The Unfinished Fight

General Grant’s Favorite Cigars

By Craig L. Barry · Originally published October 2018 · pp. 8–9

Recently, while sitting around the campfire at Stones River Battlefield Park between programs, somebody raised an interesting question about what brand of cigars Grant smoked or which were his favorites. No recent scholarship (even the popular new biography by Ron Chernow) on Ulysses S Grant, nor his personal memoirs nor any other biographies I have read address this detail specifically. Perhaps it can never be answered beyond any reasonable doubt; however, we can probably narrow it down somewhat based on what Grant himself had to say about his cigar smoking. Few Civil War generals have ever been more closely associated with the cigar than Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was often photographed with a cigar in hand, whether lit or not, as he also chewed them. According to Chernow, toward the end of the war, when Grant suffered a severe bout of depression, he noted Grant was so unhappy he was “eating neither breakfast nor dinner” and had “not smoked a cigar.” Chernow notes (as do most biographers) that Grant was said to smoke up to 20 cigars a day. I am not sure that is possible but by any reasonable standard Grant was a heavy smoker who enjoyed a very large number of cigars. His habit increased greatly after the Battle at Fort Donelson, Tenn., in February 1862. Grant stated by way of conversation with General Horace Porter, “I had been a light smoker previous to the attack on Donelson … In the accounts published in the newspapers, I was represented as smoking a cigar in the midst of the conflict; and many persons, thinking, no doubt, that tobacco was my chief solace, sent me boxes of the choicest brands. As many as ten thousand were soon received. I gave away all I could get rid of, but having such a quantity on hand I naturally smoked more than I would have done under ordinary circumstances and I have continued the habit ever since.” Grant notes that he was gifted with a great quantity of cigars, whether it was actually 10,000 boxes—an awfully round figure—or some other number, we can conclude there were more than he could smoke by himself. Further, he states that included were boxes “of the choicest brands.” So perhaps one way to arrive at an answer is to consider what brands might have been considered “the choicest,” or put another way, most favored by cigar smokers during the mid19th century. There was a successful cigar making industry in America during the 19th century. According to Cigar Aficionado magazine (March/April 1997), “Mennonite and Amish settlers in Lancaster County quickly took to tobacco farming, encouraged by the county’s heavy soil and high humidity during the growing season. In 1839, the first year that a census was available on tobacco in Pennsylvania, records show that Lancaster County produced 48,860 pounds, establishing a legacy that stands today as the state’s leading tobacco producing county.” Lancaster maintained a rich history both in tobacco growing as well as cigar making until into the 20th century. The term “stogie” (anecdotally) originated in the area, as some of the legendary Conestoga wagons was manufactured locally. These horse or ox drawn covered wagons carried many thousands to the western frontier in the mid-19th century. The wagon masters would often smoke long cigars made from coarser leaves that gave off a strong aroma. These free-hand rolled cigars became known as “stogies.” Marsh-Wheeling, beginning in 1840 was a major cigar maker for that particular type of cigar. Cigar tobacco growing was also common to other regions like Connecticut and parts of Ohio, but Havana, Cuba, was regarded as the source of the best cigars available in America during the Civil War-era. For the sake of comparison, “Clear Havanas” made of tobacco imported from Cuba sold for twenty cents per cigar; domestically produced “stogies” were generally inexpensive cigars and sold for a price that ranged from two-for-a penny to a few cents each. Hence, while it is likely Grant received some boxes of “stogies,” it stretches credibility to believe that he considered these among the “choicest of brands.” By all accounts Grant was not one for overstatement or hyperbole. The inexpensive “stogies” were probably those included in the boxes Grant says he got rid of. Cuban cigars were another story. The Spanish established tobacco plantations in their Cuban colony shortly after Christopher Columbus observed natives “with a firebrand of weeds in their hands taking in the fragrant smoke.”

Closeup of General Grant smoking a cigar.

Cuba remained a Spanish colony until 1898. The premium cigar export industry really began to take off in 1818 and, along with it the overall population of Havana, when the King of Spain declared free trade for goods exported from Cuba. Soon cigars and cigar tobacco started making their way to America. Many American army officers who fought in the Mexican War (1846–48) returned from that conflict with a taste preference for Cuban cigars. George McClelland notes in his Mexican War diary (in a letter home to his mother) that “when we have cigars, we smoke them.” One of the earlier top quality Cuban cigar makers was Por Larranaga, started in 1834 by a Spanish immigrant named Ignacio Larranaga who arrived in Havana in 1825. By the time of the U.S. Civil War, they were a well-established company and, while they sold cigars in a wide range of prices, their better cigars would have been considered among “the choicest of brands.” These would likely have been included among the boxes of cigars Grant received. A few years later, in 1840, a German businessman named Stockmann created a cigar brand called Punch, which he named after a character in the popular European puppet show (Mr. Punch) and registered the brand one year before the satirical magazine with the same name was published in London. Intended for the British market, Punch cigars were wildly popular in England and were also exported to America during the mid-19th century. Punch is another potential cigar brand for General Grant’s humidor. In 1840, a businessman named Hermann Dietrich Upmann worked for an import/export firm called Gravenhorst of Bremen, Germany, that imported Cuban cigars to Europe. In 1844, he launched his own brand (H. Upmann) and also founded a bank that catered to tobacco farms and factories. Anecdotally, more than a hundred years later, President John F. Kennedy proved so fond of H. Upmann brand cigars that he procured a large supply just before the Cuban embargo went into effect in October 1960. It is very likely Grant received boxes of H. Upmann cigars to enjoy. Perhaps the best-known Cuban cigar of the time was the “Partagas.” The brand was founded in 1845 by Spanish immigrant Don Jaime Partagas y Ravelo. He built the Partagas factory in Havana and his goal was to create the finest cigar in the world. By most accounts he succeeded. Partagas spent years buying up the inventory from the best tobacco plantations on the island, including those in the prime region of Vuelta Abajo. The brand was very successful right from the start and Partagas became an innovator in the aging and fermentation of Cuban cigar tobacco. Almost certainly, Grant would have received more than a few boxes of Partagas cigars to enjoy. Although these four Cuban brands are still in production today, the firms have all changed hands several times and were of course, nationalized by the Cuban government in the 1960s. In addition, tobacco plants now include hybrid varieties that are distinct from what was grown over 150 years ago. Hence, aside from the brand name on the band these would not be the identical cigars Grant enjoyed on the battlefield. What about brands no longer available today? As a final thought, there were thousands of small factories whose names are now forgotten that hand rolled high quality cigars. “The cigar profession commanded a fair amount of prestige before the turn of the century. Cigars were arguably the most popular tobacco product in America,” noted Stanford Newman of JC Newman Cigars. “Almost every city in the East and Midwest had at least one small cigar factory. These factories were not necessarily large operations, and many were simply a person in a room rolling cigars.” The odds are quite good that some, if not the majority, of cigars that General Ulysses Grant received to enjoy were “the choicest offerings” from small cigar factories whose names are now relegated to the dustbin of history. Craig L Barry was born in Charlottesville, Va. He holds his BA and Masters degrees from the University of North Carolina (Charlotte). Craig served The Watchdog Civil War Quarterly as Associate Editor and Editor from 2003-2017. The Watchdog published books and columns on 19th-century material and donated all funds from publications to battlefield preservation. He is the author of several books including The Civil War Musket: A Handbook for Historical Accuracy (2006, 2011), The Unfinished Fight: Essays on Confederate Material Culture Vol. I and II (2012, 2013) and three books (soon to be four) in the Suppliers to the Confederacy series on English Arms & Accoutrements, Quartermaster stores and other European imports.