What They Drank - “Once In A While Sum Caffe”

If you reenact the Revolutionary War period, and have enjoyed a cup of coffee in camp, you may have had a visitor ask: "Did they drink coffee back then?".  The answer can always be "It depends", but in many cases the answer is "yes".  Some time ago I suggested the acronym "SALT" as an assessment tool for determining who ate what during the Revolutionary War period.  Each of the letters, "S" for status, "A" for activity, "L" for location and "T" for time of year, is a factor to consider for understanding what "they" ate or drank based on who they were, what they were doing, and when they were doing it.  Taken together, it is also a good reminder that much of the meat eaten in an age before refrigeration and canning was preserved by being salted. [1]   This approach is helpful when answering the coffee question.  

Ads for coffee appear regularly in Revolutionary War era newspapers.  The example pictured here under the heading "West-India Goods" was published in Worcester, Massachusetts, on September 17, 1778, to let the public know that "JOSEPH TUMBRULL Begs leave to inform the Public, that he has just opened a store, a little northward of the Goal..." (the "goal", or jail being the same jail which held Joshua Spooner's murderers while they were on trial and up until they were hung on July 2nd of that year). [2]  

Private David How, one of the Massachusetts militia guards with the British column on the 1777 march of the Convention Army, noted coffee among his purchases during siege of Boston, writing: "March 12, 1776 An account of what money I Spend for the mess.  3 lb Sugar 0.15.0 [15 shillings] 1 [pound] Coffee 0.9.0 ... 2 Quarts of milk...". [3]  While there is no indication whether How's sugar and milk purchases were related in any way to his coffee drinking, he goes on to note the purchase of a pint of milk on March 14, 1776, and another quart of milk and a pound of sugar on the 15th. [4]  

How was not alone in his quest for coffee, sugar and milk - or other beverages - to supplement his rations.  Lieutenant-Colonel Israel Shreve, of the 2nd New Jersey Regiment, noted that at "Mount Independance Opposate Ticonderoga 26th. Aug. 1776 ...  Col. Maxwell and myself each purchased a Cow which Gives us plenty of Milk, our Captain has 2 more, ... Good West India Rum here is 6 [?] New England Do. [12/0 or 16/], Brandy 18/, Gin 22/ Wine that is Madairy 30/ p Gallon, Chocolate 2/6, Loaf Sugar 5/6, Brown Do: 1/6 ... a Number of Setlers [sutlers] will make Small fortunes here this Campaign, [selling] Shugars, Chocolate, Coffee, …" [5]  The following year the Reverend Enos Hitchcock, chaplain to Patterson's Brigade of Massachusetts troops, would note that in evacuation of Fort Ticonderoga on July 6, 1777, his losses included sugar, chocolate and coffee, as well as fifteen gallons of rum and five gallons of brandy. [6]

Someone in Lieutenant-General John Burgoyne's army, though we don't know who, appears to have enjoyed coffee as well.  On August 13, 1777, near Fort Edward, New York,  Burgoyne's general orders noted with regard to the movement of the army's baggage: "Whereas two Barrels of Madeira Wine, three Barrels of Rum, one bag of Coffee, one bag of Barley, two kegs of Butter, and two rolls of Tobacco have been put clandestinely into the Provision Carts of the Army, and very properly reported by the Waggon Master General, the said Articles are to be received into the Public Stores by the Commissary, and to be issued according to future Orders." [7]  Whether the owner of that bag of coffee (not to mention the barrels of wine and rum) was a British or German officer, it's likely that it was missed later.  One of the German officers with Burgoyne, writing as a captive from Cambridge, Massachusetts, on November 15, 1777, would note that everything they sought to purchase was expensive, including wine, coffee and sugar. [8]

In October of 1781 Sarah Osborne prepared and delivered coffee to American soldiers in the trenches at Yorktown, Virginia.  In 1837, when she applied for a pension as the widow of a veteran, she noted: "Deponent's said husband was there [Yorktown] throwing up entrenchments, and deponent cooked and carried beef, bread, and coffee (in a gallon pot) to the soldiers in the entrenchment."  Osborne went on to note "On one occasion when deponent was thus employed carrying in provisions, she met George Washington, who asked her if she 'was not afraid of the cannonballs'.  She replied, 'No, the bullets would not cheat the gallows', that 'It would not do for the men to fight and starve too'." [9]

How and others did not confine their coffee drinking to camp.  Public coffee houses, as shown here in the drawing "Interior of a London Coffee-house", dating from around 1690-1700, in the collection of The British Museum, were popular in both Europe and America. [10]  On April 13, 1776, How left Massachusetts to guard ammunition being sent to New York City by way of Norwich, Connecticut.  On his return from Norwich he spent the night of April 24th in Thompson, Connecticut.  The following morning he noted: "... Set out and come to The Liberty Coffee house And got a braxfust there", before marching on to Douglas, Massachusetts. [11]  British Ensign Thomas Anburey, writing about the Convention Army's ongoing captivity in a letter dated "near Charlottesville in Virginia, Dec. 12, 1779",  noted: "It being the universal opinion through-out the army, that we shall remain prisoners the remainder of the war, the British officers have contributed to render their situation as comfortable as the nature of the country will possibly allow, and to promote association, they have erected a coffee-house, a theatre, and a cold bath...". [12]

Private Jeremiah Greenman, who was captured in the American invasion of Canada, provides us with a sense of how popular coffee was with at least some soldiers.  Greenman, who was being held prisoner in Quebec, noted in his diary in February of 1776: "F[riday] 16 to T[hursday] 29.  very Cold indeed / we git sum wheat that is [in] bags below ware we go after wood and burn it wich makith very good Coffe and selling sum of our thing we git sum money & so we have once in a while Sum Caffe." [13]

Next Time: Article IX of the Convention - “To Canady”   

Last Time: Post #101: Books - "My Intention Is To Give A Succinct Account Of Some Of My Adventures"  

For more on the Convention Army's 1777 march from Saratoga to Boston, see:

   1777 March Blog Home             Overnight Stopping Points        Towns and Villages Along the Way 

   General Whipple's Journal         Burgoyne in Albany                    Annotated Bibliography 

[1] Sherman Lohnes, "No Other Kind Of Provision But Beef", The Mount Independence Courier, Vol. 21, No. 1, Spring 2014, 3.  A number of issues of the Courier are available online at: https://miccourier.home.blog/archive/.

[2] Thomas's Massachusetts Spy, September 17, 1778, Worcester, MA, Vol. VIII, No. 385.  For additional examples, check out these from "The Adverts 250 Project, An Exploration of Advertising During the Era of the American Revolution, 250 Years Ago This Week."

[3] How, Diary, 45.  How enjoyed a variety of beverages.  Six days later he would note in his diary: "March 21 We bought a Barrel of Cyder".  How, Diary, 11.
[4] How, Diary, 45.  Coffee was taken with milk by some, as a German officer noted of their time in Canada prior to the Saratoga campaign that it was socially acceptable to offer one's host "... a few sous in polite fashion for, let us say, the milk you took in your coffee...". Pettingill, Letters From America, 17.
[5] I am presently at a loss for a citation to this quote, which I cut, pasted and emailed to a friend after it appeared in a Facebook post that attributed it to Shreve.

[6] Hitchcock, Dairy of Enos Hitchcock, D.D., 92.  Hitchcock's full listing reads: "Lost in Retreat from Ti = Two Blankets - one pair of sheets - a double gown - 1 Coat, 1 Waistcoat - 1 pair Breeches - 1 d[itt]o overhawls - 1 hat - 1 pair shoes - four pair Stockins - 1 Bible & Psalm Book, & several small volumes - 1/2 c.[?] Sugar 1/4 d[itt]o Chocolate - 1/2 d[itt]o Coffee - 15 Gallons best Rum - 5 d[itt]o best Brandy - 1 dozen Nutmegs - 1 quart Stotons Elixir - 3 Bowls - one looking glass - 2 Beackers - 3 wine glasses - 2 Cups & saucers - 2 Knifes & forks - one large Spoon & a small d[itt]o 1 pair saddle Baggs - &c".  Hitchcock also drank tea on at least one occasion, as he noted on June 1, 1777: "drank Tea at Col'o. Marshals".  Hitchcock, Dairy, 110.

[7] Burgoyne, Orderly Book of Lieut. Gen. John Burgoyne, 72.

[8] Pettingill, Letters From America, 103.

[9] John C. Dunn, ed., The Revolution Remembered, Eyewitness Accounts of the War for Independence (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1980), 244-245.

[10] "Interior of a London Coffee-house", The British Museum, museum number 1931,0613.2; https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1931-0613-2.

[11] How, Diary, 15. 

[12] Anburey, Travels Through the Interior Parts of America, 2:442.

[13] Jeremiah Greenman, Diary of a Common Soldier in the American Revolution 1775-1783 (De Kalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1978), 25.  Greenman, like How, enjoyed a variety of beverages, noting in the entry before this one: "T[hursday] 1 to T[hursday] 15 / this day we had another Cask of porter gave to us by sum jentel men of ye town wich was very kind & very exseptful for we wanted sum thing of liquid nator...". Greenman, Diary of a Common Soldier, 24.