Herman Haupt and the Sanitary Commission at Gettysburg

[tulip]

On July 1, 1863 Herman Haupt was handed an insurmountable problem -- supplying Meade’s army near the little town of Gettysburg PA. The rail links serving this tiny hamlet were woefully inadequate for supplying the needs of 80,000 Federal troops and Haupt had to make sense of it.

Haupt had been married in Gettysburg many years earlier and lived there for some time, so he was familiar with the landscape and the difficulties facing him. This pre-knowledge gave him a severe headache when he was handed a telegram from the War Department ordering him to Pennsylvania.

When Haupt arrived at Westminster on July 1 he found unbridled pandemonium with screaming teamsters and a frantic Quartermaster corps clamoring for supplies. Crates of provisions were stacked everywhere with no method of delivering them. Trains were stalled due to a bottleneck on the one track leading to the battlefield.

Crawling into a covered wagon to escape the noise and confusion, Haupt devised a complete plan and emerged within a few minutes to begin telegraphing. He ordered his Railroad Construction Corps to come to Westminster with their tools, equipment and 400 trained men. By morning trains arrived with good split wood for fuel and full train crews all to Haupt's specifications.

With no facilities for passing, Haupt improvised a plan with trains running in convoys of five each spaced at 8 hour intervals allowing each train to make the round trip before the next departed. "By July 3. . . Haupt moved supplies over the Western Maryland at the rate of 1,500 tons daily." Returning trains brought out the thousands of wounded to Baltimore hospitals. By the time Lee began his ragged retreat, the Union armies at Gettysburg were being supplied beyond daily requirements thanks to Haupt’s speed, brilliance and improvisational skill. . .

[Reference: Victory Rode the Rails by Weber]

[tulip]

Haupt's railroad miracle (he had already had several others) made it possible for the Sanitary Commission to move in and care for the wounded. "When the railroad to Gettysburg was opened, a vast amount of stores reached that place daily. Among other things, large quantities of fresh provisions, meat and vegetables, were sent every day from Philadelphia in "refrigerating cars," as they were called, or cars which had been converted into movable ice-houses."

"As these wagons, bearing the familiar inscription "U. S. San. Com.," (always so dear to the eyes of sufferers in the Army,) came in sight, a Surgeon who was standing at a point not five hundred yards in the rear of the line battle, surrounded by sufferers for whose succor he had exhausted all the means at hand, exclaimed with joyful eagerness, "Thank God, here comes the Sanitary Commission; now we shall be able to do something."

"Brandy, beef-soup, sponges, chloroform, lint and bandages were at once distributed, and proved, no doubt, the means of saving many lives. The stock of supplies in these wagons was also sufficient to aid very materially in relieving the wants of the wounded in the Hospitals of the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Eleventh and Twelfth Corps, on this first day of a general engagement."

"Car-load after car-load of supplies were brought to this place, till shelves, and counter, and floor up to the ceiling were filled, till there was barely a passage-way between the piles of boxes and barrels, till the sidewalk was monopolized, and event the street encroached upon. This abundant overflow of the generous remembrance of those at home to those in the Army was distributed in the same generous manner as it was contributed. Each morning the supply wagons of the Division and Corps Hospitals were before the door, and each day they went away laden with such articles as were desired to meet their wants. If the articles needed one day were not in our possession at the time, they were immediately telegraphed for, and by the next train of cars they were ready to be delivered. Thus, tons of ice, mutton, poultry, fish, vegetables, soft bread, eggs, butter, and a variety of other articles of substantial and delicate food were provided for the wounded, with thousands of suits of clothing of all kinds, and hospital furniture in quantity to meet the emergency. It was a grand sight to see this exhibition of the tender care of the people for the people's brave. It was a bit of home feeling, of home bounty, brought to the tent, and put into the hand of the wounded soldier."

A look at a partial inventory of the first supplies to be off-loaded tells the story of this enormous effort:

"Eggs, (chiefly collected for the occasion at farm houses in Pennsylvania and New Jersey).....8,500 dozens.
Shirts, (woolen).....7,158
Pillows.....2114
Pillow Cases.....254
Bed Sacks.... 1,630
Fresh Garden Vegetables.....675 bushels.
Fresh Poultry and Mutton.....11,000 pounds
Drawers, (woolen).....5,310 pairs
Fresh Butter..... 6,430 pounds
shirts (cotton).....1,833 pairs

[History of the Sanitary Commission 1887 by Charles Still]

[sean_harris]

Connie,

Great information. I guess Meade should have been pleased that a "handfull" of hefty, hungry, Confederates like we saw in "Gettysburg" were not available or told about those supply trains! They may have marched right over the hill regardless, taken the train and followed the crumb trail all the way to Washington! Come to think of it the War might have ended that day cause after consuming the train contents they would nap!!

Gettysburg, HMMM, I recall a well fed Confederate? Yes, I fondly remember a man of "Large" Stature! I believe he worked for the Commissary Corp in Richmond and was on a "Fact Finding" mission with the Army of Northern Virginia.
He stopped Harrison while preparing Spam Cush with cheese omelets' for the troops on the picket line!
He realized something was amis due to the fact Harrison smelled of Tavern Steak and Eggs a smell our "Hefty Friend of Refined Taste" new all to well in Richmond!
Well, the rest is history!

"At least the Richmond Commissary Corp were men of "Large, Healthy, Stature" after all he was not a fat Confederate! He was simply a "big boned" man.
Mary Chestnut

[tulip]

You got that right Sean. Had Pickett's boys gotten a whiff of all that fresh meat in "refrigerator" cars, their charge might have gone a different direction.

One of Lee's stated reasons for going north in the summer of 1863 was to rest the Virginia fields giving the crops the opportunity to produce a much needed bountiful harvest. (albeit this was definitely a secondary priority) A few hundred thousand soldiers and livestock bivouacked in the lush Virginia countryside had stripped it of its vitality.

In essence Lee had to turn his entire army into foragers to survive. These realities impacted his tactical responses with need often trumping strategy and was one of the reasons Stuart got sidetracked.

What Lee should have done was turn his guns on Lucius B. Northrup, the Confederate Commissary General, who made a mess of supply distribution and purchasing. Another one of Davis' cronies from the old army, Northrup was finally relieved in the last months of the war for gross incompetence and the suspicion of graft, but it was too late to have any impact on the fortunes of the AnV. Had Northrup been half the man Gorgas was, Lee's boys would not have been so hungry and so ragged.