Another Civil War coffee story
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| A moment of warmth on Cemetery Hill - July 2, 1863 |
On the morning of July 2, 1863, as the sun rose over the blood-soaked fields of Gettysburg, the men of the 14th Vermont Infantry stirred from a restless bivouac in a wheat field near Cemetery Hill. They had marched 120 miles in six days, arriving too late for the first day’s fight but just in time for the next. Their numbers had already thinned—222 men had fallen out from exhaustion, leaving just 500 to face what lay ahead. [1]
But before the bullets flew, before the chaos resumed, something remarkable happened.
Charles Field of Dorset, Vermont, the regiment’s quartermaster, appeared on the hilltop with four wagon loads of coffee and hardtack. He had defied orders to stay in the rear with the supply train. He had risked capture by Confederate forces. And he had done it all for one reason: to feed his men.
“He gave signal proof,” the regimental history records, “when, on the morning of July 2, he appeared on Cemetery Hill, with four wagon loads of coffee and hard tack… his coming was welcomed by hungry men, and he saved the brigade from having to fight on empty stomachs.”
In an army where rations were often late, spoiled, or nonexistent, Field’s arrival was more than a logistical victory—it was a moral one. His quiet act of defiance reminded the men that someone cared whether they went into battle fed or faint.
It’s easy to overlook the quartermasters. They didn’t charge bayonets or hold the line. But on that morning, Charles Field’s courage came in the form of caffeine and calories, delivered under threat of capture, brewed with compassion.
And for the men of the 14th Vermont, it may have made all the difference.
There are a million stories from the Irrepressible Conflict. This was just one of them.
Mac
Enjoy this story? Pour yourself a fresh cup of java and explore more Civil War stories about our fav brew on our ☕ Coffee Chronicles page.
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