Discovered Civil War Veteran Was Pipe Smoker

[olewaylon]

Watching the news with Diane sawyer and they go to a story about the remains of two civil war veterans discovered in a ship wreck. Sawyer said one has a broken nose from a possible street fight and the other was a Pipe smoker. "you can tell by the mark under his front right tooth"
What the heck were they making pipe stems out of back then!? I sure hope my teeth are harder than my stem. Then again if I were in some of the same situations that soldier was in i might be clamped up a heck of a lot harder.

 

[drwatson]

I think they used alot of clay pipes, which might account for the tooth mark. I prefe to think he stopped a miniball with them though!

 

[rotschefeller]

Pipe smoking was one of the only ways to smoke in that time. The first cigarette must have been around the same time, made by a French soldier whose pipe had broken so in desperation he rolled the tobacco in a piece of paper. I don't know about cigars but smoking cigs was first widespread about 75 years later

 

[reichenbach]

I imagine that nutrition and dental hygiene were both well below our current standards. Or maybe it was an iron corn cob war club. And maybe that needs to go into production.

 

[radio807]

In addition to pipes made entirely of clay they smoked pipes with clay bowls and reed stems, like the Pamplin style pipes. These would have been more resistant to breakage in the field than a one-piece clay with its integral stem, and might have been more likely to have been carried by a soldier. As for the mark on the tooth, it could have been due to clenching pipes of the day, but that's not an easy thing to do because clays and reeds are both round and not easily held without a near death grip. Anyway, who clenches with the front teeth? It could be also due to the fact that nutrition and dental hygiene wasn't what is is today, and that could account for damage to mid 19th century teeth from things that wouldn't damage our teeth today. Not knowing any better myself, I will defer to Diane Sawyer's expertise in forensic anthropology and declare that the evidence is enough to determine that the guy was a pipe smoker.

 

[kashmir]

Man, can you imagine dying in that tank like sub, as it quickly fills with cold water. Then sitting down there in the dark for 150 yrs. Then being brought up and a face reconstruction made, so people can see you. What a journey these two blokes made!

 

[olewaylon]

no kidding Kashmir. I wonder how accurate those face reproductions were. they were a sight.

 

[kashmir]

That's a pretty big cob you got there. Looks like a group 9 on the McArthur scale. LOL.

 

[tbradsim1]

I don"t believe Diane Sawyer or the so called experts know diddle squat, the soldiers had to bite of part of ball to get at powder to load their weapon, cartridge and powder was all in one hench the bite. The old cajun

 

[uberam3rica]

I don't know about cigars

According to something I read somewhere, cigars were around in the Americas when Europeans first discovered this land. Snuff was around too, it was used by either the Aztecs or Mayans. I can't remember which. And the Native Americans smoke pipes. Well peace pipes, and they didn't smoke them like we did.

 

[uberam3rica]

Heres an exert from the article I was talking about:
It is docutmented that the Mayas were the first to use snuff and smoke Nicotiana Rustica as far back as 200 BC, which they may have called Petun. The using of tobacco would have slowly spread throughout the Americas by trading with neighboring tribes. The Mexican Aztecs, who created the mighty Aztec Empire, may well have been introduced to tobacco by the Mayas and three types of tobacco users emerged. The first group was in the Court of Montezuma, who mingled the leaves of Nicotiana Rustica with the resin of other leaves. This mixture was smoked in pipes with great ceremony after their evening meal. The second group was one of lesser Indians, who rolled the leaves together to form a crude cigar and the third group were the snuff users. The archaeologist, Peter T. Furst uncovered in Colima, Mexico some unique snuffing implements dating form 1600-1800 BC that he theorized were used for snuffing N. Rustica.
Here is the whole article for those interested. It is about snuff. http://www.toquesnuff.com/index.php?app=gbu0&ns=display&ref=snuff-history

 

[uberam3rica]

Heres an exert from the article I was talking about:
It is docutmented that the Mayas were the first to use snuff and smoke Nicotiana Rustica as far back as 200 BC, which they may have called Petun. The using of tobacco would have slowly spread throughout the Americas by trading with neighboring tribes. The Mexican Aztecs, who created the mighty Aztec Empire, may well have been introduced to tobacco by the Mayas and three types of tobacco users emerged. The first group was in the Court of Montezuma, who mingled the leaves of Nicotiana Rustica with the resin of other leaves. This mixture was smoked in pipes with great ceremony after their evening meal. The second group was one of lesser Indians, who rolled the leaves together to form a crude cigar and the third group were the snuff users. The archaeologist, Peter T. Furst uncovered in Colima, Mexico some unique snuffing implements dating form 1600-1800 BC that he theorized were used for snuffing N. Rustica.
Here is the whole article for those interested. It is about snuff. http://www.toquesnuff.com/index.php?app=gbu0&ns=display&ref=snuff-history

 

[radio807]

I don"t believe Diane Sawyer or the so called experts know diddle squat

That was exactly the point of my sarcastic remark about the eminent Ms. Sawyer. Your comment about biting the ball is what makes sense. I wish like hell that the media would stick to entertainment and get out of "education."

 

[cynyr]

He may well have been a pipe smoker - most sailors were in that time - but they may have been more to the evidence than "the mark under his front right tooth". I would bet that the forensic team took a lot more into consideration to reach the conclusion.
Further, it's a documented fact* that most pipes at the time were a mere 12 inches in length and drop-forged from ordnance steel. I don't know where Mr darjones did his so-called research, but that multi-barreled monstrosity he uncovered was built by Teddy Roosevelt and John L. Sullivan no earlier than 1890, clearly too late to have affected the dentistry of the time period under discussion.
*Documented facts may have no basis in reality.

 

[tennsmoker]

Uh, to be utterly self-serving here. Take a look at Pipe Smokers of the Past here and check out the story on Jeff Davis's meer. I believe that might go a long way toward answering Ms. Sawyer's queery.
They pretty much used the same stems as we do today, with the exception, of course, of modern materials like lucite and all the other 'cites.
Just wanted to put in a plug for the series and to shamelessly shed some light on the issue.

 

[romeowood]

@Uber -- Just found this interesting read. Makes no mention of muskets and submarines...yet.

 

[kcghost]

You can't blame Sawyer. She was just reading what was put in front of her.

 

[radio807]

You can't blame Sawyer. She was just reading what was put in front of her.

I vass not rezponsible. I vass only following orders!!!

 

[kashmir]

They may have run a mass spec on grounded up tooth material dissolved in solvent to ascertain whether the black stain was due to steel or the leaf. Any self respecting CSI agent knows that. LOL.

 

[seanlamb63]

Pipe smoking was quite popular during the Civil War. The most common pipe had a clay bowel with a reed stem or some other types of wood ( have seen some originals with cherry). Cigarettes were technically first discovered by a French Zouave during the Crimean war in 1856, most of you know that story, but during the Civil War they were very, very rare, and mostly smoked by women believe it or not. Pipes and Cigars were the most common form of tobacco along with chew. In fact in the Federal Army, there were instances when soldiers were allotted a ration of plug tobacco...of course this was not the norm and happened in very rare instances. Also during this time Briar began to show its head in the states and was indeed used, but again, this was very rare due to the ability to procure such pipes (the majority of which were French) and the stems of these would have been vulcanite rubber, of which became quite popular for many uses, from these stems to hair combs. Goodyear was the first to paten this wonderful invention and the Federal Army bought up the contract to use his rubber for Gum Blankets (ground clothes) to keep the boys dry on Campaign. Anyhow just a little history for you all.