
How Coffee Fueled the Civil War - lsh123
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/how-coffee-fueled-the-civil-war/
======
bbzealot
My grandpa fought the WWII in the Italian Army. He told me that during war,
they had to drink coffee with anise every day, and they were forced to do so.
Of course it wasn't really just "coffee with anise", but it contained some
kind of drug. He remembers that, after drinking that "coffee", he could see a
dying fellow soldier calling for help, and just don't care about that.

He was sent to war after a quick training lasted just a few weeks, and I guess
that without taking some kind of drugs, the average 20 years old guy wouldn't
be able to fight a war without going crazy.

~~~
stinos
_he could see a dying fellow soldier calling for help, and just don 't care
about that._

Could be side effect of 'plain' amphetamines, which were used heavily by all
sides in that war. Wouldn't be surprised at all if that or similar substances
are still being used today: when not considering the disadvantages, it will
make a person better at certain war-related tasks.

------
oftenwrong
I found a picture of the Antietam memorial depicting William McKinley
delivering coffee:
[http://www.dispatch.com/content/graphics/2012/08/27/Antietam...](http://www.dispatch.com/content/graphics/2012/08/27/Antietam15.JPG)

------
mbubb
This made me think of a great HN piece from a few weeks back:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7921691](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7921691)

Balzac on pleasures and pains of coffee.

A generation before the Civil War but interesting to see how coffee was used
experimentally to spur creativity and production. He mentions other artists
with similar experiments.

To say we are addicted to coffee or tea is not just to talk of the dependence
on caffeine but the whole set of rituals around it. It draws my attention and
I love articles like this. I also love to learn how other people make tea or
coffee (though I reserve the right to be very judgemental in that regard).

Last week I sat down to watch a movie randomly picked from the Critereon
Collection on Hulu. "Jeanne Dielman..." by Chantal Ackerman. Blew me away. 3.5
hours of very little action and a central scene where she does little more
than make coffee

Coincidentally I was sitting and reading this while grinding coffee. 2 morning
rituals: HN and fresh ground coffee.

~~~
bane
"Paul's coffee service, the fluted allow of silver and jasmium that he had
inherited from Jamia, rested on a low table to her right. She stared at it,
thinking of how many hands had touched that metal. Chani had served Paul from
it within the month.

 _What can his desert woman do for a Duke except serve him coffee?_ she asked
herself. _She brings him no power, no family._ "

I always was fascinated by Herbert's use of coffee in Dune. A civilization so
far removed from our own, by thousands of years and possibly light-years. Yet
along with all the Dukes and Barons, you get coffee.

------
javert
It is well known that a graduate student is a machine for converting coffee
into theorems.

But who knew that the American soldier can be a machine for converting coffee
into freedom?

~~~
polarix
Only if you take the romantic view that the civil war was fought over slavery,
instead of over states' rights.

Or perhaps if you define freedom precisely as that which you fight for in the
name of America.

~~~
taejo
The Mississippi declaration of secession states _explicitly_ that it's about
slavery:

 _In the momentous step which our State has taken of dissolving its connection
with the government of which we so long formed a part, it is but just that we
should declare the prominent reasons which have induced our course._

 __Our position is thoroughly identified with the institution of slavery __\--
_the greatest material interest of the world. Its labor supplies the product
which constitutes by far the largest and most important portions of commerce
of the earth. These products are peculiar to the climate verging on the
tropical regions, and by an imperious law of nature, none but the black race
can bear exposure to the tropical sun. These products have become necessities
of the world, and a blow at slavery is a blow at commerce and civilization.
That blow has been long aimed at the institution, and was at the point of
reaching its consummation. There was no choice left us but submission to the
mandates of abolition, or a dissolution of the Union, whose principles had
been subverted to work out our ruin._

(emphasis mine)

~~~
DanielBMarkham
If I want to keep beating my wife, and you want to come over to my house and
stop me by beating the hell out of me and my kids, in my mind the issue is
about you coming over to my house. In your mind the issue is about domestic
violence.

It's not an either-or situation. The Civil War was about some states having
the right to do things that other states found immoral. In that way, if it
hadn't been slavery, it'd been something else. States' rights was the
principle, but the fuel that the fire burned was slavery.

I'm happy that it ended the way it did, but I see no need to demonize the
south or glorify the north. Slavery was unfinished business from the founding
that caused hard feelings for decades. Both sides were eager for a fight to
finish it, and that's what they got.

Once you move beyond the moral issue, it's pretty obvious that what was going
on was that a rural, agrarian, spread-out country was becoming a centralized
industrial one. This was the true benefit of the war: taking the nation into
the modern age. Slavery is just a red herring. A moral crusade tacked on to a
pre-existing war of consolidation.

~~~
programmarchy
> a centralized industrial one. This was the true benefit of the war: taking
> the nation into the modern age

This is another can of worms. Once the federal government concentrated its
power and became more centralized, one of its first acts was subsidizing the
railroads, passing the high distribution costs of large, centralized
industrial firms on to taxpayers.

This effectively crowded out more decentralized methods of production that
could have been more effective, using networks of small rails or canals to
more cheaply distribute local goods, for example. The concentration of capital
of centralized industries continued to increase under this regime, with the
state being used as a blunt force instrument to distribute external costs of
large industrial firms to the public.

This relationship between the state and industry continued to mutate into the
corporatism we have today, with the corporate form now being massively
privileged and protected by the state through subsidizing infrastructure
(transportation, communications, etc.), limiting legal liability, tariffs,
patents, copyrights, etc. The state acts as a blunt force instrument for
concentrating capital in the hands of a few, on behalf of legal fictions
called corporations.

This is the modern age, and in many ways it seems like there are more slaves
today than there were before, despite the so-called efficiencies of
centralized industry.

If you're interested, Kevin Carson puts forth a critical survey of orthodox
views on economies of scale in Organization Theory: A Libertarian Perspective,
refuting proponents of centralized industry such as Joseph Schumpeter, JK
Galbraith, and Alfred Chandler. He provides a strong argument for
decentralizing industry as a way to truly lower real distribution costs, by
stripping away the many privileges afforded to corporate forms by the state,
in preference of freed markets and bringing more wealth into local economies.

------
gabemart
I wonder about the relationship between caffeine and the near-universal spread
of tea and coffee as hot beverages.

I love tisanes, what are informally called herbal teas. I find it striking
that there are literally hundreds of plants used to make herbal teas with an
incredibly long history - mint, chamomile, dandelion, jasmine, red clover,
elderflower, passion flower, hibiscus, etc. etc. But none of them have a tenth
of one percent of the popularity of coffee or true tea.

Many people who enjoy tea and coffee enjoy the effects of the caffeine. But
I'm surprised at the scale of the difference between the popularity of
caffeinated and non-caffeinated drinks.

~~~
backlava
But what does that have to do with the price of tea in China?

~~~
taejo
Tea and tisanes are to some extent substitute goods, so increased demand for
tisanes lowers the price of tea in China ;)

~~~
JacobAldridge
I have few pleasures in life greater than finding a way to answer that
question no matter what situation. Sadly, as a result, no-one ever asks me
anymore. Thanks for the memories.

------
keithpeter
Muckets look interesting, especially the galvanised jug shaped ones. I
remember seeing white enamel pots of similar shape used by workmen road
mending and track mending - they brewed on a brazier cast iron with coke as
fuel. I'm talking 60s in UK.

Does anyone know the tricks used to 'settle' the grounds?

~~~
mbubb
My grandfather would put a piece of eggshell in to settle them - not sure how
scientific that is...

edit - found this [http://blog.khymos.org/2010/08/04/norwegian-egg-
coffee/](http://blog.khymos.org/2010/08/04/norwegian-egg-coffee/)

"When looking into the chemistry behind this it isn’t as strange as it may
sound. Fish skin as well as eggs contain proteins. The addition of proteins
while preparing the coffee serves two purposes: 1) it helps the coffee grounds
to flocculate, allowing them to sink faster to the bottom of the pot (this
effect is probably more pronounced when using eggs) and 2) the proteins bind
irreversibly to astringent and bitter tasting polyphenols in coffee to form
insoluble complexes that will precipitate. The end result is a clearer coffee
with a pleasant and mild taste. The bitterness is only barely noticeable, but
the coffee still has enough “body” so it doesn’t feel too thin! "

~~~
jackfoxy
I had heard of egg shells in coffee from an old-time Navy man. I had assumed
the calcium neutralized the acidity. This appears to be a better explanation.
I wonder if ship cooks still put the morning's egg shells in the coffee?

~~~
keithpeter
This hypothesis just _has_ to be tested. I'm hunting for an enamel jug/pot
tomorrow. I reserve the right to revert to my moka pot though.

~~~
AJ007
Post this as a Shown HN when you do!

------
jostmey
I believe Coffee is an addictive substance well suited for human beings.
Although it is addictive, it is self-limiting. Most people will naturally stop
drinking it at the sweet spot.

~~~
keithpeter
360 pounds a year = about 3kg of beans a week. That is a fair old sweet spot!

I have one strong moka pot of coffee a day, say 400ml cup. If I stop having
coffee for a week or two now and again, I get a headache the first day or so.

~~~
smoyer
The article said 36 pounds ... I don't drink as much coffee as I used to, but
I suspect I'm in the ballpark of "surviving on Union rations".

~~~
keithpeter
Must change my reading glasses.

That seems a much smaller 300g ration per week. I get through a 200g bag of
fine ground coffee in a couple or three weeks at one strong mug a day or there
abouts.

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higherpurpose
The part at the end especially, kind of makes me want to give up coffee. Seems
too addicting, like it has too much control over us, and I don't like that.

~~~
keithpeter
I do a week off tea, coffee and juices, just water, every now and again. Some
headaches and discomfort day 1, usually fine and chipper by day 3 onwards.

I'm on one strong large mug (two ordinary cups) of coffee and one or two teas
a day normally. I don't have caffeinated soft drinks at all.

~~~
AJ007
I have not seen evidence of any significant negative health effects from
either tea of coffee. The positives would appear to be fairly high. Juice I
avoid.

------
fiatmoney
There are similar anecdotes about the use of coffee during cattle drives in
the West post-Civil War.

~~~
gcb0
wonder how historians will write about silicon valley. you can probably use
that same text

~~~
hiphopyo
Same for med students on amphetamines

------
tim333
Ah coffee. I wonder what percentage of coding is fuelled by coffee. Quite a
lot I'd imagine.

------
barking
For the British soldier, substitute tea or 'a brew' as it's referred to.

------
dasil003
Ahhh! Enjoying this article over my morning cup.

~~~
smoyer
I was grinding as I read the comments ... now to brew :)

~~~
mbubb
heh - me too

