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2 Winter 2004 Bottles and Extras Frank Hume Bottles The pair of pint-sized bottles in clear glass represented here probably date from the late 1880’s or 1890’s when Hume’s business flourished. With chamfered Names corners and embossed pictures, they are not typical of period “grocer’s bottles” from Eastern states, and for this reason in the Glass today’s collectors recognize them as desirable. Yet they are probably not rare. by Don Denzin Even if Hume’s market included only the Midatlantic region, it seems likely many such bottles were blown because Hume’s A Devoted Virginian’s Floating Coffin business lasted for several years. The whiskey brands they advertised, Old Stag and Homestead, were A lone Confederate soldier makes lying inside. The slender pole bumps a complimented by other potables in the his way toward the water on an coffin wall and the deep box lets out a Hume product line, including Warwick isolated bank of the Potomac River. boom, but with undeterred motion, he Whiskey and Very Superior Old Rye. The His arms ache from the large object he hoists the rail vertically over the river. author has not seen bottles embossed with drags behind, and he pauses, his He pushes down. It bites the mud. The these names but references to them exist. ears straining for sounds beneath a strange vessel slides toward deeper water. Interestingly, both bottles pictured in concealing pre-dawn sky. The welcome He begins to row. His arms establish this article include the embossed word, silence allows his nervousness to rhythm and the ragged shoreline fades. “Compound.” This is a reference to their drain, but only a little. Under orders The moment becomes peaceful as his original contents. At the turn-of-the- and on a secret mission, he jabs ghostly silhouette slides on the skin of the century, it was common practice for liquor sweat from his eyes, listens intently again, sleeping river. distributors to enhance inexpensive then finally pushes ahead. He makes whiskey or other alcoholic products by his way without slowing until gravel Sound like the opening of a movie? adding essences, oils, and even prune gives way to mud at the water’s edge. Maybe it could be. But the scene is not juice in a practice known as He maneuvers his heavy burden to available at Blockbuster. It is purportedly compounding. Perhaps Hume deserves the front and the full outline of a a true story, one that forms part of the credit because not all whiskey marketers coffin now grows visible in the darkness. fascinating backdrop behind our were so forthcoming in revealing which He guides it into the shallows, then walks collecting hobby. of their products had been “improved” in with it as it floats, gliding it into the The Civil War soldier is Frank Hume, this way. In any event, we may reasonably languid river. He stops as cold water the man whose name appears on the pair speculate that Homestead and Old Stag reaches his thighs. of bottles pictured here. Hume were less-than-premium brands. Gripping the coffin’s opposite sides, (1843-1906) joined one of General James he pulls himself into the empty cavity. Longstreet’s corps, the Volunteer The Honorable Frank Hume Even before its rocking steadies, he comes Southern, in 1861. He later served as a Since Hume commissioned the up to his knees, and retrieves a fence rail signal scout under General J.E.B. Stuart, embossing of separate brand names on participated in eleven major battles, and separate bottles rather than relying solely received a wound at Gettysburg. Hume’s on less expensive paper labels and generic own memoir reports that he earned a containers, it seems logical to conclude personal commendation from General he believed he would sell substantial Robert E. Lee for the mission that started quantities of each kind of whiskey. Maybe in the opening paragraphs. More about he did. What is certain is that Hume sold that later. substantial quantities of something Importantly for bottle collectors, because he grew wealthy, so wealthy, in Hume returned home safely after the fact, that he became a significant Confederate surrender at Appomattox. landowner and philanthropist. Home was Alexandria, Virginia, where His wealth and grocery business civilian Hume first tried his hand at success led to other accomplishments. He agriculture. The venture lasted only a became president of the Independent short time, and next he became a grocer Steamboat and Barge Company and a in Georgetown. Finally, in 1871, he director of the Fireman’s Insurance Co. established his own wholesale grocery and He also served on other boards, among liquor business. them, the Washington Board of Trade Good fortune in battle now followed where he vigorously but unsuccessfully him into the world of commerce. Housed advocated construction of a bridge linking on Washington D.C.’s Pennsylvania Alexandria to Washington, D.C. Notably, Avenue near the Central Market, he also entered public life at the State Hume & Co. prospered. The business level. Voters in Alexandria sent him to Frank Hume, devoted Virginian. “Union doubtless marketed a range of products, the Virginia House of Delegates in 1889 soldiers on the Maryland bluff were and among them were an assortment of and 1899. treated to the spectacle of a lone rebel domestic and imported wines, brandies, His legacy extends even to this day. sitting in the middle of the river, paddling and whiskey. Hume & Co. became the The area known as Hume Springs, near a coffin case with a fence paling.” largest wholesale grocer in the District of Alexandria, takes its name from him. The Columbia.1 Hume School, a preparatory academy Bottles and Extras Winter 2004 3 originally housed in the landmark building now occupied by improvised boat they could find. That coffins were so plentiful the Arlington Historical Society, received his major financial offers grim evidence of the savagery of the Civil War. backing in the 1890’s. (The father of eleven children, Hume Historian Fletcher continues the story of Hume’s adventure may have understood this act of generosity in practical terms!) at the river: A stone monument at the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce bears his name. Its engraved inscription Under cover of night, Hume started across, but he made identifies him as “A devoted Virginian who served his native poor time, and when the sun rose Union soldiers on the State in Civil War and Legislative Hall.” Finally, although it Maryland bluff were treated to the spectacle of a lone rebel does not bear his name, the 14th St. Bridge across the Potomac, sitting in the middle of the river, paddling a coffin case a project he championed, was constructed after his death. Hume with a fence paling. From his luckless situation, they is buried in Ivy Hill Cemetery in Alexandria. concluded that Hume must be a deserter. Hume was able to land and make himself scarce before they realized their The Rest of the Story mistake. 2 Frank Hume’s experience in the coffin occurred in April, 1864. Already dramatic by its very nature, the incident must What happened next is not entirely clear. Hume reached have had added poignancy for him for personal reasons. At the Annapolis only to learn either that General Burnside’s intentions time, it is likely that death was no abstraction for Hume, and had been revealed already by another Confederate spy or that not just because he had become a battle-tested soldier. Frank Burnside had departed for Virginia to muster with General and a brother, Connor, enlisted on the Confederate side in the Grant. In either event, the need for Hume’s undercover exercise Civil War. In the two years that followed, Union soldiers killed ended. He headed back for his unit, but not before stopping at Connor. In the same period, two additional brothers died in an a Washington portrait studio to have a photograph made. His epidemic. Finally, his father died just weeks after Connor. memoir recounts that the studio’s other customers “were all In a further twist, Frank Hume knew that Connor Hume had dressed in blue.” been killed on the banks of the Potomac River while on a covert Returning to the river, Hume discovered that a local resident mission for the same General, J.E.B. Stuart, under whom he had transformed his original watercraft into a chicken coop. now served. We can imagine how these circumstances swirled This time he located a legitimate boat, and made his way to in his head before he entered that empty coffin on the Potomac Spotsylvania on the opposite side of the Potomac. Aborted River. mission or not, Hume’s memoir reports that it was here that According to Civil War expert Carlton Fletcher who has none other than General Lee offered personal thanks for the studied Hume’s memoir, the young soldier’s instructions were young signal scout’s effort. to make his way behind enemy lines to Annapolis. There, his The story is fascinating. But is it entirely true? After all, mission was to discover the intentions of General Burnside, while Hume’s Civil War service is a matter of record, the details whose troops bivouacked nearby. The endeavor began in a coffin of his trip across the Potomac are apparently documented mainly because, with watercraft in short supply, members of Hume’s in his memoir. corps, the 1st Maryland Cavalry, furnished him with the only No one has asserted that Hume’s memory was faulty, yet historians often suggest that all personal accounts are best understood in context.

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