Entrepreneurs exploited the American Civil War, garnering wealth and success in a time of strife and hardship. War profiteering, still a common practice among corporations, allowed businessmen to benefit from tragedy. Circumstances created by the war similarly led the ambitious on a path to affluence. Among these companies exist many household names, having achieved recognition in this time period. The Civil War served as a key factor in the progression and eventual worldwide popularity of many modern businesses.
During the Civil War, and even in conflicts today, businesses use war profiteering to energize and develop their brands’ recognition. Taking advantage of wartime to sell products to opposing factions allowed companies and corporations …show more content…
Although born in Maryland (in 1815), his ambitions took him to Louisiana with the hopes of becoming a banker. Only a few years after the Mexican-American War, a wandering veteran presented him with a curious gift: the tabasco pepper. McIlhenny, an amateur gardener, enjoyed the exotic pepper’s flavor, opting to begin planting and harvesting the crop. The looming Civil War, however, would truly set the banker on a course to create the condiment that would become his legacy. With the Union army knocking on his door, his family fled to the home of his wealthy in-laws, the Averys, at their plantation on Avery Island. When this, too, proved no stronghold for Union troops intent on claiming the island’s precious salt mines, he made a final journey to Texas, where he served the Confederacy as first a clerk and then a financial agent. Ironically, it would be the South’s loss and subsequent economic downfall that would ensure McIlhenny’s success. Financially ruined, a budding entrepreneur, and an opportunist, he turned to all that remained after the Union raid on Avery Island -- his delicious peppers -- and started a new business: McIlhenny Company. In 1868, three years after the war’s end, he devised his famous Tabasco Sauce. Its ingredients, though few, came to be highly regarded: vinegar, salt from Avery …show more content…
The winding Chattahoochee, a name meaning “rocks-painted” in Muskogean, aptly played host to the bloody Battle of Columbus, fought in 1865 -- less than a month before the conclusion of the Civil War. At the forefront of this skirmish rode Colonel John Stith Pemberton, defending a bridge vital to the security of Columbus. In the clash of cavalry, the thirty-four-year-old Georgian found himself “shot and slashed” (Carter 3) by rifle and saber, bearing wounds that would remain with him until his death. Miraculously, Pemberton survived the encounter, only to acquire a debilitating dependency after his recovery. Morphine, first used to soothe Pemberton’s pain, soon evolved into a substance of insatiable desire. Interested in shaking his addiction, the Civil War veteran began searching for an alternative. Eager to aid others afflicted with his condition, he conducted a series of experiments in Columbus, Georgia, that would lead to the birth of the original Coca Cola. Using a recent discovery that coca might be used to combat opium addiction, Pemberton believed he had concocted a miracle medicine. Its principle ingredients would become synonymous with the beverage’s name -- coca leaves and kola nut. Calling his invention “French Wine Coca,” Pemberton heralded it as a cure-all. Indeed, an advertisement posted in 1885