American history

Tamarind Water

/ sandramervillehart / 4 Comments

The Battle of Gettysburg took place in the small Pennsylvania town on July 1-3, 1863. After the fighting stopped, wounded soldiers filled the homes, churches, barns, and courthouse.

There were so many that soldiers from both sides lay in the fields where they were shot until someone found them. Citizens rallied heroically to meet the monumental challenge.

Folks from the U.S. Sanitary Commission and the Christian Commission arrived in Gettysburg to help. They provided supplies for the hospitals and the town’s citizens. A general tent hospital, Camp Letterman, was set up in mid-July to care for Union and Confederate wounded.

One of the Sanitary Commissioners wrote of volunteering at Camp Letterman. He remembered that the wounded arrived to the newly-established hospital thirsty. Volunteers gave them tamarind water from pails. The soldiers loved the “beautiful drink.”

The only recipe I could find for tamarinds in my 1877 cookbook was “Tamarind Whey,” which used milk. The same recipe stated that a tablespoon of tamarinds could be added to water instead of milk.

Being new to tamarinds, I needed a bit more information. I found a recipe for Tamarind Water on the Foot Network site that I followed.

My husband found dried tamarinds at a specialty food store. The outer layer must be peeled off before cooking. The fruit inside is sticky.

I cooked the fruit as directed and let it cool. I drained it first in a colander and then a second time in a wire strainer.

The drink, when iced, resembles the color of iced tea. The unfamiliar flavor was too strong for me. I didn’t really like the beverage.

Using perhaps half the amount of tamarinds would be enough for my taste. A tablespoon for 2 quarts of water—now that I know how to prepare it—might be too weak.

The taste reminds me of a very strong tea. I haven’t tasted anything else that compares to it. Several people tried the drink. One person liked it. He downed the drink, saying that it reminded him of a special blend of tea.

I can well believe that this drink comforted parched Civil War soldiers on a hot summer’s day.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Compiled from Original Recipes. Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping, Applewood Books, 1877.

 

Milliken, Mary Sue & Feniger, Susan. “Tamarind Water,” Food Network, 2017/05/11 http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tamarind-water-recipe.

 

Sheldon, George. When the Smoke Cleared at Gettysburg, Cumberland House, 2003.

 

A Pastor’s Perception After Gettysburg

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Stone wall on Confederate side of battle – Gettysburg Battlefield

Reverend William G. Browning joined a group of ministers who arrived at Gettysburg by train on Friday, July 10th,  just one week after Pickett’s Charge. The Methodist pastor helped nurse wounded at the hospitals.

Homes, churches, and other public buildings housed the wounded. Union and Confederate wounded “lay side by side as brothers” in some hospitals.

An offensive odor permeated the air. Fences lay flattened. Bullets and shell destroyed homes and trees.

Browning visited the battlefield. He found a rebel field hospital in a barnyard. Confederate officers and soldiers who had been too severely wounded to retreat in their army’s ambulances were left behind. Browning saw more misery there than he ever expected or hoped to see again.

Some of the dead had been moved to a nearby field. Yet others who had died of their wounds remained in the barn and the barnyard with their dying comrades. No one had carried the corpses away.

The sufferers were unattended. Arms and legs heaped near a board used as a surgeon’s table. Wretchedness and despair filled the faces of the wounded.

Browning, though not a nurse, walked among them and did whatever he could to relieve their suffering. While there, he asked why they enlisted.

Two men answered that they were led into it.

Browning figured they were as sincere as any Union soldier. The Southerners felt wronged. They defended themselves from an oppressor.

Browning felt strangely fascinated when walking the battlefield. He stepped over broken guns, hats, bayonets, coats, and cartridge boxes. He saw many dead men who hadn’t yet been discovered. Many lay where they fell.

He found the marker of one of his parishioners in a field. He noted the area so that family and friends could find it, which they later did.

He preached at a memorial service for that parishioner on August 2, 1863. He used 2 Samuel 1:19 for his text: “The beauty of Israel is slain upon thy high places: how are the mighty fallen!”

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Gragg, Rod. The Illustrated Gettysburg Reader: An Eyewitness History of The Civil War’s Greatest Battle, Regnery History, 2013.

 

Confederate Generals Hill and Heth Doubt Pettigrew’s Report

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Confederate First Lieutenant Louis G. Young, aide to Brigadier General James J. Pettigrew, accompanied his commander on reconnaissance on June 30, 1863. They planned to search Gettysburg for shoes and other army supplies.

Major General Henry Heth, Pettigrew’s Division commander, ordered him not to attack any portion of the Army of the Potomac. If he encountered a home guard, he could drive them away easily.

While on his way to Gettysburg, a spy of General Longstreet’s warned Pettigrew that Brigadier General John Buford’s Federal cavalry division held the town.

Pettigrew sent a message to General Heth requesting instructions. Heth reiterated his previous orders yet expressed doubt that the Army of the Potomac was in the area. Pettigrew withdrew.

He left Young, his aide, and Lieutenant Walter H. Robertson in the rear to watch Buford’s Cavalry, who followed their retreat from a distance.

Young easily watched them follow on the rolling countryside. The two officers hid on ridges where they could see and not be seen until the Union cavalry was 300 to 400 yards away. Then the pair rode into the open. Union troops halted until the Confederate soldiers rode away before following again.

This happened several times. Both sides observed the other without attacking.

Pettigrew reported what he’d seen to Heth and to Lieutenant General A.P. Hill, the corps commander. Neither believed that their enemy was nearby in force.

They called in Young to question him. He verified that the troops he saw were well-trained.

They didn’t believe him either.

The two generals’ disbelief was so emphatic that Young doubted any of the other commanders believed Pettigrew—including General Archer, who led Heth’s Division with his Tennessee Brigade to Gettysburg the following morning, July 1st.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Gragg, Rod. The Illustrated Gettysburg Reader: An Eyewitness History of The Civil War’s Greatest Battle, Regnery History, 2013.

 

Civil War Beef Tea

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I’ve often read of nurses giving Beef Tea to severely wounded Civil War patients in my research so I was thrilled to find a recipe for it in an 1877 cookbook under the section “Food for the Sick.”

As a historical novelist, I’m always interested in learning tidbits from our history. It’s fun to add authentic details such as this one when a story requires it.

The recipe called for a pound of the best lean steak. I asked my butcher if stew beef was a type of steak. He explained that while it wasn’t a grilling steak, their stew beef was a type of steak taken from the shoulder so I used this.

The instructions were to put the beef in a glass jar, cover it tightly, and boil it slowly in water for 3 to 4 hours.

I divided the meat into 3 pint-sized Mason jars. It didn’t say anything about adding water to the meat. As an experiment, I added enough water to cover the beef in one jar only.

The lids were put on top. I half-filled a stewpot with cold water and placed the jars in the water. They toppled sideways. The 1877 cook advised tying them in place. I tied them to the handles individually.

I turned them on a medium heat, refilling with hot water occasionally as it boiled down. After 4 hours, the meat didn’t look like “white rags” as the recipe advised. It didn’t appear that way after 4 ½ hours of gently boiling in a jar.

I turned off the heat anyway and let it cool undisturbed.

When the jars had cooled, I removed them from the water. The amount of broth in the 2 jars with no added water wasn’t impressive. The third jar that started with about a ¼ cup of water held more broth but not a lot more.

After straining the meat, I measured 1 ¼ cups of Beef Tea. I added ½ teaspoon salt. It tasted and looked like au jus. My husband, who loves his meat, liked the flavor but felt I’d added too much salt. If you try this recipe, maybe start with ¼ teaspoon of salt or season to taste.

I checked online to see if there were other beef tea recipes and found a few that are referenced in the sources. One served patients dry toast with the tea. Another suggested adding chopped raw meat to the drink when serving. Another offered the idea of placing the tea in a bowl over boiling water (double-boiler effect) to warm it before serving.

It may seem like a lot of time for little return. Civil War soldiers too weak to eat received lots of nourishment from this tea.

Good luck! I’d love to hear if you try this recipe.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Beef Tea,” Vintage Recipes, 2017/05/10 http://www.vintagerecipes.net/books/plain_cookery_book/beef_tea_6.php.

“Beef Tea,” Vintage Recipes, 2017/05/10 http://www.vintagerecipes.net/books/fifty_soups/beef_tea_4.php.

“Beef Tea,” Vintage Recipes, 2017/05/10 http://www.vintagerecipes.net/books/bookofhouseholdmanagement/beef_tea_3.php.

Compiled from Original Recipes. Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping, Applewood Books, 1877.

 

 

 

Civil War Union Captain’s Thoughts While Marching to Pennsylvania

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From Observation Tower at Oak Ridge, Gettysburg Battlefield

Confederate General Robert E. Lee began moving his Army of Northern Virginia toward Pennsylvania in June of 1863.

President Abraham Lincoln appointed Major General George Gordon Meade as commander of the Army of the Potomac. Meade issued his first orders on June 28, 1863.

Meade’s army marched north the following rainy morning on muddy roads. Captain Samuel W. Fiske, 14th Connecticut Infantry, wrote of the march across Maryland into Pennsylvania, his account a bit nostalgic.

Fiske didn’t know where his army was heading when he heard the bugle call to strike tents and begin the journey. He and his comrades didn’t know how long it would take to arrive—they had to blindly trust.

Fiske tried to enjoy each hour, always ready for either a skirmish or a picnic. He never knew when he’d be called to picket, bivouac, or retreat.

He reasoned that no other occupation required more faith than soldiering: faith in his own strength; faith in his army’s joint strength; faith in his commanders’ experience and watchfulness; faith in their country’s cause; and faith in God’s care and protection.

Captain Fiske enjoyed Maryland’s beauty after the war-ravaged sights in Virginia. He hated to see war roll over the peaceful countryside yet felt a battle on Northern soil might end the war.

Fiske hoped that Pennsylvania citizens weren’t so afraid that it prevented them from defending their homes. A newspaper article that he read that day told of the “chief burgess” of York looking for someone to surrender to eight to ten miles outside his city. Fiske didn’t believe that leader represented his city well.

When the captain considered his army’s recent losses, he felt he was part of “the unfortunate ‘grand army’” that couldn’t reasonably make big promises. Yet since that army would once again stand in front of Confederates, they deserved their country’s respect and support.

At the time his writing, Fiske and his comrades dealt with fatigue from marching for sixteen days. Though their numbers were depleted by the expiration of service terms, these experienced veterans had become a formidable army.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Gragg, Rod. The Illustrated Gettysburg Reader: An Eyewitness History of The Civil War’s Greatest Battle, Regnery History, 2013.

 

This Week in History: Greencastle, Pennsylvania and the Gettysburg Campaign

/ sandramervillehart

Monday, June 15, 1863

The fall of Martinsburg, Virginia, (now West Virginia) on June 14th encouraged Confederate Lieutenant Hermann Schuricht, Fourteenth Virginia Cavalry. He was happy that the glorious battle ended with the Southerners in possession of the city and several thousand bushels of grain. It was the first Battle of Martinsburg.

Buglers sounded orders to mount their horses around 2 am. By breakfast time Schuricht and his comrades were in Williamsport, Maryland, where the residents kindly set up tables in the streets stocked with meat, bread, and milk. Schuricht and other hungry troops ate quickly before remounting.

They received an enthusiastic welcome from the ladies in Hagerstown, Maryland, at noon. The women gave flowers to the soldiers. The children shouted, “Hurrah for Jeff Davis!”

They rode to Greencastle, Pennsylvania. General Albert G. Jenkins divided his brigade. Schuricht, along with others in the right wing who intimidated locals by waving muskets and pistols, rode his horse over ditches and fences to take the town. Federal cavalry there all escaped except one lieutenant.

The Confederates cut telegraph wires and destroyed the railroad depot in Greencastle.

Their day wasn’t over.

By 11 pm, an exhausted Schuricht entered Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, with his companions. They camped on the eastern outskirts of town.

Confederates occupied Greencastle from mid-June until early July. Federal cavalry led by Captain Ulric Dahlgren rode into the town square on July 2nd. The Union troops captured several Confederate cavalry troops in the square while a bigger battle took place in another part of Pennsylvania.

Gettysburg.  

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Gragg, Rod. The Illustrated Gettysburg Reader, Regnery History, 2013.

“Greencastle, Pennsylvania,” Wikipedia, 2017/05/01 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greencastle,_Pennsylvania.

Long, E.B with Long, Barbara. The Civil War Day by Day: An Almanac 1861-1865, A Da Capo Paperback, 1971.

Noyalas, J. A. “Martinsburg during the Civil War.” Encyclopedia Virginia. Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, 27 Oct. 2015. Web. 1 May. 2017.

Searight’s Tollhouse on the National Road

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The National Road, a federal road, stretched from Cumberland, Maryland, into Ohio by 1831. The heavily trafficked road required maintenance that the federal government wanted to turn over to the states.

Pennsylvania adopted an act to build six toll gates along the National Road—also known as the Cumberland Road—in the Commonwealth.

Built in 1835, Searight’s Tollhouse is one of Pennsylvania’s two remaining toll houses on the National Road. It is five miles northwest of Uniontown.

William Searight was one of the wealthiest men in the area at the time. Searight’s Tavern stood at the junction of Searight’s Crossroads. He owned a general store, wagon shop, blacksmith shop, and a livery stable in addition to running the post office.

Political connections helped Searight to become the Commonwealth’s Commissioner of the Cumberland Road in 1842. Searight bore the responsibility for all operations and received $730 per year.

Pennsylvania’s other toll house still standing is the Petersburg Toll House. Located in Addison, it was the first toll gate after crossing into the Commonwealth. The toll keeper’s annual salary was $200 with free housing.

Toll rates in Pennsylvania were collected for all types of vehicles—chariots, stages, phaetons, chaises, coaches, coachees, carts, wagons, and carriages. Drovers of sheep paid a rate of 6 cents for every score (20).

Anyone who refused or neglected to pay their toll received a fine of $3.

Pennsylvania collected tolls to maintain the road from 1835 to 1905.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Day, Reed B. The Cumberland Road: A History of the National Road, Closson Press, 1996.

Edited by Raitz, Karl. A Guide to The National Road, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

“National Road Sculpture Tour,” National Road PA, 2017/04/22 http://nationalroadpa.org/touch-of-history/.

Schneider, Norris F. The National Road: Main Street of America, The Ohio Historical Society, 1975.

“Searight’s Tollhouse Historical Marker,” Exporepahistory.com, 2017/04/22 http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-F2.

“Searights Tollhouse, National Road,” Wikipedia, 2017/04/24  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searights_Tollhouse,_National_Road.

 

Colonial Travel with Pack Horses

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Magnificent forests lined the hillsides and valleys in Colonial America. Their beauty didn’t make them easier to navigate. Pioneers blazed trails to the west by foot and then by horseback.

Settlers heading westward during this time traveled before roads had been cut. Skinny paths left no room for wagons. They hauled their worldly possessions on pack horses.

By tying each horse to the tail of the one immediately in front, one driver led a line of pack horses. Drivers controlled up to a dozen horses in one line.

Each animal could carry up to two hundred pounds on primitive pack saddles. Pioneers created their own saddles using sturdy, forked limbs, trimmed to fit a particular load. Some frontiersmen made a living by selling their pack saddles in the back woods.

Once these courageous souls settled in Western Pennsylvania or the Ohio country, they made yearly trips back east to sell their produce and replenish supplies. Traveling in caravans, they took ginseng, rye, bear’s grease, snakeroot, and hides back east. They returned with such goods as gunpowder, salt, nails, and iron.

Early U.S. military operations utilized pack horse trains in traveling to confront Native Americans. Captain Robert Benham served as Conductor General of pack horses in the late 1700s, taking part in expeditions with Wayne, Harmar, St. Clair, and Wilkinson.

While at Fort Harmar (near present-day Marietta, Ohio) in June of 1787, Colonel Harmar wrote that the cheapest cost of hiring pack horses was fifty cents a day.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Fort Harmar,” Ohio History Central, 2017/04/22  http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Fort_Harmar.

Schneider, Norris F. The National Road: Main Street of America, The Ohio Historical Society, 1975.

Venable, W.H., LL. D. Westward by Hoof, Wheel, and Keel. Extracted from Footprints of the Pioneers in the Ohio Valley, originally published in 1888.

 

Macadamized Roads

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John Loudoun McAdam, a Scottish inventor, traveled almost 19,000 miles from 1798—1814 to form a method of making roads less susceptible to water.

Stagecoaches and wagons got stuck on muddy roads, adding to the difficulty of traveling. As surveyor general, McAdam devised a way to greatly improve roads and wrote of it in his Remarks on the Present System of Road-Making (1816).

To aid in water drainage, McAdam first recommended that roads be higher than the ground beside it. A layer of large broken stones then covered the road. Smaller stones were then laid over them. A fine layer of gravel was the last component.

This design reduced wear and tear on the road. Water drained to ditches on the side.

His recommendation was a great improvement over traveling on muddy roads. His idea spread to the United States.

Construction started in 1811 on the National Road, which began in Cumberland, Maryland, and wound through Pennsylvania and Virginia into Ohio. McAdam’s principles weren’t yet known.

His methods grew in popularity so that road makers used it on a new section of the National Road between Canton and Zanesville, Ohio, in 1825-1830. They broke stones small enough “to pass through a two-inch ring.”

At a width of twenty feet, the road contained the three layers of stone suggested by McAdam. Each layer was compacted with a cast-iron roller. This created the Macadamized road, making travel easier and safer for the pioneers settling in Ohio and farther west.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

Bellis, Mary. “John Loudon McAdam – The History of Roads and Asphalt,” About.com, 2017/04/20 http://theinventors.org/library/inventors/blJohnMcAdam.htm.

Edited by Raitz, Karl. A Guide to The National Road, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

“John Loudon McAdam”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2017. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.

“McAdam, John Loudoun.” The Oxford Companion to British History. . Encyclopedia.com. 19 Apr. 2017<http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

“Macadam”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2017. Web. 20 Apr. 2017.

 

Conestoga Wagons

/ sandramervillehart / 4 Comments

The first major highway built by the United States federal government was the National Road. Construction began in 1811 on the road also known as the Cumberland Road because it began in Cumberland, Maryland. By August 1, 1818, the road reached to Wheeling at the Ohio River. (Wheeling was then in Virginia but is now part of West Virginia.)

Settlers moving westward quickly utilized the road through Pennsylvania and Virginia to the new state of Ohio. Their wagons toted all their worldly goods to a new land.

Conestoga wagons were first built by Mennonite Germans near the Conestoga River area of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in the early to mid-eighteenth century. Skilled craftsman created a unique curved bed, designed to prevent freight from shifting while climbing steep hills. Chains held the back gate in place while traveling.

Early wagon covers were hempen homespun. Canvas was used later. They soaked the canvas in linseed oil to waterproof the fabric. This covering was stretched over several wooden hoops.

The builders took great pride in their work. They painted the wagons blue, trimmed with red.

Built with broad wheels, four to six horses pulled five-ton loads over dangerous Pennsylvania roads. Conestoga wagons hauled products from the eastern states to settlers in Western Pennsylvania and the Ohio Valley and returned with frontier goods like flour, tobacco, coal, and whiskey.

Strong Conestoga horses bred in the Conestoga area of Pennsylvania could pull these loads about twelve miles per day.

Wagoners made their living by hauling freight from the east to the western frontier and back again. These colorful characters made a journey of 250 miles in about three weeks.

Drivers of Conestoga wagons didn’t sit on a bench and hold the horses’ reins. Wagoners rode the left rear horse or walked alongside the horses. When the wagoner tired of walking, he pulled out a lazy board—a wooden board attached to the side of the wagon—and sat on it.

Railroads had slowed the heavy traffic on the National Road by the 1850s. Conestoga wagons were no longer in demand. Wagoners found new ways to make a living.

But what stories they had to tell to their children and grandchildren.

-Sandra Merville Hart

Sources

“Conestoga Wagon,” History.com, 2017/04/19 http://www.history.com/topics/conestoga-wagon.

“Conestoga Wagon,” Smithsonian National Museum of American History, 2017/04/19 http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_842999.

“Conestoga wagon.” The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed.. . Encyclopedia.com. (April 18, 2017). http://www.encyclopedia.com/reference/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/conestoga-wagon.

Edited by Raitz, Karl. A Guide to The National Road, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996.

“National Road,” Wikipedia, 2017/04/20 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Road.

White, Roger B. “Covered Wagons and the American Frontier,” Smithsonian National Museum of American History, 2017/04/19 http://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2012/10/conestoga-wagons-and-the-american-frontier.html.