Drinkable water

[bigben131]

First post, but have been around the forum for a while.

If I haven't posted in the right place feel free to move. I'm interested to know how soldiers on the march went about purifying water, if at all. Now a days there are chlorine tablets and a variety of different purification techniques. What did they do?

Ben Toledo

[GrumpyDave]

Re: Drinkable water

No purification. What they put into their canteens, they drank. That being said. There were some "filter" type canteens available for private purchase. More for removing large particulates than anything else. Purifying water? Didn't happen. Wilbur Fisk wrote, (paraphrasing), of filling canteens in a stream, looking up and seeing a dead mule in the water. Yummmm......

[Cumpston1862]

Re: Drinkable water

Ben-

On the march just getting water was difficult. The letters and diaries of the soldiers on both sides document this problem. In the post war years the complaint of "chronic diareaha" listed on pension records would seem to support the chronic infections many soldiers got from drinking bad water during their military service.

One must remember too that at this time if water was clear and oderless it was assumed to be safe to drink but as we know today that is not always the case. Many letters give accounts of soldiers drinking out of mud pools and other less than sanitary conditions because that was all that could be had especially on the march.

There were canteens of the period that had strainers built into them to purify water but all these did was take the larger debris from the water rather than actually purify the water. The Civil War canteen book by Stephen W. Sylvia & Michael J. O Donnell has some pictures of canteens with filters but again these were not issued in large numbers. If I have a chance and someone doesn't post them before I do I will post a couple pictures of these from their book tonight.

[Cumpston1862]

Re: Drinkable water

Here are a couple of scans from the book by Stephen W. Sylvia and Michael J. O Donnell aptly named Civil War Canteens. This is only one of the examples shown in the book but the best illustrated and understandable as far as function in my opinion.

Actually this is two different examples but similar idea.

[Tyler Gibson]

Re: Drinkable water

Wish I could remember directly where this reference came from, but I have read of the defenders of Vicksburg on "Canteen detail" having to break the scum off the water sources they were using. No mention of any purification. There are "Filter" canteens out there, though they weren't of much use in purifying the water which passed through them.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Drinkable water

Hallo!

As shared, the intent of fllters was largely to filter out "macrobials" such as muck, alagae, duckweed, etc., plant debris, and insects like mosquito wrigglers.
"Micro" organism "awareness" goes back to the 6th century BC even though they would not be seen until after van Leeuwenhoek's microscope work.

About the time of the Civil War, early work on dispelling the old Miasma Theory and looking toward microbes moved forward in fits and starts especially after Snow's work in investigating the 1854 Soho London cholera outbreak linked to a well pump three feet from an old cess pool. Followed by the ground-breaking work of Pasteur, Koch, Lister, and Semmelweiss in the 1860's and 1870's.

IMHO, it would take a while for this academic or scientific discoveries ot trickle down to every day people (especially soldiers in the field during the Civil War to any great extent).
But on the other hand, there are always anectodal stories of dumping dead Confederates down wells....

:)

Today is much more complicted due to both knowledge as well as pollution from agricultural chemicals, industry, and industrial waste dumping. We know more, and have more to think about. Plus more and more people are "city folk" who in the country can not locate safe water even when there is some.

Curt

[LibertyHallVols]

Re: Drinkable water

Somewhere or t' other, on the Youtubes, there is a video made during the centennial that shows our reenactor elders reenacting soldiers on a hard march, flinging down their muskets and sticking their faces into a large puddle in a field to get a drink. I like that video because it correctly conveys the urgency with which water was needed. It wasn't an academic issue to be calmly considered and the best solution implemented. It was an urgent, life-sustaining need. When you're thirsty enough, you drink - your knowledge of microbes, or lack thereof don't matter one bit.

[Cumpston1862]

Re: Drinkable water

Excellent point. When you're thirsty you HAVE to drink. Water certainly has an effect on war.

Brings to mind the terrible drought Tennessee and Kentucky was experincing in the fall of 1862 during the Perryville Campaign. If not mistaken the water at Doctor's Creek was one of the few water sources in the area that had not dried up and because of that the Confederate Army was hesitant to leave it.

[Elaine Kessinger]

Re: Drinkable water

The Ladies' New Book of Cookery: A Practical System For Private Families In Town And Country; With Directions For Carving, And Arranging The Table For Parties, etc. Also Preparations Of Food For Invalids And For Children.
By Sarah Josepha Hale.
New York, H. Long & Brother, 1852.

OBSERVATIONS.--Water is the best beverage to quench thirst and preserve the system in perfect health. But this requires pure, sweet, wholesome water, and such a beverage is not often found: therefore, substitutes or antidotes are sought out. People who decline entirely the use of these, must be very particular to clarify the water they use; and it would be well if this were done by all.




A Cheap Water-Filter. --Make a mattress of charcoal to fit a large common flower-pot,--put it in the bottom, with a mattress of sand over it, each about 5 inches thick; hang this pot on a cock, with a vessel under to receive the water. Where there is no filter, this is in every one's power.


Obs.--A bit of quick-lime thrown into a water-cask is useful in purifying the water. Agitating the water and exposing it to the air, will both soften it and help to keep it fresh. Strain muddy water through a fine sieve, in which a cloth and sponge, or layer of fine sand or charcoal is placed.

In 1852, instructions were given for a water filter for a home and the need to filter impurities out of the water was appreciated. It was not to the extent it is today, but it was known as a desirable quality. Many of the soldiers, officers, and health professionals did notice the unwholesome water situations and long for better. Few were in a position to do better in their circumstances.
A local populace or occupying army that buried deceased soldiers and livestock in wells and left the dead in free-running water sources didn't help matters.

[Pvt Schnapps]

Re: Drinkable water

From "Take Care of Your Health" in Kautz's COS for enlisted:

"Whenever it is possible, do, by all means, when you have to use water for cooking or drinking from ponds or sluggish streams, boil it well, and, when cool, shake it, or stir it, so that the oxygen of the air shall get to it, which greatly improves it for drinking. This boiling arrests the process of fermentation, which arises from the presence of organic and inorganic impurities, thus tending to prevent cholera and all bowel-diseases. If there is no time for boiling, at least strain it through a cloth, even if you have to use a shirt or trowsers-leg."

The practice of filling canteens with coffee or tea for the march would also tend to a purifying effect.

[The Maryland Line]

Re: Drinkable water

Here is the video John was referencing http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbDz9YIHj_U

It was done by the some of the 1st Maryland and I think the 2nd N.C.? I'm not sure. Pretty damned cool though.

[Jimmayo]

Re: Drinkable water

Forgot where I read it but in one soldiers letter he mentions the value of having a tin cup to scoop up a quick drink of water while on the march. Makes sense since it would take some time to leave ranks and fill a canteen.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Drinkable water

Hallo!

Or the practice of designating a few "water bearers" to load up on empty canteens and go fill them and bring them back for the lads not allowed to leave formation.

Reminds me of the twenty-some Alabama boys from Wilcox's Brigade at Gettysburg sent out on the second day below Big Round Top for water from a farm well who got themselves captured leaving their comrades very thirsty in the summer heat until they got down to Plum Run...

Curt

[Bill]

Re: Drinkable water

The Confederates had a higher desease rate then their Federal opponents. I've often thought that part of the difference, was that much of the water used by the Federal Army was consumed in the form of coffee, which is boiled.

The majority of surviving Gardner pattern wood canteens are missing their spounts. It's my opinion that they were knocked out during their period of use, to make it easier to fill them from streams and wells.

[PogueMahone]

Re: Drinkable water

Let me add a modern safety tip here:

If you are using those iodine pills to make creek water safe, make sure they don't interact with your meds first. We watched a fellow get carried out of the piney woods on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance because the iodine interacted with one of the handful of prescription pills he was taking.