“Deep Spring Tennessee Whiskey, 1903-1915”

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13 comments… add one
  • Chris Milsap Feb 7, 2022 @ 1:18

    There are accounts from a dispatch of Sherman’s men travelling, apart from the main column, down a river in SC, on their way to liberate a few plantations. They had to abandon their quest when receiving fire from the river bank by black individuals, while on their rafts. They were left very confused.

    No such thing as black soldiers, but there are several accounts of blacks shooting at Union soldiers.

    • Kevin Levin Feb 7, 2022 @ 2:30

      Hi Chris,

      I assume you’ve followed up these reports and can identify the regiment in which they served. Can you provide a single Confederate account that Black men were serving as soldiers in the Confederate army during this campaign?

      There are many reports from Union soldiers about being fired on by Black men. No doubt this took place on occasion, but it’s a huge and unwarranted jump to assume that these men were soldiers.

  • Kevin Levin Jun 5, 2008 @ 6:04

    Good point Toby, but also one that has been debated in recent years by historians. I would check Brooks Simpson’s biography of Grant for more on this.

  • toby Jun 5, 2008 @ 4:48

    Given his reputation, wouldn’t Ulysses Grant be a better advert for a whiskey brand, North or South?

    I can’t resist recollecting James Thurber’s vignette “If Grant had been drinking at Appomattox” where a badly hungover Grant hands a disapproving Lee his sword with the words “General, if I hadn’t been drinking, we’d have beaten you”.

  • Kevin Levin Jun 4, 2008 @ 18:20

    I guess there is enough hypocrisy and ignorance to go around.

  • Lisa Jun 4, 2008 @ 18:13

    This is something I’ve never quite understood. Supposedly, consuming too much alcohol was not becoming of a Confederate veteran since it didn’t portray a picture of the honorable Confederate. (I think this is probably true but blown a little out of proportion, not as big of a deal as we think.) Yet, I’m constantly seeing things like this.

    In fact, next to the battle flag t-shirts depicting half-naked women and guns, the item I hate the most are the Confederate leader decanters. A friend was once accused of being “disrespectful” for switching the heads on Jackson, Lee, & Davis decanters. I’m sorry, but I consider it even more disrespectful to make a whiskey decanter in the likeness of someone who made it a point not to drink. Knowing what I know about Davis & Lee I don’t think they’d be too happy about it either, not so much because of the alcohol but just because of the general idea of it. I just don’t get it. One minute you’re hearing about how much of a Christian Jackson & Lee were and the next minute their images are promoting whiskey.

    Maybe I need to check out a copy of that book.

  • Kevin Levin Jun 4, 2008 @ 13:16

    Hey Craig, — And that is just where I discovered it while working in Alderman Library.

  • Craig A. Warren Jun 4, 2008 @ 12:57

    This image appears on the cover of Will Kaufman’s 2006 book, *The Civil War in American Culture*. Inside, Kaufman writes that “Deep Spring” was marketed between 1903 and 1915 by the J. W. Kelly Company of Chattanooga.

  • Kevin Levin Jun 4, 2008 @ 5:47

    This must be where your interest in the Lost Cause stems from.

  • CGDH Jun 3, 2008 @ 23:00

    I knew this image looked familiar. My parents have this exact “Deep Spring Whiskey” sign (vintage, tin, great condition) displayed in their kitchen. Ironically, of course. I believe they also have coffee mugs in the shape of Lee’s head.

    • Anderson Thomas Feb 10, 2018 @ 13:08

      My son’s great aunt has a metal tin 11×16 exactly like it

  • Kevin Levin Jun 3, 2008 @ 18:13

    Your toy soldier looks like he’s consumed too much Deep Spring Whiskey.

  • Mannie Gentile Jun 3, 2008 @ 16:22

    Kevin,

    I invoke your name at the very end of my post yesterday:

    http://volunteersinparks.blogspot.com/

    Cheers!

    Mannie

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