When I was a kid I remember people talking about smoking a small leafy plant in Arkansas called Rabbit Tobacco as a substitute for tobacco. They also smoked dried wild Muscadine and Possum grape vines and if they would've smoked these wild grape vines, I'm sure they would've smoked dried tame varieties of grape also. I don't know if this goes back to the civil war, but like you said a smoker is going to smoke something.