Poisoned Water

[Cumpston1862]

Gents-

Checking around I haven't seen this covered here. If it has please post me a link. Otherwise here goes...

I have seen it sometimes mentioned that water was poisoned during the Civil War. It does not seem to be a common ocurrence but it does seem to have happened. The most recent mention of it for me was in visiting the Lotz House in Franklin, Tennessee recently. Our guide explained that two of the Lotz children drank poisoned water from a nearby creek and died. It was also explained that this was done by Federal soldiers sometime during their occupation of Franklin. This raises several questions for me I was hoping could be answered by someone here.

1) Were both sides guilty of poisoning water supplies?

2) Was this a decision made in the chain of command or undertaken by over zealous individuals?

3) Was there a specific agent they used? (Arsenic comes to mind but how much would be needed.)

4) does anyone know of other instances of water being poisoned?

[Tyler Underwood]

Re: Poisoned Water

I know this account isn't about water but its still interesting.

In Gen. Butlers Camp May, 10 1864
"Wishing to establish the most friendly relations between you and this neighborhood, the General invited all venders of supplies to visit our camp and replenish our somewhat scanty commissariat. But to his disgust and horror he finds well-authenticated evidence that a private in the Sixth Regiment has been poisoned by means of strychnine administered in the food brought into the camp by one of these peddlers. I am happy to be informed that the man is now out of danger. This act, of course, will render it necessary for me to cut off all purchases from unauthorized persons.

[FranklinGuardsNYSM]

Re: Poisoned Water

During South Mountain in 1862, a New York ex-patriate who found herself living in Funkstown felt a great deal of sympathy to the Confederate troops, whom she described as "poor, brave, uncomplaining men," and she offered them buckets of water and, in one case, a cup of ginger tea. It's said that some men refused to drink it, suggesting that she, as a native northerner, might have poisoned it. Others, however, apologized for the paranoia of their comrades, and happily partook. They were fine.

[Silas]

Re: Poisoned Water

After the fall of Vicksburg, Sherman's corps commenced its pursuit of Johnston's inappropriately named, Army of Relief. Sherman complained bitterly that Confederate troops poisoned water by leaving dead animals whenever possible along his marching route. He failed to recollect how his own troops had been performing a similar practice during the seige against Confederates downstream from his lines.

[woodsda]

Re: Poisoned Water

Here is something interesting I found:

"1863: During the American Civil War, Confederate General Joe Johnson ordered the contamination of water sources by placing the carcasses of dead sheep and pigs in wells and ponds to slow the Union advance by depriving them of water sources.6" Cited from http://hachhst.com/wp-content/upload...s-a-weapon.pdf.

This is nothing new in warfare, not surprised it would happen in the Civil War.

Don Woods

[Cumpston1862]

Re: Poisoned Water

Gents-

Thanks for all the replies.

Tyler very interesting about food being poisoned. Very obvious but hadn't thought of it...thanks for sharing that!

Marc- There was probably great suspicion by troops of both sides receiving food and water from civilians but thirst and hunger probably forced many soldiers to take a chance. Thanks.

Silas and Don- The throwing of dead animals into wells and ponds to prevent the enemy from using the water makes sense. This would seem to be effective for standing bodies of water but do you think it would be effective in rivers and creeks? Where there was running water.

[Jeremy Bevard]

Re: Poisoned Water

From a poisining prepective it could almost be more effective in creeks and rivers. A standing pool of water a man will see the dead animal and know not to drink from it. A dead animal farther upstream will not be seen. It would be much more effective in moving water than an additive which must be added in large amounts to keep up the containimation.

[PogueMahone]

Re: Poisoned Water

While researching patent medicines, I found that one of the most well known and internationally used medicines used poison as a primary ingredient. It was not uncommon for patent medicines to contain arsenic or other poisons as ingredients.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Poisoned Water

Hallo!

And "medical science" as well, such as treating syphilis with mercury.

Curt

[Cumpston1862]

Re: Poisoned Water

Gents...thanks for the additional responses.

How did that saying go...a night with venus will get you a month with mercury. Or something like that.

[Hank Trent]

Re: Poisoned Water

Most any medicine, though, is a poison if taken in excessive quantities. That hasn't really changed. Imagine dumping enough of the medicines used for chemotherapy in someone's water well, or spiking an office water cooler with the heart medication warfarin, which is also used to poison rats.

Arsenic, antimony, mercury, etc. when used as medicines weren't given in the same doses as would be necessary to kill someone, or weren't added to all the water a person consumed. There were some legal restrictions on selling the most effective poisons in lethal quantities over the counter to random unknown persons, for just the reason one might imagine: http://books.google.com/books?id=u1qwAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA228

So it's true that poisons were more widely available from pharmacies in the period, but a local druggist would certainly be suspicious of a group of soldiers who walked in to buy a couple pounds of arsenic. They could steal poisonous medicines from a doctor then the same as now, if they knew what they were looking for, and other over-the-counter poisons like rat bait are still on the shelves today.

As far as anecdotes, here's another--though there's no way to know if it was real poison or a bluff, from Kate Stone's journal at http://books.google.com/books?id=kfiCyYcF0HoC&pg=PA196

"In the meanwhile, the other Negroes [US colored soldiers] were rummaging the house, ransacking it from top to bottom, destroying all the provisions they could not carry away, and sprinkling a white powder into the cisterns and over everything they left. We never knew whether it was poison or not."

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[GrumpyDave]

Re: Poisoned Water

Want to foul someone's drinking water? Throw a dead critter in it.

[Elaine Kessinger]

Re: Poisoned Water

In western Maryland, citizens reported in their diaries and memoirs of dead horses and a few incidences of dead soldiers thrown in wells to dispose of the bodies. The excuse was always given that the wells were presumed unusable by the persons doing the burying. Citizens report many incidences of petty vandalism of this sort amongst neighbors of differing sympathies. Whether the citizens suggesting the wells knew they were still used or honestly thought they were unusable is lost to history.

[KarinTimour]

Re: Poisoned Water

If memory serves, there are a number of accounts of soldiers being suspicous of food being offered by civilians, especially civilians in areas where they knew the locals did not support that particular army. I remember some of the women in Gettysburg being offended when Confederate soldiers wouldn't eat food they were offered until the cook took a bite or two first.

Perhaps an extreme example, but I also remember an account of a woman in Georgia (South Carolina? North Carolina?) who came up with a novel way of keeping Sherman's bummers from using her food supply to feed the men. She got all of it into a big pile, and as the soldiers came up, pee'd all over it.

Many accounts of Sherman's men putting dead animals down wells.