A few questions

[cornbred]

wanting to know if it was period correct to use black coal in campfires in camp.also is it safe to cook with. wanting to make sure thanks. cornbred 13th SCVI

[RJSamp]

wanting to know if it was period correct to use black coal in campfires in camp.also is it safe to cook with. wanting to make sure thanks. cornbred 13th SCVI

If you're near a RR 'station'/fueling depot, river port, civilization with coal fired whatever, blacksmith (over by the artillery batteries), etc. yea you could probably 'steal' some....

Cooking, sure.....burns a little hotter than expected, don't heat up tin directly over it (unless it's full of liquids)....and ,to me, it imparts a 'taste' on grilled foods. Properly ventilated coal is a great heat source....am sure some of your original regiment's men have had experience with coal....

we used to add some coal in the fireplace for thwarting Wisconsin winters.....it makes the 'iron' fire wood 'rack' sag however....

[Shortround]

Ah, there is nothing like a nice hot cup of coffee brew over coal in the morning. Sulfur with caffeine, isn't that one of the four food groups?

I would use coal to heat a tent, like a Sibley, if you can stand the stench. I just can't stand the thought of perfectly good bacon or coffee cooked over stinking coal.

So, it's correct. But why when there is perfectly good wood?

[agrnbrt]

Ah, there is nothing like a nice hot cup of coffee brew over coal in the morning. Sulfur with caffeine, isn't that one of the four food groups? I would use coal to heat a tent...

Ok read your own words here.. Hmmm maybe you'll see what I did...coal for heat in tent???? maybe not a good idea. Not unless you have REALLY good ventilation. I can just imagin a tent full of sulfer fumes and co2 and some warm re enactors talking that looooong sleep....might want to think that over again.

[tompritchett]

I can just imagin a tent full of sulfer fumes and co2 and some warm re enactors talking that looooong sleep

The CO2 and SO2 fumes are one thing, I would be more worried about possible carbon monoxide fumes if the coal does not get enough oxygen. CO will kill you at much lower concentrations than the other two.

[Julio C. Zangroniz]

Warning!
Within the last five years, I have been present at two French and Indian War or American Revolutionary War reenactmens where THREE people DIED due to carbon monoxide poisoning, because they moved their charcoal burners inside their tents when the ambient temperature was at or below freezing.
It will be far better to bring an extra blanket to the event, or to spoon with a pardner, or simply to sit by the fire outside and keep it going through the night.
So, folks, please refrain from the practice of using charcoal in a confined space, for you will be really tempting fate.
I was born and raised in the Caribbean, where a "cold" night was maybe 60-65 degrees, so believe me when I tell you that I am as sensitive to the cold as anyone around.
So please, please, please find a different way to remain warm.
For I, for one, sure don't want to have to write about another reenactor's accidental death due to ignorance.
Julio

[jda3rd]

Coal in a stove would be ok, as long at the pipe draws well, in which case it's alright for cooking, too. Most tents are drafty enough to allow plenty of air exchange for a good Sibley stove. My main concern would be if the stove were made of heavy enough iron to not burn through.
As for sitting up keeping a fire going, that's a good thing, and even with plenty of perfectly good wood handy, coal burns better when it's wet. It's been only a couple of years since I bought coal, but a 50lb sack of lump size or nut size was less than a dozen bucks. That's enough for couple of weekends.

Your neighbors might not like it, but I love the smell of a coal fire.

I'd give it a try one weekend, if I were you, just to satisfy your own curiosity.

Frank Brower

[Jim Mayo]

If you search through the LOC photos for the dead Confederate wearing the Tait jacket at Ft. Mahone, one of the 3 views shows a large pile of what appears to be coal.

[Ephraim_Zook]

Julio,

I suspect they are talking about anthracite (or maybe bituminous) coal, not charcoal. As others have said, the stuff can be hazardous. Growing up with a coal furnace, I can tell you that my parents' greatest fear was asphyxiation from CO.

Ron

[Spinster]

You'll have a couple of challenges in dealing with an open coal fire and cooking.

First--taste--the coal will impart some taste to anything cooked without a lid.

Second--cleanup--the coal will leave a 'tar' on the cooking vessel unlike that of a wood fire--much thicker, stickier, and quick to rub on whatever it comes into contact with. This is not a coating that comes off with soap, water and a strong arm.

Yes, it does make a quick, hot fire--especially with a bellows or blow tube at hand. In one of our 18th century locations, we have ongoing reciprocal trades with the blacksmiths across the way--this means that hot coffee off their fire is delivered at the tent door at 6:00 am. It is hotter, and stouter than anything else around, though it does have a certain whang. They expect hot breakfast from us by 7:30 :p

[wilber6150]

Warning!
Within the last five years, I have been present at two French and Indian War or American Revolutionary War reenactments where THREE people DIED due to carbon monoxide poisoning, because they moved their charcoal burners inside their tents when the ambient temperature was at or below freezing.
Julio


What events were these, this is the first Ive heard of any deaths from these reenactments. Any details would be appreciated as its a good time to reinforce safety tips before any winter events start up here in the north

[Artyman]

There are accounts of REV WAR units moving through the backwoods areas that burned coal they took directly from exposed coal seams. This was a common practice with the indians too. That being said, I would suggest that the farther you were from the mountains the less likely it would be to see it being used in campfires, weight and $ value being an issue. I would presume that anyone living near the coal fields would have burnt it in their stoves to what ever extent they could have carried it home. Firewood was somewhat scarce in settled areas where the forest was cleared back. Coal seams were often scavenged into the hillside so far as to require shoring up, long before the area became properly mined. Any ACW unit moving through those same hills would have had access to it, and knew well how to burn it. They would also have know about the black smoke!

Harry

[indguard]

Well, thus far we have lots of speculation. but, I have to say, I've never read an account of a soldier using coal in a campfire. Has anyone else?

WTH

[plankmaker]

Haven't seen a direct reference to soldiers using coal to tay warm in camp, but there are numerous examples of it being purchased for use in the various hospitals around Richmond. At that time Chesterfield County, just south of Richmond was a very large producer of coal. That coupled with the number of people and troops in the City during the war, the wood supplies rapidly diminished (this can be seen in pictures of Richmond at the time). The numbers of people in town also caused water shortages due to wells drying up. This resulted in the citizens using river water, which was usually described as "muddy" (don't want to speculate on the composition of the mud at that time). All that being said, it isn't beyond the reason that coal was used by soldiers to stay warm. They may not have mentioned it, because it was fairly common and they just didn't mention it. This is a little history on coal mining in Chesterfield County.

Mark Campbell
Piney Flats, TN

COAL MINING IN CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, VIRGINIA
Nearly 300 years ago, French Huguenots wishing to escape religious persecution made their homes on an 8 million year old coalfield that would help shape not only the history of Chesterfield County, but also that of the New World.

The first commercially mined coal in this country came from Midlothian, where the fossil fuel is believed to have been discovered near the Huguenot settlement on the James River about 1701. It was dug for local and domestic use for several years before it was first commercially mined in the 1730s. William Byrd II, who purchased 344 acres of land over the coalfield noted in a 1709 diary entry that "the coaler found the coal mine very good and sufficient to furnish several generations."

By the end of the Revolutionary War, coal mined in Chesterfield was being shipped to Philadelphia, New York and Boston. Thomas Jefferson noted the mines in operation in his "Notes on Virginia" and said the coal produced there was of excellent quality. He also ordered coal from the Black Heath Mine in Midlothian for use in the White House.

The earliest commercial mines in the area were near Manakin and Huguenot Springs, though those in the Midlothian village area--near the eastern end of Falling Creek--were in operation by the mid-1700s, followed by the mines in the Winterpock area, which opened in the early 1800s.

Commercial mining in Chesterfield did not hit its stride until the 1800s because of competition from foreign mines and because local residents still used wood for heating purposes. A 1794 tariff on foreign coal dramatically increased demand for coal mined in this country. By 1835 there were seven or eight major mines in the Midlothian area.

Interstate coal production was interrupted during the Civil War, when coal from Chesterfield was sent to Tredegar Ironworks, which manufactured munitions for the Confederacy.

The earliest mining technique involved digging shallow pits or trenches, though later inclines were dug to follow coal deposits 100 to 200 feet down. Shaft mining was dominant by the mid-1700s, and heavy timber supports or brickwork were used to reinforce the shafts.

Coal was raised out of the mines in large boxes on ropes drawn by mule-driven windlasses and later steam engines. Similar techniques were used to pump out water and keep the mines from flooding. Mules also were used to haul coal inside the mines and were housed there as well. Reports say the animals appeared healthy due to good care and the stable underground environment.

The mines were in operation 24 hours a day, with workers putting in 12-hour shifts Monday through Saturday and turning out 200 tons of coal a day. Most of the workers were slaves who had been hired out to work the mines, though free blacks also were employed. Mining engineers from England and Wales were hired to improve mine operations and safety, and miners from Britain were attracted to Virginia by the promise of jobs with good wages, favorable conditions and limited hours and the opportunity to buy land and build their own homes.

But while working the mines in Chesterfield seemed a golden opportunity to some, it was a risky business. Records of the number of miners killed or injured in accidents are incomplete, but at least 30 men and boys lost their lives in cave-ins and explosions or were asphyxiated by coal dust or poisonous gasses.

"The force of a gas explosion is terrific," read one Richmond newspaper account of an 1855 disaster in which two men were killed. "It shivers wood into smithereens, and the strong timbers in the Raccoon Pit, at the point where the explosion occurred, are now reduced to toothpicks. Besides this, thousands of tons of coal have been reduced to dust and huge boulders of granite shaken loose, filling up the chambers of the mine, . . ."

The decline of coal mining in Chesterfield began after the Civil War, when the mining companies were critically affected by economic devastation and the loss of slave labor. Newer mines in Appalachia had more advanced technology and produced cleaner-burning anthracite coal, as opposed to the softer bituminous coal of the Richmond coalfield.

Attempts were made to resume operations in many of the mines, but the post-war operations did not last long into the next century. The cost of extracting coal simply was too great to allow a reasonable gain, and numerous explosions claimed many lives.

Most of the mines were abandoned, and during the 1930s, the state allowed citizens to carry away free coal to heat their homes.

In the county's mining heyday, the demand for coal from Chesterfield brought about some significant transportation improvements intended to help move it from the mines to shipping ports on the James River and other locations.

In 1804, a toll road was built from Falling Creek to Manchester to ease traffic on what is now Old Buckingham Road. It was paved in 1808, making it Virginia's first paved road, and today it is known as Midlothian Turnpike.

The James River and Kanawha Canal and the Tuckahoe Canal also were built for transporting coal and other goods, and an incline railroad--believed to be Virginia's first railroad--began operating in 1831. It used gravity to move coal cars from Falling Creek to Manchester and mules to pull the empty cars back. When steam railroad lines were laid on the canal towpaths and across the state, rail became the prevalent shipping method.

An exhibit on local mining history in the Chesterfield Museum includes a length of iron rail from the incline railway, a chunk of coal from one of the Midlothian mines, the head of a mining pick, a small oil lamp that was attached to a miner's cap, a token from a mining company's store, the skull of an unfortunate miner killed in an explosion and another's pocket-size New Testament.

Today, many of the mines are near developed areas of Chesterfield, and some that have been discovered have been sealed or otherwise secured in the interest of public safety.

But the Chesterfield coal miner remains a visible piece of county history to this day. In 1870, the first action of the county's first Board of Supervisors was to commission a county seal depicting "a coal miner leaning on his pick under a pine tree with a flowing river at his feet."

From a brochure from the Chesterfield County Office of News and Public Information Services, by Pam Wiley

[Capt Terry]

Having grown up in Eastern Kentucky and living in houses that coal was used to heat, I have to say that's the only thing it is good for. Coal oder/smoke is heavy and thick and would leave alot of residue on anything cooked in an open container. I would not recommend it due to smell and taste and I believe its' residue could cause some health concerns if ingested.

Don't cook with coal.

[agrnbrt]

Sir you are so right. I should have added that as well.