Napoleon is credited with having said, “An army travels on its belly.” Maybe he should have added, “and that belly should be full of beer.” In Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “Gunga Din,” an Indian water carrier is depicted as a lifesaving hero to parched British soldiers in the heat of battle. But as vital as his service is, water is not the beverage these fighting men desire: “You may talk o’ gin and beer/ When you’re safely quartered ‘ere,” the poet writes. Throughout the history of warfare, especially in northern Europe and North America, beer has been the soldier’s “water of life.”
Throughout the history of warfare, beer has been the soldier's "water of life."
Brewing and Battles in Ancient Times
While beer has a long history as a beverage in Sumeria, Mesopotamia and Egypt, by the time of the Roman Empire, the drink of choice around the Mediterranean was wine. The Romans planted vineyards wherever they settled (even in Britain), and Roman legionnaires drank wine daily, as did most other citizens. When Roman soldiers encountered the tribal peoples of Gaul and the British Isles, however, they found themselves battling serious beer drinkers.
(Photo courtesy of The Whitbread Collection)
To the ancient Celts, beer was a prelude to battle. The effects of alcohol ameliorated the natural fear of injury or death in armed conflict.
The strength of the Celtic attack lay in the ferocity of the first onslaught. It was a power generated a belief in the afterlife, a desire to gain glory, and a battle hysteria created by the building crescendo of noise and chanting, often enhanced still further by alcohol. These are, in fact, the usual methods that fighting forces throughout the ages have needed to give courage at the moment of battle. (1)
Like the Vikings, the Celts often fought naked. Was this a consequence of the shedding of inhibitions brought about by beer drinking? As a battle strategy, it seems to have had only limited success. Soldiers usually keep their clothes on these days, but beer still retains its ability to create a fighting mood, as any bartender knows.
The American Revolution
Bartenders also should know the role of beer in inspiring revolution. Taverns were the major meeting places of American colonial life and, consequently, the sites where groups such as the Sons of Liberty gathered to plot rebellion against English rule. A historic example is Samuel Adams’s famous haunt, the Green Dragon in Boston.
But beer did more than kindle the American Revolution. As part of a soldier’s regular daily ration as decreed by the Continental Congress, beer fueled the flames of freedom burning within its armies. The statute, enacted on November 4, 1775, stipulated that each soldier be provided with “I QT of Spruce Beer, or Cider/man/day.”(2)
George Washington himself, major general of the American rebel army, was a firm believer in the importance of beer as a staple for his troops. According to historian Gregg Smith, “among Washington’s least recognized but most valuable skills was locating his encampments within reach of a supply of beer.”(3) On the other hand, he often issued proclamations against the sale of whiskey to soldiers, fearing that drunkenness would disrupt troop discipline.
Colonial brewers were quick to take advantage of the new army’s thirst for beer. Smith quotes the grand scheme of one Thomas Peters, who planned to build a brewery in Baltimore expressly to supply the American troops: “I then formed the plan(of a brewery on the most extensive scale of any in America, for the purpose of brewing to serve the American and French troops,” Peters wrote.(4) The war did not last long enough for Peters’s plans to come to fruition, although other brewers, particularly in New York, found plenty of business in the interim.
