Chapter Two in my first book, Lincoln's Labels: America's Best Known Brands and the Civil War (Edinborough Press, 2008) is all about Gail Borden and the Civil War and I am happy to offer the excerpt below.
Lincoln's Labels: America's Best Known Brands and the Civil War
by James M. Schmidt
Chapter Two
"Consecrated Milk"
(Excerpt)
"Consecrated Milk"
(Excerpt)
"The soldiers’ fare is very rough, the bread is hard, the beef is tough;If they can stand it, it will be, through love of God, a mystery." (wartime poem)
Whatever the reason, Borden began experimenting with condensed milk in earnest at his home, now in New York, until he developed a process which yielded a milk of good flavor and keeping. He applied for a patent in May 1853, but the Patent Office questioned the novelty of the process for three years. Borden, with the help of some influential scientists, was able to prove that vacuum protected the milk from the air and kept it clean while it was being condensed. On August 19, 1856, Borden received Patent No. 15,553 for an “Improvement in the Concentration of Milk.” Still, his meat biscuit patent had never guaranteed his success, and for some time he failed to secure enough money to build a plant to produce the milk.
On the eve of the Civil War, Borden’s New York Condensed Milk Company was doing well. To be sure, neither Borden — nor his patron, Milbank — were enjoying a fortune, but Borden was characteristically optimistic about the future and Milbank was satisfied that he had made a good investment. The war solidified that satisfaction; from the first shots to the final surrender, Borden’s challenge was to meet an immense demand. In three months in 1862, Borden — at capacity — sold nearly 50,000 quarts of milk from his plant in Wassaic, New York; a year later he was able to send out an equivalent amount in a few days.
A reporter for the New York Observer visited Borden’s Wassaic factory during the Civil War and marveled at the “interesting and impressive” operation, and concluded that he had never seen a factory where “so much order, cleanliness, and comfort were combined” in any like production. The entire process — from receiving milk from the farmers to sending it off in boxes was done at the factory, all “with such scrupulous regard to cleanliness, that the result is irreproachable,” the reporter wrote. A tin shop was at work constantly, producing eight thousand cans each day; the workers were all young women aged eighteen to twenty, who earned “more than a dollar a day easily.” The reporter noted that the chief market for Borden’s milk was “in the army, where it is a great blessing as you will readily believe.” (3)
Though Borden’s condensed milk was not an official ration item, it was in the Union army’s official list of medical supplies (as was his extract of beef). Surgeon General William A. Hammond declared that the milk was “in extensive use in our armies and hospitals,” and “proved most serviceable on the battlefield as a source of nutriment for the wounded.” In the hospitals, a favorite concoction was “milk punch,” a combination of condensed milk and brandy or whiskey, which Hammond declared an unmatched remedy for the low fevers which plagued the army. Even when Borden’s milk wasn’t being used for its intended purpose, it was still a valuable commodity. One nurse, determined to secure some fresh pork for dinner with her fellow matrons, remembered, “I took a can of condensed milk . . . and soon made a trade.” Another nurse, responsible for cooking for hundreds of sick soldiers on floating hospitals, recalled that when the food stores were exhausted, they broke up hard-tack into buckets full of sweetened milk and water. “Oh, that precious condensed milk,” she exclaimed, “more precious to us at that moment than beef essence!” (5)
READ MORE ABOUT GAIL BORDEN AND HIS SWEETENDED CONDENSED MILK IN LINCOLN'S LABELS!!
Notes
2. “We do not meet half . . . ” in Frantz, p. 260; “all manner of patent compounds . . . ” in W. T. Sherman, Memoirs of Gen. W.T. Sherman (New York: C. L. Webster & Co., 1891), Vol. 2, p. 391.
4. “Borden’s condensed milk . . . ” in M. W. Tyler, Recollections of the Civil War (New York: G. P. Putnam’s, 1912), p. 132; “Only a recruit with . . . ” in J. B. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: Or the Unwritten Story of Army Life (Boston: George M. Smith, 1887), p. 118; “pass through the casemates . . . ” in Palmer, pp. 42-43.
6. “Peaches and cream in . . . ” in H.K. Douglas and F.M. Green (ed.) I Rode with Stonewall (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1940), p. 23; “I well remember . . . ” in M. Howard, Recollections of a Maryland Confederate Soldier and Staff Officer Under Johnston, Jackson and Lee (Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins, 1914), p. 307; “[We] shared our food . . . ” in C. B. Flood, Lee: The Last Years (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1981), p. 18.
1 comment:
Great factoids and pics! Man, it's amazing to get into the 19th century mindset. Makes me wonder what we think we know or don't know at all:)
Post a Comment