pipe tobacco

[mtvernon]

Re: Correct Tobacco- the specifics.

http://www.samuelgawith.co.uk/

I just picked up the Full Virginia Flake. It's been produced for over 200 years (according to the tin, anyway). It's pretty moist at first (and only) smoke, but pretty great if you like the strong stuff. Virginia is the source of it all, of course. Can't go wrong there.

[Tom Ezell]

Re: Correct Tobacco- the specifics.

One of the memories from TAG was where we passed through a fellow's tobacco field and barn on the way to the Confederate start line on Friday... A nice, though brief eddication for this Delta boy. I know a bunch about raising cotton, rice, and corn, but hadn't seen tobacco "on the hoof" or rather on the stalk and tied up in hands before...

We also had a nice ration of pressed leaf to tide us over the weekend...

[TobiasJones]

Re: Correct Tobacco- the specifics.

Mr. Heath

I'm glad you could enjoy it. Personally, I grew up in central Kentucky and while not personally growing it myself, saw most farmers grow it high and skinny. When we grew it at the park I was amazed at the rate of growth and the massive size of the leaves on the oronoko plants (in a fresh plot) about 3 weeks after we topped them at about waist height. It was an enlightening experience. Since you had mentioned growing some a few years ago for personal use, do you (or anybody) know where to get some seed today? Other than knowing the right people (which I don't) or being a farmer (Which I'm not) I havn't been able to find anything in my searches recently. Many thanks.

Evan O'Dell

[Enfilade]

Re: Correct Tobacco- the specifics.

In the 1860 Census within North Carolina and Virginia, it states that out of the 348 tobacco factories,all of which produced plug as their main supply, that only 6 produced "smoking tobacco", which was actually a by-product used from the scraps of making plug.

What does that mean? Well, it means for us that chewing tobacco would be much more common and accessible to the common soldier. Especially in the South. The type used? Well, Burley is mainly a Kentucky/Ohio form of leaf. Within Burley there are several "types" as just in hues and colors, etc. And... just as it is in impressions with uniforms and traps, etc., it may really depend on what part of the country you have access to which type of tobacco.

I hope this helps...

Mark Berrier
North State Rifles

http://www.northstaterifles.com

combinations@northstate.net

[Charles Heath]

Re: Correct Tobacco- the specifics.

Evan,

I simply saved the seed from year to year after the first crop. While tobacco can be started via hydroponics, or the old burn and cover method, we had good success with a mighty warm oil fired water boiler with a flat sheet metal cover. It just happened to also have good lighting. It worked as well or better than a heating pad and grow lights.

The tobacco seed I have now is no longer viable, so I'm on the hunt, too. Finding sources for see isn't a problem, just enter "Tobacco Seed" in a search engine such as Google, and you'll find hours of reading. You can find a few dozen sources for ornamental, private production use, and commercial seed in a few seconds. It may take a little longer to locate a favorite variety.

Some links you may enjoy:

http://www.victoryseeds.com/tobacco/index.html

http://www.newhopeseed.com/tobacco/index.htm

http://www.workmantobacco.com/

http://www.tobaccoseed.co.uk/

http://www.newtontobaccoseed.com/

One of the above lists a Connecticut wrapper, and if you'll look closely there is a web ring for this sort of thing. It may be worth noting the seed is very, very, very, fine. Give it a generation and folks will be asking "people back then did what with this plant?" Vegetative living history. Who'd a thunk it?

[TobiasJones]

Re: Correct Tobacco- the specifics.

Charles,

Wow! Those sites are great. I must have been using the wrong search words because I never found anything this good. Growing/harvesting/carrying period tobacco will really add a great new aspect to a southern impression. Thanks for your help.

Evan O'Dell

[Chuck A Luck]

Re: Correct Tobacco- the specifics.

I don't smoke or partake myself. I do know, however, there is an article in the second deition of the Columbia Rifles Research Compendium which addresses this very question.

Is the 2nd Ed. of that released yet? I've paid and ordered one, and am still waiting for my copy to arrive. In fact, I just went up to the Watchdog website yesterday, and it still mentions taking "pre-orders" -- so I figured it's still not out. However, it sounds like you've got a copy -- or is it a pre-release-to-the-GP one?

curious...

[TopographicalEngineer]

Re: Cigars

So the Backwoods and rough cut cigars and such... are they at all appropriate then? I am limited in my researching skills and such so forgive me if my question is at all poorly but it is a decent question; would such a cigar be seen if'n the troops marched through a tobacco field and picked the leaves and rolled their own and such? It just seems to me that at some times or something such cigars would not be inapropriate.

[Craig L Barry]

Re: Cigars

Avoid the Backwoods brand smokes, or save them for a post-Civil War Clint Eastwood "Man With No Name" Western gunfighter impression. While obviously there were cigars (and cigarettes) CW-era tobacco products were largely chewed. Surviving specimens of cigars suggest the most common were a hand rolled, 5" long 48 ring gauge size w/ a tapered shape.

The problem with the potential for procurement of period cigars by soldiers is the paper they are rolled or wrapped in, and where it was found...cigar paper was mostly grown in Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and a few smaller areas of Georgia/Florida. This is due to the necessary soil conditions. There is evidence as stated previously of Berdans Sharpshooters (in Columbia Rifles Research Compendium 2nd Ed p 180) liberating a tobacco warehouse presumably full of Virginia sweet or bright leaf, and rolling as "many Virginias as the men wanted". There are no surviving specimens to suggest what these looked like, but let's not assume they were rolled like or resembled "Backwoods". The Virginia leaf used for wrappers to roll the cigars would certainly not have resembled "Backwoods" or even traditional cigar wrappers.

[HangarFlying]

"Puffing the weed."

Hello All,

I have been reading "Soldier Boy: The Civil War Letters of Charles O. Musser, 29th Iowa". In his August 18, 1863 letter to his father he mentions:

"...James Robinson is puffing the weed."

Is this a period term for tobacco, or did it mean the same thing it means today? I seem to remember a thread on this topic, but couldn't find it. Perhaps it was before the crash. Thanks.

James

[redleggeddevil]

Re: "Puffing the weed."

I can't comment on the particular context of the quote, but tobacco was commonly referred to as "weed" for at least two centuries before the Civil War. 17th century growers knew it as "sot weed" and "Tobacco's But An Indian Weed" was a common song of the 18th century.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: "Puffing the weed."

Hallo!

Pipeweed.

Reminds me of the 17th century song.... "Tobacco is but an Indian Weed."

Curt

[Justin Runyon]

Re: "Puffing the weed."

Very likely we're just talking about tobbaco here. There was a good thread on this but it might be gone now. According to all that I have been able to read, marijuana was eaten in the 1860's, not smoked. It's also interesting to note that in all the material I have read makes a destinction between domestic hemp, and foreign Hashish. Though they are botanically the same plant, it seems that "hemp" was used for rope and cloth production and "Hashish" is taken for recreational use. If you search the LoC you should be able to find a label for Hashish Candy.

[Charles Heath]

Re: "Puffing the weed."

At least as far back as King James I, tobacco was a "noxious weed." Famous quote, that.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: "Puffing the weed."

Hallo!

The last paragraph of King james I's "Counterblaste To Tobacco:"

"Have you not reason then to be ashamed and to forbear this filthy novelty, so basely grounded, so foolishly received and so grossly mistaken in the right use thereof. In your abuse thereof sinning against God harming yourselves both in person and goods, and raking also thereby the marks and notes of vanity upon you by the custom thereof making yourselves to be wondered at by all foreign civil nations and by all strangers that come among you to be scorned and held in contemp; a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof nearest resembling the horrible stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless."

Curt