How Did the Eggnog Riot Work?

On Christmas Eve of 1826, dozens of West Point cadets had a bit too much (prohibited) alcoholic eggnog -- luckily, only reputations and barracks were hurt. Learn more in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/ridiculous-history-heres-why-west-point-cadets-rioted-eggnog-1826.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio,
Hey brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here these days egg nog
is a drink for all holiday revelers, with recipes and
store bought varieties to fit every need. Dairy or non sugary,
and flavored like peppermint, moco or a little more plain,

(00:22):
alcoholic or not. Before the invention of refrigeration technology around
the turn of the twentieth century, including alcohol would have
helped make it safer to drink the raw eggs and
milk involved in making eggnog. But of course that's not
the only reason that people drink alcohol, and hey, drink responsibly.

(00:42):
Not only is that good advice, it's also the moral
of this episode, because on Christmas Eve of eighteen six,
at least seventy West Point cadets, including future Confederate President
Jefferson Davis and his future General Robert E. Lee, got
ripped roaring drunk on prohibit the alcoholic eggnog, assaulted to officers,

(01:03):
and nearly destroyed the North Barracks. They broke windows, through furniture,
shattered plates, and tore banisters from stairways. Their noisy antics
drew the attention of the officers assigned to guard against
just such shenanigans. A subsequent surprise inspection of student quarters
revealed a veritable Where's waldo of drunk cadets, poorly hidden
under blankets and behind hats, and in the hours that followed,

(01:27):
the booze made them brave and reckless, so much so
that they grabbed weapons and threatened to fight back against
any superior who tried to identify them, let alone rain
them in. Alcohol was strictly forbidden at West Point in
the early eighteen twenties. Knee Military Academy, stationed on the
west bank of the Hudson River, was after all, run

(01:48):
by Colonel Sylvanus There, a stern superintendent bent on instilling discipline.
If a student were caught possessing alcohol or under the
influence of alcohol, expulsion and arrest weren't far behind. Plus
west Point, just fifty miles that's eight kilometers north of
New York City, had its reputation to consider. When West

(02:09):
Point accepted its first class in eighteen o two, a
mere ten students assembled in a handful of haphazard buildings.
New students interested in joining the ranks were admitted at
any time throughout the year, with a few questions. Then
came the War of eighteen twelve, and Congress, hungry for
military success, installed there to get the academy into shape.

(02:31):
By eighteen twenty six, there had done just as he
was commanded, and that was the year he outlawed alcohol
at West Point up to and including on Christmas Eve.
So these students conspired and that night they broke out
their secret stash of liquor, about four gallons of the
cheapest whiskey they could find. They lugged it across the
Hudson River and bribed a guard thirty five cents to

(02:53):
let them bring it on to campus, where they hit
it among their personal effects. Imagine whiskey in boots, coat pocket,
under mattresses and blankets until the moment it was hastily
mixed with eggs, milk, and a few spices to become eggnog.
For the article, this episode is based on how stuff
Work spoke with Cyrus Ropers of Arousing Appetites, a food

(03:14):
blog focused on recreating traditional recipes from cuisines all over
the world. He said, there are a lot of different
theories as to how eggnog came about, but there's a
solid consensus that medieval Europe played a large role in
its creation. Many believed the eggnog is an offshoot of
an old drink called posset, which is hot milk curdled
with wider brandy and some added spices. Originally, says Roper's,

(03:37):
posset was the preferred drink of Europe's one per centers
thanks to the cost of alcohol, spices, and dairy alike.
But it didn't take long before this beverage of wealthy
nobility became available to and popular with the average person
and hoped continents. As non noble colonists in North America
began owning land and livestock, they started using readily available

(03:59):
ingredients like milk, eggs, and liquor to whip up their
own version. Ropers said brandy and wine remained a European luxury, however,
so Americans replaced it with the much more available, cheaper
rum thanks to their Caribbean neighbors. The trade and work
of enslaved Africans in the Caribbean had led to the

(04:19):
production of a lot of sugar, of which molasses is
a byproduct, from which, in turn, rum can be distilled.
Around the same time, the whiskey industry was starting up
in America, and as West Point Cadets among others, discovered
that was an acceptable substitute too. So back to Christmas
Eve of eight as the Eggnog Riot, sometimes called the

(04:44):
grog mutiny, stretched into Christmas morning, the revel re escalated.
Students who weren't busy dismantling the barracks or fist fighting
among themselves, armed themselves with guns and swords in preparation
for a battle with West Points artillery men who they
mistake only expected to be summoned to subdue them. But
then the Eggnogs effects began to wear off. Morning roll

(05:07):
call revealed a core staggering to line up with about
a third of the two sixty cadets somewhere along the
eggnog continuum of well oiled to full on hungover. If
they are elected to censure only the most destructive revelers,
and neither Jefferson Davis nor Robert E. Lee were among them.
In the end, nineteen cadets were expelled. When the new

(05:30):
barracks were built in the eighteen forties. They included crowd
control measures that prevented cadets from gathering in such large
numbers and there's no word on whether any of them
ever drank eggnog again. Today's episode is based on the
article Ridiculous History When West Point Cadets Rioted over Eggnog

(05:51):
in eighty six on how Stuffworks dot Com, written by
Laurel Dove. Brain Stuff is production of iHeart Radio in
partnership with how stuff Works dot Com, and it's produced
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