Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here these days egg nog
Speaker 1: is a drink for all holiday revelers, with recipes and
Speaker 1: store bought varieties to fit every need. Dairy or non sugary,
Speaker 1: and flavored like peppermint, moco or a little more plain,
Speaker 1: alcoholic or not. Before the invention of refrigeration technology around
Speaker 1: the turn of the twentieth century, including alcohol would have
Speaker 1: helped make it safer to drink the raw eggs and
Speaker 1: milk involved in making eggnog. But of course that's not
Speaker 1: the only reason that people drink alcohol, and hey, drink responsibly.
Speaker 1: Not only is that good advice, it's also the moral
Speaker 1: of this episode, because on Christmas Eve of eighteen six,
Speaker 1: at least seventy West Point cadets, including future Confederate President
Speaker 1: Jefferson Davis and his future General Robert E. Lee, got
Speaker 1: ripped roaring drunk on prohibit the alcoholic eggnog, assaulted to officers,
Speaker 1: and nearly destroyed the North Barracks. They broke windows, through furniture,
Speaker 1: shattered plates, and tore banisters from stairways. Their noisy antics
Speaker 1: drew the attention of the officers assigned to guard against
Speaker 1: just such shenanigans. A subsequent surprise inspection of student quarters
Speaker 1: revealed a veritable Where's waldo of drunk cadets, poorly hidden
Speaker 1: under blankets and behind hats, and in the hours that followed,
Speaker 1: the booze made them brave and reckless, so much so
Speaker 1: that they grabbed weapons and threatened to fight back against
Speaker 1: any superior who tried to identify them, let alone rain
Speaker 1: them in. Alcohol was strictly forbidden at West Point in
Speaker 1: the early eighteen twenties. Knee Military Academy, stationed on the
Speaker 1: west bank of the Hudson River, was after all, run
Speaker 1: by Colonel Sylvanus There, a stern superintendent bent on instilling discipline.
Speaker 1: If a student were caught possessing alcohol or under the
Speaker 1: influence of alcohol, expulsion and arrest weren't far behind. Plus
Speaker 1: west Point, just fifty miles that's eight kilometers north of
Speaker 1: New York City, had its reputation to consider. When West
Speaker 1: Point accepted its first class in eighteen o two, a
Speaker 1: mere ten students assembled in a handful of haphazard buildings.
Speaker 1: New students interested in joining the ranks were admitted at
Speaker 1: any time throughout the year, with a few questions. Then
Speaker 1: came the War of eighteen twelve, and Congress, hungry for
Speaker 1: military success, installed there to get the academy into shape.
Speaker 1: By eighteen twenty six, there had done just as he
Speaker 1: was commanded, and that was the year he outlawed alcohol
Speaker 1: at West Point up to and including on Christmas Eve.
Speaker 1: So these students conspired and that night they broke out
Speaker 1: their secret stash of liquor, about four gallons of the
Speaker 1: cheapest whiskey they could find. They lugged it across the
Speaker 1: Hudson River and bribed a guard thirty five cents to
Speaker 1: let them bring it on to campus, where they hit
Speaker 1: it among their personal effects. Imagine whiskey in boots, coat pocket,
Speaker 1: under mattresses and blankets until the moment it was hastily
Speaker 1: mixed with eggs, milk, and a few spices to become eggnog.
Speaker 1: For the article, this episode is based on how stuff
Speaker 1: Work spoke with Cyrus Ropers of Arousing Appetites, a food
Speaker 1: blog focused on recreating traditional recipes from cuisines all over
Speaker 1: the world. He said, there are a lot of different
Speaker 1: theories as to how eggnog came about, but there's a
Speaker 1: solid consensus that medieval Europe played a large role in
Speaker 1: its creation. Many believed the eggnog is an offshoot of
Speaker 1: an old drink called posset, which is hot milk curdled
Speaker 1: with wider brandy and some added spices. Originally, says Roper's,
Speaker 1: posset was the preferred drink of Europe's one per centers
Speaker 1: thanks to the cost of alcohol, spices, and dairy alike.
Speaker 1: But it didn't take long before this beverage of wealthy
Speaker 1: nobility became available to and popular with the average person
Speaker 1: and hoped continents. As non noble colonists in North America
Speaker 1: began owning land and livestock, they started using readily available
Speaker 1: ingredients like milk, eggs, and liquor to whip up their
Speaker 1: own version. Ropers said brandy and wine remained a European luxury, however,
Speaker 1: so Americans replaced it with the much more available, cheaper
Speaker 1: rum thanks to their Caribbean neighbors. The trade and work
Speaker 1: of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean had led to the
Speaker 1: production of a lot of sugar, of which molasses is
Speaker 1: a byproduct, from which, in turn, rum can be distilled.
Speaker 1: Around the same time, the whiskey industry was starting up
Speaker 1: in America, and as West Point Cadets among others, discovered
Speaker 1: that was an acceptable substitute too. So back to Christmas
Speaker 1: Eve of eight as the Eggnog Riot, sometimes called the
Speaker 1: grog mutiny, stretched into Christmas morning, the revel re escalated.
Speaker 1: Students who weren't busy dismantling the barracks or fist fighting
Speaker 1: among themselves, armed themselves with guns and swords in preparation
Speaker 1: for a battle with West Points artillery men who they
Speaker 1: mistake only expected to be summoned to subdue them. But
Speaker 1: then the Eggnogs effects began to wear off. Morning roll
Speaker 1: call revealed a core staggering to line up with about
Speaker 1: a third of the two sixty cadets somewhere along the
Speaker 1: eggnog continuum of well oiled to full on hungover. If
Speaker 1: they are elected to censure only the most destructive revelers,
Speaker 1: and neither Jefferson Davis nor Robert E. Lee were among them.
Speaker 1: In the end, nineteen cadets were expelled. When the new
Speaker 1: barracks were built in the eighteen forties. They included crowd
Speaker 1: control measures that prevented cadets from gathering in such large
Speaker 1: numbers and there's no word on whether any of them
Speaker 1: ever drank eggnog again. Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article Ridiculous History When West Point Cadets Rioted over Eggnog
Speaker 1: in eighty six on how Stuffworks dot Com, written by
Speaker 1: Laurel Dove. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio in
Speaker 1: partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it's produced
Speaker 1: by Tyler client In four more podcasts from my heart Radio,
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