Feature Article

By 1859, the retailer Schumacher had turned into a full-time miller,¹⁰ as his retail ads disappeared and he occupied a building on North Howard¹¹ with waterpower rights on Cascade Run.¹² Only seventy-one days before the bombardment of Ft. Sumter, Schumacher's German Mills first advertised oatmeal for sale.¹³ Yet he may not have been the only game in town, as oatmeal had started to appear on weekly market price surveys of consumer goods in the local newspaper.¹⁴

For his part, Steinbacher was still running his drug store. He advertised heavily in the local newspaper as a wholesale and retail source of an ever-expanding array of products. In the months preceding the Civil War his newspaper ads included pure drugs, medicines, pure medicinal wines, liquors, Tilden's fluid extract, Sanford's liver invigorator, Bronson's blood food, Tanner's German ointment for bruises and sprains, Stafford's olive tar for bronchitis, coughs and ashma (sic), and dead shot for bed bugs. Specifically for medicinal purposes, he marketed the availability of quinine, opium, morphine, iodine, and iron by hydrogen. As Schumacher (his former neighbor on Market Street) left the grocery business for his mill, Steinbacher's ads started to also include advertising for grocery items such as prime Rio coffee, Virginia tobacco, and molasses.¹⁵

Thus, by the beginning of the Civil War, Schumacher was finally selling oatmeal, although it was not his featured product and only one of many in his ads at this time. Meanwhile, Steinbacher busily displayed his interest in selling anything that the public might want, although there is no indication that Steinbacher was selling Schumacher's German Mills Oatmeal in his store.

Indeed, Schumacher was selling oatmeal in 1861. However, the Union Army, according to Army regulations, was not buying it. Regulations required that food provisions for the troops be purchased through the Commissary General, who was the head of the Subsistence Department. Their procedure was to advertise specifications inviting private contractors to bid. The Commissary General, or an authorized office in the Subsistence Department, would then select the lowest bid from a responsible bidder. The winning contractor then shipped his goods to warehouses in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, or St. Louis,¹⁶ from which the Quartermaster General's office arranged for transportation to the field.¹⁷ However, oatmeal was not on the standards list for a soldier's daily camp ration, which in 1861 was supposed to include: fresh beef (when practicable, otherwise salt meat); twenty-one ounces of bread or flour, or one pound of hard bread; beans and rice, or hominy; one pound of potatoes, at least three times per week; and coffee or tea upon permission of the appropriate officer.¹⁸ There was no mention of oatmeal in the regulation.

In 1863, the standard army ration was updated to: twelve ounces of pork of bacon (or one pound four ounces of salt or fresh beef); and one pound six ounces of soft bread or flour (or one pound of hard bread, or one pound four ounces of corn meal). For every 100 rations, camp provisions were supposed to include fifteen pounds beans or peas; ten pounds of rice or hominy; ten pounds of green coffee, or eight pounds of roasted (or roasted and ground) coffee, or one pound and eight ounces of tea; fifteen pounds of sugar; four quarts of vinegar; three pounds twelve ounces of salt; four ounces of pepper; thirty pounds of potatoes, when practical; and one quart molasses.¹⁹ There was still no mention of oatmeal.

Another possible avenue of entry for oatmeal into Civil War soldier stomachs was via the supplies procured for use in field hospitals by the Sanitary Commission. A search of the four extensive lists of items procured and issued by the Commission for (1) the Army of the Potomac in June and July of 1863²⁰, (2) the armies in Charleston, South Carolina in July 1863,²¹ (3) the armies in Gettysburg, PA in July 1863,²² and (4) the armies in Richmond, VA during May, 1864,²³ indicated no purchases, or issuances, of oatmeal.

<< Back, Page 2 of 18 Next >>