“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal . . . .”  We must resolve “. . . that this nation . . . shall not perish from the earth.”

President Abraham Lincoln, 19 November 1863
Dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery, Gettysburg

The American Civil War was the first large-scale modern war involving a continent-wide theater of operations.  The numbers of men and quantities of materiel involved were unprecedented, as were the distances over which the opposing armies moved and had to be supported.

In the first four months of the war the northern Union army alone expanded to twenty-seven times its prewar strength and by 1865 more than one million men were enrolled.  The costs were enormous as well; expenditures for the US Army passed $1 billion per year for the first time in 1864-1865.

Moreover, the Civil War saw the increased use of recent technological developments in transportation and communications.  Tactical movements were still limited to the pace of the foot soldier and the horse, but the railroad and steamboat greatly improved strategic movements.  Similarly, line of sight and range of sound limited battlefield communications, but widespread use of the telegraph improved the control of armies in the field dramatically.

The logistical problems posed by the Civil War at every level were many and varied.  The details of how the armies were actually supplied in the field are not well known.  But the efficiency of such support, or the lack of it, influenced the outcome of battles, campaigns, and even the war itself.

RIVER TRANSPORTATION:

“We are much obliged to the Tennessee [River} which has favored us most opportunely, for I am never easy with a railroad which takes a whole army to guard, each foot of rail is essential to the whole; whereas, they can’t stop the Tennessee, and each boat can makes its own game.”

General William Tecumseh Sherman, “Sinews of War”

Water transportation was critical to Union logistics, particularly in the West, where the Mississippi and other rivers flowed into the very center of the Confederacy.  Steam operations lacked initial organization and the Army hired most of the boats used from individual owners or small companies. 

The cargo capacity of the western steamboats varied all the way from under 100 tons to the 1,700 tons of the chartered side-wheel steamer, the SULTANA.  An Army supply officer calculated that an ordinary Ohio River steamboat of 500 tons would carry enough supplies on one trip to subsist an army of 40,000 men and 18,000 horses for nearly two days.  This was the equivalent of five 10-car freight trains.

Steamboats were somewhat slower than rail but the actual difference in speed was not appreciable.  On a tonnage basis, one steam boat could move 500 tons of freight from Cincinnati to St Louis much more rapidly than could one or two trains shuttling back and forth.

Above, General Grant’s Bayou Expedition landing 50,000 troops at Young’s Point on the Mississippi River above Vicksburg, 29 March 1863.  Broken levees drowned out the Union camp becoming one of several unsuccessful attempts to take the Confederate stronghold from the north.  Grant achieved a great victory in July 1863 after his daring night passage running past guns defending Vicksburg.  Artwork by Haney Lovie, “Leslie’s Illustrated.”

Above, unloading military stores from the transport NORTH STAR over the steamboat IBERVILLE at Baton Rouge, LA, 1862.   The NORTHSTAR was a large steamer under charter to the US Army Quartermaster Department.    Artwork by William Waud, “Leslie’s Illustrated.”

Above, the transport W. B. TERRY pushing through the swamps.  The W.B.TERRY was captured by the gunboat LEXINGTON on 21 August 1861.  She was used as a transport in support of the Western Gunboat Flotilla.  An early combat loss on the Tennessee River, she was captured and burned by Confederate forces.  Artwork by Henry Lovie, “Leslie’s Illustrated.”

RAIL TRANSPORTATION:

“That a single stem of railroad [from Louisville to Atlanta], 473 miles long, supplied an army of 100,000 men and 35,000 animals for a period of 196 days . . . .  That amount of food and forage would have taken 36,800 wagons of six mules . . . each day, a simple impossibility . . . in that region of the country.”

General William T. Sherman, “Memoirs,”
            Written during the Atlanta Campaign

BRIGADIER GENERAL
HERMAN HAUPT

“Come here immediately; Secretary Stanton wants you.”

Telegram, 22 April 1862, from the office of Station, Secretary of War

And thus, Herman Haupt was appointed by Secretary of War Stanton to the position of Chief of Construction and Transportation for the Department of the Rappahannock, and was given the rank of Colonel.  Within 5 months, he was promoted to Brigadier General.

Haupt served the Union Army overseeing construction and administration of the U.S. Military Railroad (USMRR) in the area around Washington.  Haupt has unlimited authority and total management of the railroads, and made it clear that no military officer had the right to interfere.

The USMRR Construction Corps consisted of primarily civilian laborers – axemen, carpenters, mechanics, teamsters, and surveyors – who received specialized training from Haupt himself.

The Corps was instrumental in the success of Union rail operations and railway bridge construction.  It was equally adept at destroying rail facilities essential toe Confederate movements. 

The operational ingenuity and organizational brilliance of Haupt was evident in two important early battles – Bull Run and Gettysburg.  General Halleck authorized him to do “whatever he deemed expedient to facilitate transportation of troops and supplies to assist armies in the field.”  This included the use of professional railroad men instead of soldiers for the military railroad.

He developed a convoy system for supplies and evacuation.  Trains moving forward carried troops and 1,500 tons of supplies daily; returning trains carried wounded.  At Gettysburg, his trains evacuated 2,000-4,000 wounded men daily.  At the same time, he was providing timely and accurate intelligence via telegraph to Lincoln and Stanton in Washington.

This photo was taken by Mathew Brady, renowned Civil War photographer.  The frock coat in the photo is on exhibit in the museum and shown below.

Frock coat of Gen Haupt and other memorabilia.

Above, this flotation device was designed by General Haupt to investigate river conditions for the construction of new floating bridges.  It was made of a wooden platform lashed to two small rubber cylinders.

CITY POINT LOGISTICS BASE, PETERSBURG, VA

City Point was the supply base for the Army of the Potomac fighting at Petersburg.  General Grant chose City Point as his headquarters base because of its important location.  Water transportation on the James River provided easy access to Fort Monroe, Washing and any port city in the North.  From City Point, Grant could oversee the campaign against Petersburg and still remain in contact with the War Department.

Above, the rail yard at City Point is complete, 1865.

Above, a military train has been loaded on modified lashed barges to float railroad cars from the Alexandria Quartermaster Depot down the
James River to City Point.

Above, a medical rail car delivering wounded to City Point hospital.

This small village became one of the busiest ports in the world.  Within a short period of time, the Union Army had completed the first stage of the railroad and had the trains operating on a full schedule for the siege of Petersburg.  For the final ten months of the Civil War, City Point was the most important logistical base in American military history until World War II.

WHY is the US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails ) 56-1/2 inches??

          A good question!  And here’s the answer!

The first long distance roads in Europe were built by Imperial Rome for the benefit  
of their legions.  Wide enough for Roman war chariots, the roads suffered deep ruts
from their wheels.  The chariot’s wheels were spaced to accommodate two war horses.

These long distance roads have been in continuous use ever since.  Wagons built in
colonial England used the same spacing as the ruts from the chariot’s.  If the
spacing was changed, the wagons would break down.

Special jigs and tools were created by wagon builders to determine wheel spacing on
wagons.  These same people built the pre-railroad tramways and the English
railroads.  The first US railroads were built by English expatriates, who used the
same gauge as they had in England.

So . . . that’s why the standard gauge is 56-1/2 inches.

USMRR Engine No. 37, locomotive Fire Fly (above)

Built by R. Norris and Son in 1862, this 4-4-0 locomotive is crossing a repaired Orange & Alexandria Railroad bridge near Union Mills, Virginia.  The wooden trestle reconstruction of the destroyed bridge was the work of  E. C. Smeed, one of General Haupt’s most trusted of supervisors of the USMRR Construction Corps.