Off Track: How Tabasco Sauce Fought in Every American Conflict Since World War II
As the Union Army approached Avery Island, Louisiana in 1863, the McIlhenny family abandoned their farm and fled. When they returned after the war, the farm was bare. Its crops were seized by the Union troops and, presumably, kept the Army running.
All the crops, that is, except its spicy tabasco peppers. Necessity is the mother of invention and the McIlhenny family needed to sell something from the farm to make ends meet. They made a delicious sauce from the peppers, bottled it and sold it to the masses.
Hot sauces have come and gone, but Tabasco has been sold continuously since 1868. That was just its first contact with the U.S. military.
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