands on to grind up. Some of it is pretty nasty, like the Sweet Potatoes are gross, corn is another one, roasted corn, ground down. Wouldnt that be corn grits . Yeah. But made into then made in the same way you would make coffee. You grind it up and heat it. Youre making a face. Of how i. So, heres the worse one. That doesnt sound too bad to me. You are crazy. That sounds terrible. You have to winnow it because its got the thing inside the shell thats toxic, but if you take that out, that to me sounds fine. I you know, i cant that sounds like bad taste to me. I dont know. I dont know. Youre the one that brought up the Sweet Potatoes, man. Hey, hey, george liked them, not me. I think in the comments you should tell us if you would rather have sweet potato coffee or acorn coffee. Yes. Let us know in there. I see this is going to get to my next point. Ill ask you, kyle, a question. One of the more famous coffee additives and this is a thing famous during the civil war as well is chicory. So, have you had chicory in coffee . This is still in new orleans thing. This is a louisiana thing. Oh, new orleans . Yeah, this is still a thing down south, specifically in louisiana, new orleans. Its really i really enjoy it, but its a super acquired taste. But funny story. Alison 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 always she hated new orleans, lived there like a year. But she hated, hated chicory and coffee. And up to, you know unfortunately she passed away a little ways back. But up to her dying day, she said, any time new orleans came up, can you believe they put chicory in their coffee . Terrible, its terrible. But i quite enjoy it. I would be willing to try it. Im not willing to say that i would absolutely love it because i havent had it, but i would be willing to try it. Sounds interesting. Yeah, its an interesting, you know, concept and something thats, i think, interesting is a connection to the civil war. And you talk about relevance and our mission. But if you look at how tastes evolve over time, and thats an interesting one because it sticks with us over all of these the century and a half. And chicory had been used in coffee down there before the civil war, but it becomes much more common and then becomes kind of a standard part of the fair that is included right up to the present day. So, theres kind of we love this at the museum. These things that you can touch and taste, that sensory. We just had a video last week talking about sensory history. You can find that actually a couple of videos about sensory history from last week. You can 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 right now. And, you know, sensory history is really interesting because it is that connection that we can all kind of have to the past is you can taste, you can smell. And heres an example from new orleans, something that they were adding during the civil war that you can taste today and became part of culture. Its pretty interesting. Yeah, it sounds a little bit like spam in hawaii, how famously world war ii introduced spam to the hawaiian diet and now its another part of it. Theres another question. How do you feel about spam . I dont think its that great. I feel like if youre going to have a canned meat, why not just do corned beef . Hard disagreement here. Im a big spam advocate. Another one . I was very disappointed during the pandemic run on the Grocery Stores when everyone was picking up toilet paper and taking all of that and empty shelves, 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. Like it will last. Right. And then its gone. So, i was left spamless. Not that i eat it super regularly, but i am im a fan. If youre going to stock up, might as well grab the things that are going to last, yeah. Right. I can see people in comments talking about spam needs much mustard and fry it too. I agree. Yes. Spam sandwiches are just you can fry almost anything and make it better though. Yes, Just Ask George picket. Fry up those fish. So, was there any difference in the way that they prepared coffee in the civil war than the way that we do it today . I imagine the chemical process has to be the same . But were they grinding it in different ways or . Yeah, so basically any way a Civil War Soldier could get their hands on coffee, they were consuming it. So, grinding it up, using the butt of their musket to grind it up ive done that. Yeah to make coffee, chewing, eating chewing on the beans or, you know, to i mean, you eat espresso beans. Chocolatecovered espresso beans. Same concept. While the guys are on the march. This is one of their biggest complaints. Im sure youre familiar with this, kyle. Many in the comments will be as well. Soldiers, when theyre on a march, especially in the forced march and they dont have time to stop and brew coffee is the worst time. It is the worst. Being woken up at 2 00 in the morning and then you have to go march 30 miles and youre addicted to coffee because youd been drinking it every day. Sorry, ive got sirens outside here, so apologies if you can hear it. But, you know, youre addicted to coffee. You drink five cups of it every day and then all of a sudden one day youre expected to get up at 3 00 in the morning, march 30 miles without coffee, youre going to be chewing on these coffee beans. Youre going to be looking for any caffeine you can get your hands on. They were drinking it and consuming it any way that they could. And they werent too worried about the chemical make up and how to best make a cup of coffee. So, they werent doing the fancy new mexico coffee with the french press and the filtered water . No. No, thats a good question though. So, i have a question about your coffee. So, its from new mexico. Yeah, yeah. Its pignon coffee. Its the pignon pine stuff. Im interested about this. I just read megan kate nelsons fantastic book. Such a great book. And now im wondering were they growing that there during the civil war era . Were they growing coffee there . Were they drinking local brew . Thats a good question. I dont know if they actually used pignon coffee. I know the apaches were eating it. Thats why i was like, acorns, not a big deal. I did historical programming for the city of cupertino in california, and there we talked about the native people of the region and how they would eat acornmeal. They made acornmeal into cakes and things and eat those. To me, thats something that 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 the supply lines were real thin for both sides. Yeah. I think it was theres another great book out there about kind of westward im trying to remember. I think its steves book from npr. He wrote a book about john fremont, the explorer and about their trips west before the civil war and that at one point they were crossing a river and their entire supply an entire westward trip, you know, you have hundreds of pounds of coffee. And it spilled into the river and they lost all of their coffee. That brings up another interesting point. You mentioned the confederates largely didnt have access to coffee. Its got getting through the blockade by and large. So, they were trying to rely on this other stuff and kind of extreme circumstances, northern troops arent getting it either in new mexico and elsewhere. Did anybody experience do you have the acounts of the soldiers experiencing withdrawal from caffeine. It sounds like this is an important part of their diet. Its their favorite drink, you said. Yeah, its interesting. I dont have any specific ones right here, but i think its interesting when you look at accounts of soldiers, and you can see when theyre miserable when they dont have coffee. And they write about that. And im not sure this is a good question. Im not sure how much they made the connection of coffee being a drug. They call it the most commonly used drug in america is coffee. And im not sure how much they were aware of that. These arent chemists that are by and large serving in these armies. And even the chemists that existed at the time you remember i was doing the research on the opioid addiction crisis after the war. Theres this one historian who argued diction didnt exist because they didnt understand addiction which is a bad argument but it does get to even the chemists dont understand that this isnt a moral thing, its an actual chemical imbalance. Right, right. And thats an important thing. I will say from reading many at this point probably many thousands of accounts of Civil War Soldiers both working at the museum and also privately 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 who dont have access to it. We do have a great question here from the comments that i think this is a good time to address this. Its from paul lawson. He says what is the difference between miles per day that a regiment could march with coffee versus without. I will say 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, to see soldiers back in the day, back in the civil war, versus soldiers marching today. You want to talk a little bit about that project, kyle . I know its kind of on hiatus. Oh, yeah. As everything is. But, yeah, the idea is working with the u. S. Marine corp. Historical company, which is a semiofficial part of the marine corp. They do all the history for them. Going to ma nas suss around the anniversary if not on the anniversary of the battle and recreating the route that the marines took. Theres a regiment of marines that fought at man as suss famously. We wanted to get the soldiers in uniform, gear, water, everything they would be carrying in battle. And then we wanted to get modern soldiers in modern combat and recreate it together, running when they were running, firing when they were firing, im not sure what the regulations were on that. And then afterward seeing whats their hydration level, which we already know is going to be vastly different from the modern and civil war. How many calories did they burn . Heart rate, that kind of thing. And then draw conclusions about what effect combat load has between the civil war and today. There are some snags weve hit. Obviously the pandemic being the main one. Its not going to happen this year. I can say that for certain now. It might happen next year. There are legal and medical concerns. This, again, like the hydration level of civil war sodildiers w really low. You see in civil war accounts about the Wounded Soldiers begging for water. I remember when i was growing up it was because of lead poisoning which is total bull. They were just not getting enough water. Theyre wearing wool in july and carrying a single canteen of water. That is actually dangerous even to a very fit 20something marine running around in wool without enough water is a dangerous thing to do. So, we need to be very careful about whether we proceed with this. And understandably, the marine corp. Has concerns about that. We need to ensure that safety is addressed. Hopefully this will go forward. If we dont do it with the marine corp. Next july, i think well do it safer. Well do safer conditions like recreate the route around South Mountain or maybe a winter squirmish or something. I think its a project that is worth looking into it. And i think caffeine is going to be something we have to take into account. Some of these guys, theyre heavily dosing with coffee. I think i saw a figure that it was something on the order of the average soldier consumed 36 pounds of coffee a year. How does that compare to today . In the union army. Thats a great thats a great question. Im not sure about what average american i can use the google machine. Well see if we can find that answer here. But i know this is something theres a lot of great articles out there about kind of the progression of coffee usage from the civil war in the army and military right up through the present day and coffee since the civil war has always had this place of love with the u. S. To military just because, well, ever since Andrew Jackson banned the whiskey ration and changed it to coffee. So, we can thank Andrew Jackson for all of this. I would go even further back than that to the revolution. Take us there, todd. Take us there. The Cultural Movement away from tea and consumption of tea for obvious political reasons and into coffee so much so i was telling about this earlier today. Theres a case in quebec, the siege of quebec, 76, i think, where an american soldier was wounded, captured by the british. And the british servant says you need this tea, you need this stimulant or you will die. He says, no, im not going to drink that tea, and he dies. Probably falsely, the british conclude its his stubbornness, his inability to drink tea that ended up killing him. And thats symptomatic of this shift, this cultural shift from tea to coffee. Thats where you really first start seeing it explode into american society. It had been there before. There were coffee houses. Theres actually legal designations that separate a coffee house from a tavern. They can serve drinks, but the coffee house you dont have rooms available. It doesnt become the major cultural force that it is until the revolution. And that continues into the 19th century. So, the seeds of civil war addiction to coffee are planted in the 1770s, maybe even 1760s if you want to go back a little bit. So, i looked it up. I was not able to find a specific number for how many pounds of coffee the average american consumes in a year. But the average american consumes 3. 1 cup of coffee per day. Per day . Really . Yes. So, thats what im finding on the internet, we know the most reliable source of information that exists. Simple google search. Thats all you need. Exactly, exactly. There was another i think i lost the comment now. Another comment that i thought good ole emily hubner commenting bringing in one of the highlights of the concept of coffee as a drug may have existed at the time and that quakers amongst other religious groups told people to stay away from coffee because it would get them too bothered, too thats a good point. Feeling all the emotion, feeling all the feelings when youre hyped up on coffee. And i wanted to go back to paul l lawson. Thanks for that question about the march. Sorry we dont have a more specific answer for you. Also im sorry that i like both decaf and spam. I think that was earlier in the show. I realize that doing more of these live streams that more and more people are going to hate me every day. Has anybody commented on the sweet potato versus acorn . There was a whole there was a whole thread going on about this. I dont know oh, drew gruber says i need to switch pork roll. I agree, pork roll is amazing. If i lived in new jersey, i would probably eat it every day. Well have to go and do a scientific tabulation to see our poll of sweet potato versus acorn. Yeah, yeah, which would be the better coffee. I think we can put that into a fancy graphic like were buzzfeed or something and share it on social media. There will be many gifs. I call it gifs, another reason people hate me. Something that gets me wondering about the number of stimulants that Civil War Soldiers are into, tobacco, coffee. Alcohol can be a stimulant, initially anyway. And theyre eating or smoking and drinking a lot of all of these. So, do we know does that affect their sleep patterns . Is there any research on that . I wouldnt imagine there would be but maybe. I havent come across anything about sleep patterns. I think its important to remember just how active all of these soldiers are all the time, even when theyre in camp. Theyre out drilling. Theyre out procuring firewood. Theyre out getting food. Even when theyre not on the march, theyre still busy. I think that again i havent seen that, whether or not thats a thing. I would probably i mean, this is why i switched to decaf is because i drank i was well above the average american Drinking Coffee a few months ago. So, i was having those problems. And i imagine thats probably something that Civil War Soldiers may have experienced. I dont know whether or not they would have made that connection. I do want to say you brought tobacco and this is an interesting one. Theres a lot of communication, especially in virginia during the civil war with, you know, union and Confederate Forces occupying and standing ground very close to each other, usually with a river in between them. Theres a lot of cross lines trade. Amongst that trade is union coffee for confederate tobacco. So, thats something that you see that trade. It was not it was frowned upon by Army Commands, but this is something that there was some fraternization. However you say it. Im sorry. Im making you mispronounce words. So, the Army Commands did not like that. But soldiers on the front lines were doing it. 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. I also think its interesting because in my very broken talk on anesthesia, theres talk about getting chloroform and ether through the lines. Theres a lot coming through the blockade. But the confederates prioritize it. They see it as a military necessity. Is there any indication that they prioritized coffee as a military necessity, or was it seen more as a luxury item, a leisure item . Not a priority. Also its important to keep in mind that anything they could get through the blockade, the price of that good was just astronomical. Yeah. I mean, theyre struggling to get their hands on even basic goods. And if things are sneaking through the blockade and there is a priority put on military and medical supplies. Medical supplies can be one of those items that are going to be coveted coming through. But yeah, i have not seen this. I am not an expert by any means on blockade runners and whats coming through the blockade. Just know that even if you could get those goods through, their price would be basically unattainable for the average person to have that even for soldiers to get their hands on that, on those goods. It reminds me i forget his name. Hes one of the popular historians in the civil war. Since im calling him out, i wont say his name anyway. But in one of his books, he argued the blockade wasnt that big of a deal which is a shockingly bad argument to make. His argument was when they announced the blockade, they didnt have enough ships. It took a long time to get the ships built and in place. Thats true. But there is a psychological effect too. Just announcing the blockade, just saying were blockading the south, dropped importation by half. That was just them saying we have a blockade on paper. And of course by the end of the war, nothing is getting through. So, i think its important to acknowledge it does have a very traumatic effect on the stuff coming in. Now, i am also not an expert on what is being carried in, but i think it would be interesting to see is there coffee getting through, how much is it, and how much coffee is coming through . How much it values, and how much it would cost, and how much volume . Yeah, yeah, its interesting. I think its a good point that you mention. Thats that pesky thing of economics and maritime trade is that youre talking about these ships coming even if youre in 1861 announcing basically a pauper blockade, that is going to increase risk for all those doing shipping. So, thats going to jack the price up. So, that is going to leave with that kind of escalation. Even by the time the blockade becomes effective in 1862, 1863, trade, like you said, is going to be way down. Theres going to be a focus, again, on the goods required by the confederate war effort. Think muskets. Thinking medical supplies, that sort of thing. So, i want to jump in thank you all so much for tuning in. Weve had a great audience so far which is fantastic. Thank yall for tuning in. Ive seen a lot of questions, a lot of questions. I dont know if were going to be able to get to all of them. Thank you all so much for commenting and asking those questions and engaging with us in conversation. We really 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 membersupported museum if youre enjoying this conversation. Were having many of these kinds of 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 membersupported organization. Consider a donation. Every little bit helps. We have been open since midmarch to the public, so every little bit helps us, right kyle . Yes, everything jake just said. Kyle is the membership guy. Im not sure which way what jake said. Its on my left, but im sure on everybody elses right, i think. So, i want to transition, i have a few favorite coffee stories. I saw one person ask about scrapple. Like the meat . Yeah, since were on coffee, coffee goes great with breakfast. I have a scrapple story as well . Are you flying your pennsylvania flag . Yes, i actually should have my pennsylvania flag behind me. What is the pennsylvania flag . Im not familiar with it. It looks like 30 other state flags. So, blue with the state seal. Yeah. Oh, boring. Yeah. Favorite state flag, new mexico. Love new mexicos state flag. That is by far the best one. I love the california state flag, but yeah, new mexico i think is the best. All the marylanders in the comments im sure are going to oh, shoot. Are going to be even more yeah, marylanders love their flag. It is a good flag. Its a really good flag. Yeah, as enapproximate pepen just like and that was chris who asked about scrapple. We do have accounts of scrapple being eaten during the civil war. Theres a unit, the 48th pennsylvania, that is theyre the ones famous that dubbed the mine that exploded the crater at peters berg. Theyre the ones that dug the tunnel . Yeah, theyre the ones from my part of pennsylvania. I feel a connection to those guys. But theres a great letter collection thats been published. Im trying to remember the soldiers last name is pollock. The book was put together by a friend of mine, a ranger at getties berg. Fantastic historian. And in that letter collection as the 48 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 i think he notes you might have thought us monsters for just devouring this scrapple. But they loved it. Im sure other soldiers probably ate it too. Are you imagining the lord of the rings when they eat that guy and the pieces are flying everywhere. Another reason for you all to hate me. Ive never seen nor read the lord of the rings. Really . Thats a deliberate choice. Youre taking pride in avoiding something thats popular. Wow, i feel like youve called me out. Right. Struck me. I do think that scrapple was that old actually, not being a pennsylvanian. I didnt realize that it wasnt a modern invention that came around in the 50s when there was all kinds of canned meat. Scrapple equals crappal. It is a love or hate thing. Scrapple is you can trace it back at least in pennsylvania. I know there are other Midatlantic States who also have it. That scrapple culture its a weird thing to say. Scrapple culture. Well go with that. And there are other down south theres a bunch of ive seen people refer to a bunch of Different Things that are very close to scrapple. Basically the idea is, you know, its the bits that dont always make it into the other cuts of meat, and its yeah, its definitely an acquired thing. I think it tastes good. I think its the what its made of concept that makes people a little its not visually appealing. No. It is a loaf of weird meat. Its kind of grainy, at least the ones ive had. Right, right. Im not an avid scrapple eater. So, scrapple story aside and transition back to coffee right. The whole reason were here. Right. It is why were here. But one of the more famous coffee stories, we have a we have the pry house Field Hospital at the ante tum national battlefield. We spend a lot of time on that battlefield. Its a great place. Come visit it when this is all over. Yes, and theres lots of exterior so you can come visit even if you dont come in the house. Thats true. I was hiking the other day and i saw hardly anybody on the trail which is really nice. Yeah, and the grounds are still open there. Remember social distance everybody. Wash your hands. If youre going to the grocery store, put on the mask. All of that being said. So, one of the monuments, one of the more famous monuments is by bernside bridge at ante tum. William mckinley was part of the 23rd ohio volunteer infantry. He is one of two future president who is served in that unit. Lieutenant colonel rutherford b. Hayes i didnt realize they were in the same unit. Yep, same unit. Lieutenant colonel hayes was injured, knocked out. So, hes not at ante tum. Rutherford b. Hayes is not there, but William Mckinley is. Mckinley was a commissary sergeant for the regiment, so while hes not going to take active part in the fighting of the fighting, 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 whats known as the final assault towards the shown of sharpsburg on september 16th, 1862. So, after his death, after husband assassination in 1901, the survivors of the 23rd ohio decided to remember mckinleys actions at antetum. So, they put up an monument to mckinley there just above burnside bridge. So, i always joked 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 health care kinley mckinley go on to be president , theyre going to be nicknamed the president s regiment because they have two members that become United States president s. I am fascinated by rutherford b. Hayes role in the civil war. I do have a blog. If you type rutherford b. Hayes into the search box youll find my article about his wounding at South Mountain. He was shot four times during the war and managed to survive, including a spent round hit him in the forehead. It knocked him senseless but luckily did not cause any permanent damage. He did go on to become president in 1876. Thats one side of this. Kyle, do you have any comments . Couple quick notes. There is a mckinley coffee thats based on this story. I found it on the internet. You can order bags of mckinley coffee, and theyll send it to you. I forgot the other one. It must not have been that important. Now i remember. There was a documentary on the History Channel years ago, and originally they planned to show the assassination and dramty zags of the assassination of William Mckinley. He was killed by leon and i was cast to be leon. It doesnt pan out and that got cut from the documentary anyway, but fun little footnotes. Im so sad that your movie career didnt take off. Yeah, yeah. I mean, with a face like this, i could have been the next brad pitt. There you go. Your stunned silence. Take it away. Take it away. Do you think kyle dalton looks like brad pitt . So, my other coffee story i want to talk about is one i wrote a little bit about for one of my side projects which is about pennsylvania in the civil war. Put on my pennsylvania flag cape. And that is so, i wrote an article about a soldier from the 45th pennsylvania. He did serve with the 45th pennsylvania and 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 in the battle of petersburg in the late spring or early summer of 1864. So, i wrote this about penncivilwar. Com, if you want to see the article, thats where you can find it. In his little history of his service, he writes about how much he loved coffee. Hes talking about hes filling up his can feeteen. Hes walking on the march, taking it with him everywhere. Coffee is really important to him. This is something thats common in the civil war. You see it everywhere in the histories of the war. If you go through and look for coffee in the Civil War Soldiers diary or letters or memoir, you are going to see it time and time again. It brought soldiers together. Theres a comradery about it. Imagine sitting around the fire boiling your coffee, waiting for it to be done, youre talking together bonding over this common activity that youre all going to engage in. It sounds a little bit like in the study of the 18th century material culture food culture. They talk about rum punch as a social lubricant. That was the drink that everybody had. It wasnt just because its a good drink it is a good drink but its because its getting people talking, getting people around the table. It sounds like its the same thing for coffee, its a social lubricant. Definitely its a bonding activity that is going to bring people together. And so you see it in lots of other lots of accounts of the civil war. And myers is a coffee lover and 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. This is june 18th, 1864. Let me confirm. June 16th, 1864. So, this is what he writes. Says, quote, as soon as we got into place, our cook went to boiling coffee. Just as it was ready to dish out came an order, follow in. It was hurry of course but i managed to fill my canteen and took time to wrap my skillet and flung the roll across my shoulder and breast. This is going to be important in his account. I thought at the time if a mini ball hits the skillet, it will glance. When all was ready to move we were ordered to the right. We had not gone far in that direction when given orders, close up, boys. I repeated his command. That instant a cannon ball hit a tree and passing through it struck me on the left leg above the knee. It was a spent shot or that would have been the last of sweaty myers. The soldiers nickname was sweaty which i think is really hilarious. That sounds like a comic relief character in a bond movie. Yes, sweaty myers. Its force, however threw me 10 or 15 feet. I landed on my back down and out. Four or five boys carried me some distance to rear. At first i thought my leg was broken but it was not. I said boys go back to the company. They told me two months later when i returned from the hospital that they did not go back that night. The boys had laid me down in the woods. Our hospital steward, a sympathetic man, james a. Myers, was always on careful look out for any of us when the regiment went into action. He found me lying up against a tree Still Holding on to my canteen of coffee. Coffee got him through. Coffee got him through. Most were carrying metal canteens, so he put boiling coffee into his metal canteen and carried it off to battle. That just seems uncomfortable. Along with throwing the skillet over his back. What a look. That makes me think of Clint Eastwood where hes wearing the metal plate and using it to stop the bullets. Sorry, what was that . I missed that . Well, Clint Eastwood, east wearing in one of the movies, the metal plate to stop the bullets. Back to the future iii. Here, another story for you. Ive never seen any of the back to the future movies all the way through. Ive never watched them all the way through. Hate me. I feed off the hate everyone. Speaking of Clint Eastwood, one thing were talking about for doing a future broadcast, a reason to stick with this channel, subscribe to our youtube, follow us on facebook. Were looking to do a video where we watch scenes of civil war hospital or medicine from Popular Culture, mercy street. The good, the bad and the ugly has a few which is why i was thinking about it. Gettysburg, what are these Popular Culture things are that show hospitals. We want to see the scenes and react and talk about whats accurate, whats not, how it works as entertainment. So, keep an eye on our channel for future fun videos, hopefully, like that. Another one im really excited about is kyle is going to be doing some cooking for you all. Yes. So, in the coming weeks, were trying to figure out the logistics of this, how this will work. But think civil war cooking show. And youve got my attention. So, youre going to free preview of i feel bad for emily, going to have to sample all of your fare that youre going to make. I think some of its going to be pretty good. I think some of its going to be absolutely disgusting. But all the recipes are coming from the 1862 hospital stewards manual. This was written for hospitals in the civil war, Union Hospitals and has the recipes in there with some degree of particularity like this is how much you put in, this is how long you cook it. This is an era where recipes are getting more specific, so its easy to recreate those even if the ingredients arent going to be quite the same as they were back then. Im looking forward to trying some of these and not looking forward to trying some of the others. So, questions. Were going to start going back through some of them. So, first one that im seeing im going to back to the top here in just a second. But this is relevant kyles got to refill. Everyone watch him pour his fancy new mexico coffee. Welcome back. Question for you about where you got those recipes that youre kind of looking at. The hospital stewards manual. Its public domain, published in 1862, Government Printing office. This is sort of related to the move within the medical department toward professional zags. The hospital steward was a sought after position. It was noncombatant. It was very well paid. It was the highest paid noncommission officer in the army. You were away from combat, getting perks, something people liked. Unfortunately that meant that officers would reward certain soldiers with that whether they were qualified or not. You were supposed to have pharmaceutical knowledge. That was most important. Hospital stewards were also in charge of, if they work with a particular regiment, in charge of very important things behind the lines, helping to administer hospice. Thats a life or death situation. These guys are well paid for a reason. There were a lot of them that were underqualified in 1862, so they created the hospital stewards manual to say, are you completely inept at your job . Heres how to do it. And that would be the various recipes you would be called on to have prepared whether you did the cooking or there was a cook at the hospital. Thats because surgeons in Long Term Care in the general hospitals behind the lines were given specific dietary prescriptions. You had to eat a certain kind of food. This manual walked through how to make them. Well be trying to prepare those and broadcasting as a cooking video. You can find the recipe yourself, try it yourself. Theres gross stuff in there, calves foot jelly and good looking stuff like beef stew that will be tasty. You can find it on google books. Archive. Org has it as well. Its all over the place. Its not hard to find. Another question just came in and its asking about a link to our Museum Online store. We dont, at the moment, have an online store. Wir ki 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. Were trying to get it back. In the meantime, you can contact if youre looking for information about whats available in the store, you can contact our store manager, and that is trish flora im putting her email into the comments right now. There you go. So, you can contact her. She can let you know if youre looking for a specific book, if youre looking for any merchandise, anything like that. Thats how yeah. Kyle is doing a good job of showing off some of the swag, the coffee mug there. We have tshirts, hats, that sort of thing available. On that note too, i do want to thank david hines who just dropped a comment in and i just saw his membership come through. Thank you so much, david, for becoming a member. Awesome. Yeah, thank yall so much for supporting us. So, im trying to go back through some of the comments here. If you dropped a comment in way up top, currently theres 267 comments. Holy cow so, if you have a burning question, please ask it again because im having a hard time going back through all the comments. Im assuming that most of those are in support of acorn coffee over sweet potato coffee. I have no dog in that hunt. I want nothing to do with any of that. Acorn coffee was the most disgusting to you. You picked a side of this battle. I didnt know i was picking a side well, you said it. You made a judgment call. Its not i dont want to. I dont want to drink either of them okay. So, heres a question. Can you go through step by step 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. I have, yeah. 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 teen ager in california, i went out to arizona. We talked earlier about making Kate Middletons book about the new mexico campaign. The furthest west it got was the pass, National Park now i think its a National Park. I went and did reenactment there. And we tried making coffee the way they did back then when they were really stretching for it. So, rewrapped up the coffee beans, the whole coffee beans in a cloth. I think it was linen. We stuck it on the rock and hit it with the butts of our muskets to grind it up. We did that for a while. It did not grind it up very well at all. Then we put that dirtcovered sack into a kettle and boiled it. And it was terrible. It was so bad. It was not fun. But that was the way that we did it. Presumably maybe the Quarter Master 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 because thats easier and quicker, but i have no idea. So, on this topic, theres a great theres a great series of videos that encompasses all aspects of the civil war with a living history angle. Thats the civil war digital digest which is over on you did a couple of those. Yeah, theyre great videos. If you want to learn more about cooking kind of in the field and kind of every aspect of soldiers life, highly, highly recommend checking that out over on youtube. Youre going to find lots of great lots of great information there. Hey, kyle, we just crossed over an hour mark, so i think were going to start to wrap up here. Yeah, thats probably a good idea. Just want to ill start and then ill let kyle, ill let you kind of do conclusion. But, you know, thank yall so much for tuning in with us. You know, if you havent yet liked the video, go ahead and do that. It still helps us at the end. Even if you dont like me because i like scrapple and i eat spam and i drink decaf skpi havent seen lord of the rings or back to the future. Or back to the future you can use the angry emoji. I hope to manage the facebook page, twitter, instagram and youtube along with the other Staff Members here at the museum. So, every little bit helps. And your participation and sharing the story, sharing your interest in these topics and this discussion helps us to reach more people. And thats big goal of what were trying to do is to 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 and sticivil as well, but these kinds of videos, these kinds of programs help more people to see what we do and your participation and just thank you so much. And i feel like ive made so much digital friends, so thank yall so much for tuning in to these. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Coming up this weekend, saturday at 10 00 eastern on reel america 75 years ago august 15th, 1945 marked the end of world war ii. Well talk about the state of affairs immediately after the war, road to democracy, here is germany, and a ceiling on your home. And on sunday at 6 00 p. M. Eastern on american artifacts a twopart program on africanamericans in congress. U. S. House of representatives historian matthew and house courier uses artifacts to tell the history of oafricanamericans in congress. Then at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, a look at past acceptance speeches by president ial nominees including bill clinton and george h. W. Bush. Exploring the american story. Watch American History tv this weekend on cspan3. Up next on the civil war, historian Harold Holzer and Valerie Paley of the New York Historical society talk about artifacts featured in their joint publication the civil war in 50 objects. In this program they discussion objects related to soldiers