Coffee on the Home Front During the Civil War

Coffee played a large role in the lives of soldiers on both sides of the Civil War, but the lack of coffee on the Confederate home front played a role in Southern morale. The blockade stopped coffee and other much needed supplies from filtering into most cities and rural areas throughout the South, and instead of going without coffee, citizens experimented with roasting vegetables and nuts to create a coffee-like drink, attempting to maintain some semblance of normality in their daily lives. In some instances, coffee made it through the Union blockade, but privateers and shopkeepers sold it at exorbitant rates. The price of coffee in the Confederacy rose from an average of $1.20 a pound in March of 1861 up to an average of $196 per pound in February of 1865. In one Confederate state, the cost of coffee per pound rose to $250, which a Union soldier had noted in his journal after reading a Confederate newspaper. In Savannah, a Confederate soldier on furlough thought he found a deal when he purchased two pounds of coffee for $30, but found out later on the road that it was not coffee at all, but peas.

MORE

-WiscoDave