Subdeacon Joe Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 And the Civil War It was the greatest coffee run in American history. The Ohio boys had been fighting since morning, trapped in the raging battle of Antietam, in September 1862. Suddenly, a 19-year-old William McKinley appeared, under heavy fire, hauling vats of hot coffee. The men held out tin cups, gulped the brew and started firing again. “It was like putting a new regiment in the fight,” their officer recalled. Three decades later, McKinley ran for president in part on this singular act of caffeinated heroism. At the time, no one found McKinley’s act all that strange. For Union soldiers, and the lucky Confederates who could scrounge some, coffee fueled the war. Soldiers drank it before marches, after marches, on patrol, during combat. In their diaries, “coffee” appears more frequently than the words “rifle,” “cannon” or “bullet.” Ragged veterans and tired nurses agreed with one diarist: “Nobody can ‘soldier’ without coffee.” Union troops made their coffee everywhere, and with everything: with water from canteens and puddles, brackish bays and Mississippi mud, liquid their horses would not drink. They cooked it over fires of plundered fence rails, or heated mugs in scalding steam-vents on naval gunboats. When times were good, coffee accompanied beefsteaks and oysters; when they were bad it washed down raw salt-pork and maggoty hardtack. Coffee was often the last comfort troops enjoyed before entering battle, and the first sign of safety for those who survived. Stayed that way at least through WWII Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guitar_slinger Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Coffee, the bitter black elixir of the Gods. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocWard Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 I, for one, have a new found respect for William McKinley. Coffee, the bitter black elixir of the Gods. I couldn't have said it better myself. I was well known for my love of coffee throughout my military career. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rye Miles #13621 Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Too bad there wasn't a Starbucks around then! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Ron Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Howdy, I grew up in a home with coffee and never cared for it. In the army on training in the rain a hot cup warmed my freezing fingers. Then I drank a little to warm my mouth. I got to like it, learned to make it as I always have to know about everything. Later I was the guy who made coffee for the office and the Col. mentioned how my coffee was missed when I took a day off. Wouldn't know how to start a day without it. Best CR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Bristol Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 When I was foreman at a machine shop I used to tell the guy closest to the coffee pot " I better never find an empty pot here when I want my coffee". Funny thing was this one guy forgot to make coffee. That friday I received a lay-off slip for him ( not my doing ). Well everyone in the shop though I let him go because there was no coffee. The pot was never empty after that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Whenever I go into the VFW there's a bunch of guys sitting forlornly with big eyes around the empty coffee pot like puppies waiting for a bowl of Purina. So I make the coffee because apparently their arms are broken!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted July 16, 2014 Author Share Posted July 16, 2014 Whenever I go into the VFW there's a bunch of guys sitting forlornly with big eyes around the empty coffee pot like puppies waiting for a bowl of Purina. So I make the coffee because apparently their arms are broken!! Not unlike Billy Yank waiting by the fire for his mucket of coffee to boil up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chickasaw Bill SASS #70001 Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 COFFEE , where ? NEED COFFEE , MUST HAVE MORE COFFEE CB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dawg Hair, SASS #29557 Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Got to drink it like some old sage once said: Black as the night, Hot as Hell, and Sweet as love! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badlands Bob #61228 Posted July 16, 2014 Share Posted July 16, 2014 Whenever I go into the VFW there's a bunch of guys sitting forlornly with big eyes around the empty coffee pot like puppies waiting for a bowl of Purina. So I make the coffee because apparently their arms are broken!! They're just waiting for some youngster to come make a pot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky Nelson Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I grew up in a home with coffee and never cared for it. Same here. Dad was a 20 year Navy man and even after he got out, the only time he didn't have a cup at his elbow was when he was in the shower. (I assume.) But I didn't start drinking it until I was almost 30. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted July 17, 2014 Author Share Posted July 17, 2014 Same here. Dad was a 20 year Navy man and even after he got out, the only time he didn't have a cup at his elbow was when he was in the shower. (I assume.) But I didn't start drinking it until I was almost 30. Ditto. I was a tea drinker into my 20s. Mid-20s started drinking coffee. Early 30s and became a coffee addict. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocWard Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 When I was a youngster, we used to go camping (in tents, of course) quite often during the summer. Usually, the kids would wake up and have orange juice or milk or the like with our breakfast. The adults would have coffee. One morning, when I was about 14 or so, I woke up with temperatures in the low 50's or so. I had no desire for something cold to drink. I asked for some coffee, and have been drinking it ever since. When I ran our Battalion Aid Station, we had coffee going just about around the clock in the field. If we didn't have some in the pot, we had it in a couple of thermos bottles. Whenever a soldier was brought back from the firing batteries with an injury or illness, it was always either the C.O. or the First Sergeant, so they could get some. Far better than the lukewarm mud they got from the mess section. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocWard Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Howdy, I grew up in a home with coffee and never cared for it. In the army on training in the rain a hot cup warmed my freezing fingers. Then I drank a little to warm my mouth. I got to like it, learned to make it as I always have to know about everything. Later I was the guy who made coffee for the office and the Col. mentioned how my coffee was missed when I took a day off. Wouldn't know how to start a day without it. Best CR That just reminded me of the movie "Black Hawk Down." It's all in the grind, Sizemore. Can't be too fine, can't be too coarse. This, my friend, is a science. I mean you're looking at the guy that believed all the commercials. You know, about the "be all you can be." I made coffee through Desert Storm. I made coffee through Panama while everyone else got to fight, got to be a Ranger. Now it's "Grimesy, black, one sugar" or "Grimesy, got a powdered anywhere?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted July 17, 2014 Author Share Posted July 17, 2014 From "Hardtack and Coffee." I began my description of the rations with the bread as being the most important one to the soldier. Some old veterans may be disposed to question the judgment which gives it this rardc(? Unclear in the transcript), and claim that coffee, of which I shall speak next, should take first place in importance; in reply to which 1 will simply say that he is wrong, because coffee, being a stimulant, serves only a temporary purpose, while the bread has yearly or quite all the elements of nutrition necessary to build up the wasted tissues of the body , thus conferring a permanent benefit. Whatever words of con-demnation or criticism may have been bestowed on other government rations, there was just one opinion of the coffee which was served out, and that was of unqualified approval. The rations may have been small, the commissary or quartermaster may have given us a short allowance, but what we got was good. And what a perfect Godsend it seemed to us at times! How often, after being completely jaded by a night march, — and this is an experience common to thousands,— have I had a wash, if there was water to be had, made and drunk my pint or so of coffee, and felt as fresh and invigorated as if just arisen from a night's sound sleep '. At such times it could seem to have had no substitute. It would have interested a civilian to observe the manner in which this ration was served out when the army was in active service. It was usually brought to camp in an oatsack, a regimental quartermaster receiving and apportioning his among the ten companies, and the quartermaster-sergeant of a battery aportioning his to the four or six detachments. Then the orderly-sergeant of a company or the sergeant of a detachment must devote himself to dividing it. One method of accomplishing this purpose was to spread a rubber blanket on the ground, — more than one if the company was large, — and upon it were put as many piles of the coffee as there were men to receive rations ; and the care taken to make the piles of the same size to the eye, to keep the men from growling, would remind one of a country physician making his powders, taking a little from one pile and adding to another. The sugar which always accompanied the coffee was spooned out at the same time on another blanket. When both were ready, they were given out, each man taking a pile, or, in some companies, to prevent any charge of unfairness or injustice, the sergeant would turn his back on the rations, and take out his roll of the company. Then, by request, some one else would point to a pile and ask, " Who shall have this ? " and the sergeant, without turning, would call a name from his list of the company or detachment, and the person thus called would appropriate the pile specified. This process would be continued until the last pile was disposed of. There were other plans for distributing the rations ; but I have described this one because of its being quite common. The manner in which each man disposed of his coffee and sugar ration after receiving it is worth noting. Every soldier of a month's experience in campaigning was provided with some sort of bag into which he spooned his coffee; but the kind of bag he used indicated pretty accurately, in a general way, the length of time he had been in the service. For example, a raw recruit just arrived would take it up in a paper, and stow it away in that well known receptacle for all eatables, the soldier's haversack, only to find it a part of a general mixture of hardtack, salt pork, pepper, salt, knife, fork, spoon, sugar, and coffee by the time the next halt was made. A recruit of longer standing, who had been through this experience and had begun to feel his wisdom-teeth coming, would take his up in a bag made of a scrap of rubber blanket or a poncho; but after a few days carrying the rubber would peel off or the paint of the poncho would rub off from contact with the greasy pork or boiled meat ration which was its travelling companion, and make a black, dirty mess, besides leaving the coffee-bag unfit for further use. Now and then some young soldier, a little starchier than his fellows, would bring out an oil-silk bag lined with cloth, which his mother had made and sent him ; but even oil-silk couldn't stand everything, certainly not the peculiar inside furnishings of the average soldier's haversack, so it too was not long in yielding. But your plain, straightforward old veteran, who had shed all his poetry and romance, if he had ever possessed any, who had roughed it up and down " Old Virginny," man and boy, for many months, and who had tried all plans under all circumstances, took out an oblong plain cloth bag, which looked as immaculate as the every-day shirt of a coal-heaver, and into it scooped without ceremony both his sugar and coffee, and stirred them thoroughly together. There was method in this plan. He had learned from a hard experience that his sugar was a better investment thus disposed of than in any other way; for on several occasions he had eaten it with his hardtack a little at a time, had got it wet and melted in a rain, or, what happened fully as often, had sweetened his coffee to his taste when the sugar was kept separate, and in consequence had several messes of coffee to drink without sweetening, which was not to his taste. There was now and then a man who could keep the two separate, sometimes in different ends of the same bag, and serve them up proportionally. The reader already knows that milk was a luxury in the army. It was a new experience for all soldiers to drink coffee without milk. But they soon learned to make a virtue of a necessity, and I doubt whether one man in ten, before the war closed, would have used the lactic fluid in his coffee from choice. Condensed milk of two brands, the Lewis and Borden was to be had at the sutler's when sutlers were handy, and occasionally milk was brought in from the udders of stray cows, the men milking them into their canteens; but this was early in the war. Later, war-swept Virginia afforded very few of these brutes, for they were regarded by the armies as more valuable for beef than for milking purposes, and only those survived that were kept apart from lines of march. (there were a few spots where I had to guess at the word in the online text, I'm close on almost all of them, I think) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I do not understand how the country could survive without the aid of Juan Valdez. Nothing like the smell and first taste of hot coffee in the morning. Especially off of a campfire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 I understand that coffee is much more popular in Britain now. Tea is still their national drink but coffee consumption is way up. Took em a couple hundred years to come around. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tex Jones, SASS 2263 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Learned how to make coffee in my dad's restaurant. Came in handy in the Army. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 Posted July 17, 2014 Share Posted July 17, 2014 Army coffee was very good. Until they took the boot our of the coffee urn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Ron Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Howdy, 2 am, the backwoods of Upper Michigan a bottled gas burner makes boiling water and I whip up a nice hot fresh pot of Dunkin Donut coffee. We hand timing slips to POR rally cars and navigators look out of the cars but have no way to take coffee with them. Best CR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chili Ron Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Howdy, Any idea if they can make coffee in orbit? How would they do that? Best CR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DocWard Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Army coffee was very good. Until they took the boot our of the coffee urn. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but the mess section would help us out by giving us a can or two of their coffee. Not locally procured, but the stuff they get through the supply chain. Always tastes awful at chow, whether in garrison or in the field, because of how they make it. But run some through an automatic drip maker, or better yet, a french press, and it turns out very good. Turns out, the Army buys really, really good coffee, then ruins it. Howdy, Any idea if they can make coffee in orbit? How would they do that? Best CR Espresso anyone? http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/07/08/328130351/what-it-takes-to-make-a-decent-cup-of-coffee-in-space Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rye Miles #13621 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Leave it to the Italians!!! Bouno caffe' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but the mess section would help us out by giving us a can or two of their coffee. Not locally procured, but the stuff they get through the supply chain. Always tastes awful at chow, whether in garrison or in the field, because of how they make it. But run some through an automatic drip maker, or better yet, a french press, and it turns out very good. Turns out, the Army buys really, really good coffee, then ruins it. Espresso anyone? http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/07/08/328130351/what-it-takes-to-make-a-decent-cup-of-coffee-in-space It is called the ARMY WAY, Doc! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 New Mexico Pinion Coffee Co. That's all I'm sayin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 The quality of the coffee is dependent on the quality of the sock, used to brew it. The older the sock, the better the coffee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimmy Reb, SASS #54804 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Grew up in a house where Dad drank tea and Mom drank coffee. She had a pot at breakfast, a pot at lunch, and a pot at supper. She told me that I started drinking coffee at the age of 2. Still drink at least a pot a day. Not a big tea drinker unless it is iced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Scatterbrain Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 Howdy, Any idea if they can make coffee in orbit? How would they do that? Best CR A very timely question, it appears:http://www.collectspace.com/news/news-061614a-isspresso-espresso-coffee-space.html http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2014/06/17/the-space-station-is-getting-a-coffee-machine/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coffee Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 And people ask me how/why I thought of my alias Coffee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sparky Nelson Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but the mess section would help us out by giving us a can or two of their coffee. Not locally procured, but the stuff they get through the supply chain. Always tastes awful at chow, whether in garrison or in the field, because of how they make it. But run some through an automatic drip maker, or better yet, a french press, and it turns out very good. Turns out, the Army buys really, really good coffee, then ruins it. It's probably the same coffee that's stocked at the Pentagon, and you know the guys at that level deserve the best. I haven't done a serious study, but I think a french press makes pretty much any brand of coffee I've tried taste better. You just need to get a coarse grind so the screen can filter out the chunks. When it comes to coffee, chewy is fine but I draw the line at crunchy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bama Red Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 The quality of the coffee is dependent on the quality of the sock, used to brew it. A slight addition to BMC's quote The older and dirtier the sock, the better the coffee. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Mountain Charlie SASS #43172 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 If you want a good cuppa coffee, you need to get Juan Valdez to haul his ass up the mountain and then he can pick some serious beans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Utah Bob #35998 Posted July 18, 2014 Share Posted July 18, 2014 I haven't done a serious study, but I think a french press makes pretty much any brand of coffee I've tried taste better. You just need to get a coarse grind so the screen can filter out the chunks. When it comes to coffee, chewy is fine but I draw the line at crunchy. I agree. Have used nothing but a press for many years. Paper filter type makers tend to filter out a lot of flavor contained in the oils. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subdeacon Joe Posted July 18, 2014 Author Share Posted July 18, 2014 Getting a lot of mileage out of this thread. I like that. I agree that a French press is the best way to go. Trying to settle the grounds in boiled coffee by using a little cold water has never quite worked for me. Nor has the eggshell method. Or any of the egg methods. First choice, French press, second, boil it up in a briki (Turkish coffee pot), then anything else. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.