--- title: How Christmas Eggnog Almost Changed American History description: The Christmas drink set off a veritable riot—and the course of the Civil War could have been changed if it had gone differently canonical: https://time.com/4156974/eggnog-riot-history/ author: Emelyn Rude article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-24T14:00:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:41:46.077Z article:section: History og:title: How Christmas Eggnog Almost Changed American History og:description: The Christmas drink set off a veritable riot og:url: https://time.com/4156974/eggnog-riot-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06627f6008561afe/698876660a4a227d7d9c79fe/eggnog.jpeg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: A glass of eggnog og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Christmas Eggnog Almost Changed American History twitter:description: The Christmas drink set off a veritable riot twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt06627f6008561afe/698876660a4a227d7d9c79fe/eggnog.jpeg?branch=production&width=1440&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Eggnog (Almost) Changed the World ## Video: Know Right Now: Champagne Facts For New Years Eve [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: Champagne Facts For New Years Eve](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/knTtLUSA.m3u8) (1:03)  _Published 2014-12-30. What you should know about the bubbly you'll be sipping_ by [Emelyn Rude](https://time.com/author/emelyn-rude/) ## Emelyn Rude Dec 24, 2015 2:00 PM UTC  A glass of eggnog A glass of eggnogHerb Swanson—Getty Images by [Emelyn Rude](https://time.com/author/emelyn-rude/) ## Emelyn Rude Dec 24, 2015 2:00 PM UTC Of all the holiday traditions that might conceivably have changed American history, eggnog would be an unlikely choice—and yet it was the creamy Christmas concoction that set off a chain of events that could have altered the course of the Civil War. Although originally a drink of the English upper classes, eggnog had achieved a renaissance of sorts when it reached the [Thirteen Colonies](http://www.sustainabletable.org/119/eggnog) many centuries before. Ample land for dairy cows and chickens made milk, cream and eggs more readily accessible to people of all means while the “Triangle Trade” brought in massive quantities of cheap sugar and rum (and, of course, human slaves). Those ingredients form the backbone of the recipe for eggnog—though if you’re President George Washington, your nog would be a bit heavier on the booze; his recipe famously requires a strong [dosage](http://time.com/3957265/history-of-eggnog/) of rye whiskey, Jamaica rum and sherry. So it should be no surprise that, since the establishment of West Point in 1802, eggnog had played a role in the school’s [annual tradition](http://www.army.mil/article/49823/The%5FEggnog%5FRiot/) of Christmas celebration. Though such festivities were technically against school rules, early superintendents of the then-ramshackle and struggling academy most often turned a blind eye to them, allowing the cadets to let loose and enjoy generous quantities of holiday eggnog in the process. Then came Colonel Sylvanus Thayer, the strict superintendent later known as the “Father of West Point.” He clearly did not share in Washington’s proclivities. In fact, in 1826, after the school’s Commandant was unbecomingly lifted into the air by intoxicated student at the Fourth of July party, Thayer banned alcohol on [campus](http://laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/eggnog-riot) altogether. Such a move was part of much greater changes the Colonel was instating campus-wide, ranging from new [rules](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/egg-nog-its-all-fun-and-games-until-someone-starts-a-holiday-riot-180949281/?no-ist) that prevented students from cooking in their dorms to reforms that established West Point as one of the first [meritocracies](http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/magazine/who-was-sylvanus-thayer) in American higher education. Unfortunately for Thayer, there was still plenty of opportunity for students to drink at the two taverns located just outside of school grounds, where shoes or blankets were accepted in exchange for liquor. Such locales were the favorite haunts of many a cadet, including poet [Edgar Allen Poe](http://mentalfloss.com/article/28854/how-edgar-allan-poe-got-himself-kicked-out-army)—who would eventually be expelled from the school for spending far too much time wallowing at these taverns—and Jefferson Davis, class of 1828. In his youth, before his rise to President of the Confederacy, Davis had a reputation as something of a party animal. At West Point he held the distinction of being among the first students to be [court-martialed](http://www.jstor.org/stable/1902656?loginSuccess=true&seq=4#page%5Fscan%5Ftab%5Fcontents) for frequenting the taverns and was a notoriously heavy drinker; one time he fell down a [60-foot ravine](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/egg-nog-its-all-fun-and-games-until-someone-starts-a-holiday-riot-180949281/?no-ist). (He survived.) When Christmas of 1826 rolled around, Davis and his friends decided to keep their booze-soaked tradition alive, the judgment of Sylvanus be damned. As documented with the utmost attention to detail by James Agnew in his 1979 work [_The Eggnog Riot: The Christmas Mutiny at West Point_](http://www.amazon.com/Eggnog-riot-Christmas-mutiny-Point/dp/0891410368), the festivities for a small group of students began around 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve with a few batches of drink they had smuggled into campus. Merriment ensued, to say the least. Around 4 a.m. on Christmas morning, Captain Ethan Allen Hitchcock was woken up by the sounds of the rowdy boys a few floors above him and set out to investigate. The next two hours would be amongst the most chaotic in West Point history. Angry at “Hitch” for disrupting their celebrations, the cadets grabbed swords and pistols and roamed the grounds in search of the Captain, [assaulting two officers](http://www.army.mil/article/49823/The%5FEggnog%5FRiot/), demolishing furniture, breaking windows, firing at least one of their guns and [stealing themselves a set of fife and drums](http://laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/eggnog-riot) in the process. At least seventy of the 260 students on campus were involved in the affair, 23 of whom would be arrested and 19 ultimately expelled. Although undoubtedly involved in the beginnings of the booze-soaked revelry, Jefferson Davis made it through the affair unscathed—no thanks to his own wits. Before the rioting began, Davis famously screamed, “Hide the Grog boys – Old Hitch is coming!” _after_ the Captain had already arrived on the scene. Davis was sent back to his room to pass out, thus avoiding the mayhem that followed. Likewise untouched was Davis’ future general, Robert E. Lee, also a student at West Point at the time. As Lee once famously proclaimed, “I like whiskey. I always did and that his why I never drink it.” That teetotalism apparently extended to eggnog. Davis and Lee avoided expulsion, going on to serve in the U.S. military prior to the Civil War, a fate that put both men in position to lead the Confederacy decades later. Had they left West Point in 1826, there’s no telling what could have happened. The actual Eggnog Riot of 1826 was hardly poetic, and neither was the political context of the conflict that followed in the 1860s—but it is easier to remember history when it’s set to rhyme. So, in the spirit of the season, with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore: _‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the dorms,_ _the cadets of West Point imbibed a beverage that warms._ _The lookouts were perched by their doors with great care,_ _With hopes that their officers might not soon wander there._ _Jefferson Davis and friends should have been in their beds,_ _But far too much eggnog still danced in their heads._ _Alcohol had been banned on campus for a reason,_ _But nothing would stop the students’ revelry this season._ _Then all through the barracks there arose such a clatter,_ _Captain Hitch sprang from bed to see what was the matter._ _“The students!” he shouted, “the students are drunk!”_ _And marched right upstairs to discipline the punks._ _But the Captain’s efforts would have nothing to show,_ _And the night would be one of destruction and woe._ _Angry at Hitch for disrupting their fun,_ _The students took to campus, armed with their guns._ _Broken windows and furniture, a stolen fife and drums,_ _The mutiny would last till the rise of the sun,_ _Two officers assaulted, swords flashing in the snow,_ _Such anarchy and chaos the academy had never known._ _“Now Stocker! Now Humphreys! Now Farrelly and Weems!”_ _Nineteen students in all were expelled so it seems._ _Cadets and nog therefore really shouldn’t mix,_ _And such was the great “Grog Riot” of 1826._ _Emelyn Rude is a food historian and the author of_ Tastes Like Chicken_, available in August of 2016._ ### Pie  Slice of apple pie with ice cream, circa 1950s H. Armstrong Roberts—Retrofile/Getty Images The “pye”—as it used to be spelled—is a venerable dish, which can be traced all the way back to ancient Greece and Rome. But those pastry-based dishes weren’t the desserts we tend to think of today. Instead, they were overwhelmingly savory dishes. And for good reason: the crusts could help the contents of the pie (meat, typically) last a little longer than they would otherwise. Even apple pies didn’t used to look the way they do now: **_Read the full story here:_** [A Brief History of Pie](http://time.com/3958057/history-of-pie/) ### Eggnog  Eggnog L. Mueller—MCT via Getty Images Eggnog is centuries old, it turns out: But it wasn’t always associated with the end-of-year holiday season. That happened when the drink came to the Americas; even George Washington had his own signature recipe for eggnog, which by his time had begun to be made with rum. **_Read the full story here:_** [A Brief History of Eggnog](http://time.com/3957265/history-of-eggnog/) ### Waffles  A plate of buttered waffles made in an Easywork waffle iron, in 1947 Chaloner Woods—Getty Images This peculiarly patterned breakfast staple has a surprisingly long and illustrious history. The ancient Greeks used a tool kind of like a waffle iron to make cakes, and the treat came to the New World with some of its earliest European settlers: But it wasn’t until the 1930s that a California family combined instant waffle mix, electricity and ingenuity to come up with a way to mass-produce waffles. The eventual result, if you haven’t already guessed, was Eggos. **_Read the full story here:_** [A Brief History of Waffles](http://time.com/3957420/waffles/) ### Peanut Butter  A 1930s peanut butter jar label Buyenlarge / ;Getty Images Peanut butter’s origins are a bit mysterious. Contrary to the popular myth that George Washington Carter came up with the idea, there’s evidence that some version of peanut butter was being made at least a couple decades before he published his 1916 text _How to Grow the Peanut and 105 Ways of Preparing it For Human Consumption_: **_Read the full story here:_** [A Brief History of Peanut Butter](http://time.com/3957387/history-of-peanut-butter/) ### Buffalo Wings  Buffalo wings await contestants during Wing Bowl 16 at the Wachovia Center Feb. 1, 2008 in Philadelphia William Thomas Cain—Getty Images Unlike peanut butter, Buffalo wings have a an easily identified origin: Buffalo, N.Y. But what exactly happened to spark its birth is a little blurrier: In one version of the story, the dish was invented merely to get rid of a surplus of chicken wings; in another version, Bellissimo’s son specifically asked for wings. **_Read the full story here:_** [A Brief History of Buffalo Wings](http://time.com/3957370/buffalo-wings/) ### Maple Syrup  Children from the Scarborough School tapping syrup from a maple tree on financier Frank Vanderlip's estate. Scarborough, N.Y., March 18, 1927 Underwood Archives / Getty The American maple-syrup industry can be traced back to the 17th century, when farmers began to tap the trees on their properties for a sweetener that was, at the time, cheaper than sugar: The old system of making maple syrup—leaving buckets under taps, collecting sap, hauling the buckets to the sugar house to be heated—was eventually widely replaced by a method that used tubes and vacuums rather than buckets and gravity. **_Read the full story here:_** [A Brief History of Maple Syrup](http://time.com/3958051/history-of-maple-syrup/) ### Salt  A waiter fills numerous salt and pepper shakers, 1950 Vintage Images / Getty Images Salt isn’t technically a food in itself, but it makes so many foods taste so much better that we couldn’t leave it off the list. Plus, its history is one of the longest, most interesting food stories out there, dating all the way back to the days when, as TIME put it in 1982, “animals wore paths to salt licks \[and\] men followed.” Salt was, eventually, one of the pillars of civilization: **_Read the full story here:_** [A Brief History of Salt](http://time.com/3957460/a-brief-history-of-salt/) ### Barbecue  Memphis ribs and Texas smoked sausage with two sides at The American BBQ Restaurant in Rowley, Mass. Boston Globe / Getty Images Though the word “barbecue” is misapplied to all manner of grilled meats, it actually refers to a specific process (indirect heat, slow cooking) and comes from a specific tradition: Eventually, barbecue separated into several regional styles with their own preferences for meats and flavors. **_Read the full story here:_** [A Brief History of Barbecue](http://time.com/3957444/barbecue/) ### Leftovers  Leftovers in a freezer Bob Fila—MCT / Getty Images So, you run out and make or buy all these foods, now that they’re on your mind, but there’s no way you can eat them all right away. Which brings us to leftovers. It’s not as if someone had to “invent” the idea of saving what remains at the end of a meal—after all, in the pre-modern feast-and-famine cycle, saving the fruit of the harvest was a matter of life and death. But that doesn’t mean that the look of leftovers hasn’t changed over the years. 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