This story is not one that Coca Cola likes being repeated. To be fair, the origin story of coca cola involves a confederate soldier, addiction, lots of drugs and much more. So I could see why they wouldn’t be keen to advertise it. But it is an interesting story set in a period chock full of historical events. So let’s dive into it.

April 16th, 1865. The last days of the American Civil War. The 2 weeks surrounding this night would prove to be historic. Robert E Lee, the Commander of the Confederates surrendered on the 9th, Abraham Lincoln is assassinated on the 14th and within a week or so the Confederate Army will collapse, the American Civil War over and with it the end of slavery in the US.

But our story concerns one man. An unremarkable man by any accounts. On this night he would be wounded by a sabre in the last battle of the American Civil War. Due to his injuries, he would develop a crippling addiction to morphine. While trying to cure it, he would create the recipe for the worlds most popular soft drink.

John Pemberton

Night would be here soon. John Pemberton, Lieutenant Colonel of the Confederate Army looked around at his men. It was already late in the afternoon and the light continued to fade. So did hope of victory.

Wilsons raiders, the famed Union Cavalry Corps surrounded the City of Columbus, Georgia. They outnumbered the Confederates 3 -1. The immediate future looked bleak.

John pulled his coat tighter as a shiver passed through him. Surveying the deserted city which had been evacuated over the last few days, thoughts turned back to before the war. Marrying his wife Ann, the birth of Charles, his one and only child. The struggles to open his drug store and establish it.

His only wish now was to survive the war and hopefully return to his old life.

The Battle of Columbus

The remaining Confederate Army had some success defending Columbus during the day. Mainly because the city lay across a river. Two main bridges led across. One had already been burned, driving back the Union soldiers.

Major General Howell Cobb, Commander of the remaining Confederates believed that night time would provide some relief from fighting. Give his men a chance to regroup. To rest. They badly needed it.

There would be no respite. Wilsons raiders pressed their advantage, attacking at 8pm.

Colonel Frederick Benteen led the charge of the 3rd and 4th Iowa Cavalry Regiments (which included John Pemberton)to drive back the Union soldiers. A clash on the bridge saw John Pemberton slashed with a sabre. Badly wounded and clinging to life, John was removed from the battlefield for treatment.

The Confederate Army would lose the Battle of Columbus. Just days later the American Civil War would end.

A Series of “Fortunate” Circumstances

While researching this story it occurred to me that if not for a run of events, Coca Cola would not exist today. I call these events fortunate in the headline. In all honesty, it might have been fortunate for the wider public but not for John Pemberton.

Johns injury leaves him with constant agonising pain and so he’s prescribed morphine to manage it. Morphine is excellent at pain relief. It’s even better at giving you a crippling addiction. By 1866, John is hopelessly addicted and sets about trying to create a medicinal drink to help wean him off morphine.

His first attempt is the delightfully named “Dr. Tuggle’s Compound Syrup of Globe Flower”. Based on a toxic plant, it’s a failure. So he pivots to Pemberton’s French Wine Coca, a wine infused with cocaine. Around this time a temperance movement outlawed alcohol in Atlanta. Which turns out to be another stroke of luck in the Coca Cola story. This forces him to produce a non alcoholic version. While experimenting, John accidentally mixes his concoction with carbonated water and produces the earliest version of Coca Cola. His business partner Frank Mason Robinson, a marketer and advertiser, goes to work promoting it. With the removal of wine from the recipe, it is decided to promote the drink as a restorative soft drink.

Before we carry on, I’d just like to say a few words about Frank M Robinson and his role in the origin story of Coca Cola. Frank came to the south to try and sell his new printing machine. This machine could print two colors at the same time, cutting edge technology in the mid 1800’s. Tech that would lead to the now famous red and white Coca Cola label. Frank also suggested the font used, Spencerian Script. And he even came up with the name. Coca Cola insists he thought two C’s would look good in advertising. It’s much more likely that the alliterative nature of the name, coupled with the description of what was in the original recipe led him to the name. Frank served as a director of Coca Cola until his death in 1923.

Success! But not for John

Coca Cola hits the market in May 1866. Jacobs Pharmacy in Atlanta is the site of the very first Coca Cola sold. 95 litres is sold in the first year. Modest to say the least. The next year has a relatively huge jump to sales of 3970 litres. To put it in perspective, Coca Cola now sells over 1.9 billion servings of its drink every year.

What about John? I’d like to tell you he cured his addiction and made a fortune out of his drink. Sadly, that was not the case. Soon after Coca Cola hit the market, John got sick. Couple this with being nearly bankrupt (morphine addictions are expensive) and it was a recipe for disaster. John knew his drink would become a nationwide success but he didn’t have the time to wait for it to catch on. He was forced to start selling off stakes in the company to cover his expenses.

By 1888, with John desperately ill, he was down to his last stake in the company. He pleaded with his son to retain it. Christopher (his son) disagreed, He wanted the money. So John sold not only his last stake but the recipe too. For the princely sum of $2300. In August of that year (1888), John died of stomach cancer. He never managed to beat his morphine addiction and died penniless. He was just 57 years old. Within six years his son would also succumb to his own opioid addiction.

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Today we are only going to concern ourselves with the very first day of the war and the very last. Both days involve Wilmer McLean.

July 21st 1861 – The First Battle of Bull Run

Wilmer McLean was a retired Major and a wholesale grocer. At the time of the Battle of Bull Run he would have been 47 years old. Too old for active service. He doesn’t fight, pull off a heroic deed or anything of the sort really. His entire role in this story is one of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

His house, you see, was smack bang in the middle of the battlefield. It was being used as the Headquarters for the Confederates. Wilmer had only moved here because he feared that the Union army presence in Northern Virginia would disrupt his livelihood.

With his home sequestered and his land a battlefield, Wilmer decided to relocate again. This time he resolved to be far away from battle, moving 120 miles away in 1863.

April 9th 1865 – Surrender

Confederate General Robert E Lee is set to surrender. A messenger is dispatched to find a suitable place in a small community called Appomattox Court House.

Take a guess whose home the messenger goes to first.

A knock on the door rouses Wilmer McLean. It’s the messenger. A request is made to use his home for the surrender. Wilmer, quite reluctant, eventually agrees. His thoughts no doubt returning to the first day of war.

General Lee surrenders to Ulysses S. Grant in Wilmer’s parlor. A truly historical moment. The other members of the Army present no doubt agreed. They begin making off with furniture, chairs, whatever they could lay their hands on. Wilmer protests but they just hand him money as they leave with their stolen goods.

No less than General Custer (he of the last stand fame) is charged with taking away the table the document is signed on.

As for Wilmer McLean, he had this to say:

The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor.

Today he is forgotten by most. But to the few he will always have a unique place in history. I’m not sure if that makes him unlucky or lucky, but a quirk of fate and geography ensures his story will always be intertwined with the start and end of the American Civil War.

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