Commodities as pay being issued to troops

[Johnny Lloyd]

Rare I ask a question on here, and I HAVE used the search engine, but does anyone have a credible citations for who/how/why/what circumstances tobacco (or any other commodity) was issued in lieu of paper money by a paymaster to troops?

I have heard unconfirmed RUMOUR that this occurred in the Southern armies, but not so regarding the Northern armies (probably for obvious reasons). I want to put these rumours to rest, if possible with factual evidence.

Any help would be appreciated... even a link on here that I might have missed.

All the best- Johnny Lloyd

[Johnny Lloyd]

Re: Commodities as pay being issued to troops

[crickets]

Wow. I think I broke the AC with this question... ;)

[Craig L Barry]

Re: Commodities as pay being issued to troops

Well, how do you disprove something that probably doesn't exist? All you can say is there are plenty of diary entries where soldiers mention using paper money for commodities (like tobacco), but not much the other way around. You can bet if the practice of payment by commodities was at all common, you would find some mention in a collection of anecdotes like Benjamin LaBree's Camp Fires of the Confederacy. Nope.