Sifoddling Along

By Marilyn Carnell

I am continuing to work on my historical novel about the Civil War. Every day seems to yield a surprise. Since I grew up in southwest Missouri and heard countless tales about the war, I didn’t think I would have to do a lot of research. It seems that was a very foolish idea.

When writing a scene where the heroine, Bonnie Faye Doolittle, heard a single gunshot, I blithely wrote that she thought it was probably a young boy hunting with a .22 rifle. Nevertheless, I thought I should check only to find the .22 long rifle was not invented until 1887, long after the Civil War.

Earlier .22 weapons were pistols for self-defense. So… down the rabbit hole to find what she might have heard. What seemed most likely was a long rifle left over from the Revolutionary War, as any more modern gun would have been kept as a fighting weapon, especially for those fighting for the South. There is no doubt that improvements in weapons led to increased lethality of encounters. Estimates of the number who died in the war vary widely, from 620,000 to as many as a million lost. Collecting data was complicated by the fact that so many died of illness and infection due to poor living conditions, terrible nutrition, and lack of rest.

The outcome of the war was influenced by the introduction of canned goods. By 1860 it was possible to preserve food in tinned steel cans. Oysters and fruits were the most common, but meat and condensed milk products were also produced in abundance. Some of those items are still available today – Borden’s Eagle Brand condensed milk is the most notable.

I have saved the product I think most interesting for last. Although it was not invented during the Civil War, it was invented as the result of Civil War injuries. John Stith Pemberton was a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia. As a result of his war wounds, he developed an addiction to morphine. Clever Dr. Pemberton, began to work developing a tonic to help him cope with his addiction. Using kola (cola) for caffeine and cocaine as a stimulant he came up with a pleasant concoction that was very tasty when mixed with alcohol. Later, when the temperance movement brought about restrictions in the alcohol business, he substituted sugar syrup for the buzz, but kept the cocaine and marketed it as a brain stimulant. At some point he accidentally mixed it with carbonated water and Coca Cola was born.