Lincoln's Labels: America's Best-Known Brands and the Civil War

by James M. Schmidt

From du Pont’s gunpowder and Borden’s condensed milk to Procter & Gamble’s soap and Brooks Brothers’ uniforms, this history investigates how today’s familiar brand names served a vital role for the Union during the Civil War. Rarely told stories from the companies who supplied soldiers and sailors with food, clothing, weapons, and medicine recount tales of political intrigue, family and friends torn apart, and paths crossed with Abraham Lincoln. Not only do these accounts mirror the war itself, they also show that life during conflict can often be as intriguing and dangerous for a company of employees as it is a company of soldiers.

Genres: Civil War, Nonfiction, History

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Hi! My name is Jim Schmidt and thanks for visiting my GoodReads Author Page! I am a chemist by training and profession and currently work for a biotech company near Houston, TX.

But by night (and by lunch!) I am a writer!

I have been writing historical pieces for magazines and newspapers for about 15 years. My work has been published in *North & South*, *The Artilleryman*, *Learning Through History*, *World War II*, *Chemical Heritage*, and *Today's Chemist* magazines. My column, "Medical Department," has appeared regularly in *The Civil War News* since September 2000.

My books include "Notre Dame and the Civil War: Marching Onward to Victory" (2010), "Years of Change and Suffering: Modern Perspectives on Civil War Medicine" (2009), and "Lincoln's Labels: America's Best Known Brands and the Civil War" (2008).

My latest book is "Galveston and the Civil War: An Island City in the Maelstrom" from The History Press, published in September 2012!

You can learn more about my interests by visiting my "Civil War Medicine" or "Notre Dame in the Civil War" blogs or e-mailing me at schmidtjamesm at gmail dot com

Thank You!

Reviews

[ij · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lincoln’s Labels

Written By: James M. Schmidt

Published By: Edinborough Press (Amazon) Kindle Edition, 2009.

This is a historical account of some of the businesses that provided goods and services to the military during the civil war. Many of these businesses still exist today.

By all accounts, neither the North nor South was well prepared for this conflict. Early in the war state militias accounted for most of the troops used and their preparedness was dependent on the various states. They had different and sometimes no uniforms, little food, or other supplies.

Some of the vendors were:

Brooks Brothers – uniforms
Borden – condensed milk
Tiffany & Company – flags, swords, medals, etc.
Scientific America – magazine that was an advocate for various inventors and mechanics
du Pont – gun powder
P & G (Proctor and Gamble) – Soap, candles, etc.
Squibb – medical supplies and equipment
American Express – express mail and shipping

Schmidt has written a scholarly account of the history of these companies and their dealings with the military and the other entities during this era.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the American Civil War.

[Margret Melissa (ladybug) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received this book free of charge in the Goodreads' first read program, in exchange I will write an honest review.

Lincoln's Labels is about the companies that helped Lincoln and the North win the war. Everyone talks and writes about the great battles: Antietam and Gettysberg being some of the more common known battles. Who has ever written about the nitty gritty? What it took to be able to fight battles? If your soldiers are hungry (Borden?) or they need to ship pay or the dead home (American Express, etc...?) Well, Lincoln's Labels has some trivia to wet your curiosity and will teach you something about everyday names and their contribution to the war efforts.

Each chapter covers a different company and is an easy to read book about the history of the Civil war. It educated me on what it really took for the North to win the war and was certanly not a dry read. It wet my appetite with just enough information to cause me to research answers to my questions. I was able to learn interesting facts concerning companies such as Brook Brothers and American Express. It made me want to find out what happened with Borden's "Meat Biscuits". It lead me to appreciate Tiffany's art just a little bit more than I had before. I recommend it for the Civil War buffs, for children studying about the Civil War or just for the every day person wanting to read a good book.

5 out of 5 stars

[James Durney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books on logistics tend to be about as much fun to read as watching the grass grow. The norm is a very very thick scholarly book with footnotes on every other sentence. Small print, multiple graphs and a large number of pages are required. This type of book cures insomnia. Outside of a small audience, readers are taking an advanced college course or desperate to improve their grade. The problem is the response of companies to the demands of a major war is important. This is a complex and compelling story of companies balancing government contracts with their normal customers. Worries over building excessive production capacity or unwanted inventory vie with real immediate requirements. All this occurs while losing skilled workers to enlistments or the draft. Until reading “Lincoln’s Labels”, I did not think it possible for a book about war production to be informative and fun.
Each chapter covers a company that supplies the Union armies during the Civil War and is still in business. This forms an instant connection with the war and the reader. Borden, Brooks Brothers, Tiffany, Scientific America, Procter & Gamble are standard brand names we all know. The author links each of these companies to the American Civil War, how they responded and profited. In place of a lengthy dry tome, we have a lively history of the company during the war.
Each company has a chapter. This allows the author to concentrate our attention in one industry with almost no distractions. Sufficient background information is provided for the reader to grasp the industry specific issues caused by the war. The balance of the chapter is an easy to read, informative history. The core of each story is people. These people are producers or users of the product and we see business in very human terms. A father shipping his son’s body home from Gettysburg introduces the express business. The Du Pont family’s struggles to produce gunpowder, deal with sabotage, inexperienced workers, increased demand while wishing to serve on “active duty” anchors a very strong chapter. The war between Scientific America and the War Department, is very well done while showing how important reading material was.
At the end of the book, I am sitting on a Proctor & Gamble soapbox, the soap used to wash myself and my Brooks Brother uniform, reading Scientific America, with Borden’s condensed milk in my coffee, Tiffany sword by my side, American Express is sending my pay home and handled today’s package from home, treated with drugs from Squibb and have good Du Pont gunpowder in my cartages. After reading this book, I understand how these things came about and what that meant to the men in Blue.

[Boots LookingLand · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an interesting book, but not what I expected (nor hoped for). Whereas other Civil War books have too many lists of minutiae with not enough context, background, or notes, here's a book that I actually wish had included more lists and minutiae. The focus here is on a few American brands that have been around forever (Du Pont, Tiffany, Brooks Brothers, Squibb, Borden, Scientific American, American Express). A single chapter is dedicated to each "brand" and a brief history of the product is provided with some context on its impact during the war and subsequent evolution over the next 150 years. While they are all interesting, it felt like a mixed bag to me and I longed to know more about other brands in vogue that didn't weather the century. But that was not Schmidt's intent, so I can't fault the book for my expectations. Nonetheless, I feel I can quibble with the fact that this feels more like an introduction to a subject on which a great deal more could be written. Great footnotes, a nice collection of essays overall, but I could have used a little more meat with my potatoes.

[James Crabtree · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was very pleased with this book. While it primarily focuses on Northern companies which are well known today it looks and the way the Civil War made their brands household names it also looks at the scientific and industrial might of the Union, taking individuals who were effected by the war and the way that Squibb's medicines or American Express became a part of their stories. Brooks Brothers, Du Pont, Tiffany, Borden Milk, Scientific American... none of these brands were made by the Civil War but they all certainly benefited and became greater for being forged in its fire. Well-written and well-illustrated, Lincoln's Labels is informative and thought-provoking while being thoroughly entertaining.

[Art · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't think I can add anything to what Mr. James Durney said in his review except I totally agree. I enjoyed this book very much and learned a great deal from it. It will fit in very well with my personal accounts and battle histories on the Civil War shelf.