********************* "DESECRATED" MILK ***********************
Wandering from his native New York to the West, Gail Borden invented what he called a "meat biscuit" in 1851. Two years later he devised a way to reduce the bulk and increase the shelf life of milk. His 1856 patent for condensed milk evoked little or no interest; however, it is worth noting in April 1861 that Captain Gustavus V. Fox included air-dried or "desiccated" food in his attempt to resupply Fort Sumter. (The soldiers quickly adopted the slang term "desecrated" for foods processed by this particular method.)
More than seventy-five thousand volunteers answered Lincoln's call for troops. Yet once they began to assemble, it became obvious that standard kitchen practices would be inadequate. Within months Borden's 1856 patent took on an importance beyond anything the inventor had envisioned. Anticipating an enormous demand, he opened a large "condensary" at Wassaic, New York.
Although initial interest was not as great as Borden had anticipated, following the September 1862 battle at Antietam, the U.S. Sanitary Commission initiated an order for twenty-six hundred pounds. At the May 1863 battle of Chancellorsville, Robert E. Lee sent a supply of condensed milk and whiskey for the relief of wounded men in blue who were lying on the field and starving. By the time the conflict was three years old, inmates of Richmond's Libby Prison regarded Borden's product as a necessity.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were introduced to condensed milk during the Civil War. Once veterans shed their uniforms, the innovation adopted as a military necessity became a staple in civilian life.
********************* A STITCH IN TIME ************************
Footwear was as vital to both armies as condensed milk and other long-life foods. Members of infantry regiments who were continually on the march wore out shoes faster than new ones could be manufactured.
In 1860 an estimated 12,500 establishments made shoes; collectively they employed at least 120,000 workmen. At the time, a skilled cobbler could handcraft three pairs of shoes per day. Forced by necessity to change, the shoe industry abandoned traditional hand manufacture in small shops. Large buildings with lofts and abandoned cotton mills were equipped with stitching machines -- power equipment that had been perfected by Lyman R. Blake in 1858 but had seen little use. Once war broke out, Blake's invention became of crucial importance in the North.
Mass produced under the leadership of Gordon McKay, the Blake invention was offered on generous terms. Any shoe manufacturer could modernize his shop for a down payment of five hundred dollars and a royalty of five cents for every pair of shoes stitched. Soon the average worker was turning out six or more pairs of shoes a day. As a result of this radical change in the industrial sector, most soldiers in blue remained well shod after thousands of their foes were forced to go barefoot because they had no shoes.
************************ YELLOW BACKS *************************
Publisher Erastus Beadle envisioned a vast new market among common soldiers who often spent idle weeks in camp. Aided by editor Orville J. Victor, he printed and distributed enormous quantities of dime novels about such characters as Dick Turpin and Red Rover. Today's paperbacks are lineal descendants of Civil War "yellow backs," as they were widely called.
****************** A WEAPON TO END ALL WARS *******************
A Confederate officer devised a hand-cranked rapid-fire gun that could fire as many as sixty-five 1.57-inch shells per minute. Production facilities were so limited that this primitive machine gun is believed to have seen service only at the battle of Seven Pines.
Meanwhile, North Carolina native Richard J. Gatling perfected a gun designed to fire 250 rounds per minute. A few of them were used aboard Union warships and during the siege of Petersburg, but they had no significant impact upon the war. After the war, the physician who developed the first modern machine gun touted it as having been created to kill so rapidly that wars would cease to be waged.
****** NEW REPORT LISTS TOP TEN ENDANGERED BATTLEFIELDS *******
(Washington, D.C.) At a news conference on February 26th, the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) unveiled its annual report on the status of the nation's historic battlegrounds. The report, entitled America's Most Endangered Battlefields, identifies the most threatened Civil War sites in the United States and what can be done to rescue them.
"Our Civil War battlefields are vanishing at an alarming pace," warned CWPT President James Lighthizer during the news conference. "Once lost, these hallowed battlegrounds can never be replaced."
The Most Endangered Battlefields report is composed of two parts: the first section cites the 10 most endangered battlefields in the nation, with a brief description of their history and preservation status; the second section lists 15 additional "at risk" sites that round out the top 25 endangered battlefields in the country.
The sites mentioned in the report range from the famous to the nearly forgotten. However, all have a critical feature in common -- each one or part of one is in danger of being lost forever. The battlefields were chosen based on geographic location, military significance, and the immediacy of current threats. "With so many Civil War sites under siege from urban sprawl, we could easily have selected a hundred," Lighthizer noted.
Joining Lighthizer at the news conference was Civil War author and preservationist Brian Pohanka. In his remarks, Pohanka emphasized, "Real people risked their lives at these battlefields for ideals they cherished above life itself. Allowing these sites to fall prey to development dishonors the memory of their courage and sacrifice."
The top 10 endangered battlefields cited in the report are: Atlanta, Ga. Bentonville, N.C. Chancellorsville, Va. Corinth, Miss. Franklin, Tenn. Gaines' Mill and Cold Harbor, Va. Gettysburg, Pa. Harpers Ferry, W.V. Richmond, Ky. Stones River, Tenn.
"These battlefields are the last tangible reminders of the valor of those who donned the blue and gray," Lighthizer stated. "They must be preserved."
With 36,000 members, CWPT is the largest nonprofit battlefield preservation organization in the United States. Its mission is to preserve our nation's endangered Civil War battlefields and to promote appreciation of these hallowed grounds.
*** More preservation information can found at eHistory.com by visiting our Preservation Societies section at: http://www.ehistory.com/uscw/communities/preservation/index.cfm
