Building a corduroy road

[frontrank2]

Due to the flooded nature of the countryside and the roads being almost impassable, Union engineers, pioneers, and work parties had to corduroy roads to provide a firm surface for the soldiers to march and the wagons to roll. Here, Union troops construct corduroy roads during the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia.

 

[frontrank2]

The men would cut down the surrounding trees, cut them to size, and lay them on the muddy road to prevent the army from getting bogged down. Sherman's men were so proficient, it was stated that " there was never such an army since the days of Julius Caesar."

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

Due to the flooded nature of the countryside and the roads being almost impassable, Union engineers, pioneers, and work parties had to corduroy roads to provide a firm surface for the soldiers to march and the wagons to roll. Here, Union troops construct corduroy roads during the Peninsular Campaign in Virginia.

View attachment 544941

Great photo. Reminds me of the written descriptions of Sherman's men constructing such roads through swampy land in South Carolina.

 

[Robert Gray]

The original negative is at the Library of Congress (LC-DIG-cwpb-00303). If you look closely you can see the Engineer Corps hat brass on the forage caps as well as the company letter 'A'. What's interesting is that the men pictured are wearing three different types of uniforms: frock coats, fatigue (sack) coats and what appear to be state-issued shell jackets.

 

[Jim in Wisconsin]

Gee, that picture of the road crew looks like the county workers around here.
Some guys standing around with their hands in their pockets!

 

[Belfoured]

The original negative is at the Library of Congress (LC-DIG-cwpb-00303). If you look closely you can see the Engineer Corps hat brass on the forage caps as well as the company letter 'A'. What's interesting is that the men pictured are wearing three different types of uniforms: frock coats, fatigue (sack) coats and what appear to be state-issued shell jackets.

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Great stuff - thanks. Is this Co. A of the US Engineers Battalion? My ancestor was in Co. C at the time (he moved to the new Co. D in July at Harrison's Landing). His 1862 diary has accounts of doing this work on the approaches to the bridges across the Chickahominy. Let's just say they got wet quite a bit.

If it is Co. A, I'm not sure that they'd be wearing state-issued shell jackets.

 

[Old Soldier]

Great stuff - thanks. Is this Co. A of the US Engineers Battalion? My ancestor was in Co. C at the time (he moved to the new Co. D in July at Harrison's Landing). His 1862 diary has accounts of doing this work on the approaches to the bridges across the Chickahominy. Let's just say they got wet quite a bit.

If it is Co. A, I'm not sure that they'd be wearing state-issued shell jackets.

It was quite amazing how many suddenly appeared when the photographer arrived.

 

[limestone1863]

Gee, that picture of the road crew looks like the county workers around here.
Some guys standing around with their hands in their pockets!

Usually, one working the rest standing around with their hands in their pockets

 

[gc45]

Gee, that picture of the road crew looks like the county workers around here.
Some guys standing around with their hands in their pockets!

Yes. The general Officer standing, his subordinate officers with their hands in their pockets, the privates doing the work. Just like today's street crews.

 

[Belfoured]

Usually, one working the rest standing around with their hands in their pockets

Well, there's this small problem with the state of photography in 1862. If they were actually doing the work while the photographer was getting his shot you'd end up with a nice, blurred mess.

 

[7th Mississippi Infantry]

Grant refers to constructing corduroy roads on the west side of the Mississippi River (Louisiana) during the Vicksburg Campaign.

This idea came to him after he had decided to cross the river, proceed down the swampy Louisiana side, recross the river, and attack Vicksburg from the south and eventually from the east.

From what I recall, a "plank or corduroy road" was extremely difficult for his troops to construct ... (given that muddy/wet terrain).

But Grant's engineers & pioneer units accomplished his orders in many sections of the planned route. I think the Federals eventually discovered passable roads before they recrossed back to the Mississippi side of the river.

"Grant initiated the march of his down the west side of the Mississippi River, from Milliken's Bend to Hard Times, Louisiana. Leaving their encampments on March 29, Federal soldiers took up the line of march and slogged southward over muddy terrain, building bridges and corduroy roads as they went".

Grant's March (March 29-April 30) - Vicksburg National Military Park (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

 

[frontrank2]

Grant refers to constructing corduroy roads on the west side of the Mississippi River (Louisiana) during the Vicksburg Campaign.

This idea came to him after he had decided to cross the river, proceed down the swampy Louisiana side, recross the river, and attack Vicksburg from the south and eventually from the east.

From what I recall, a "plank or corduroy road" was extremely difficult for his troops to construct ... (given that muddy/wet terrain).

But Grant's engineers & pioneer units accomplished his orders in many sections of the planned route. I think the Federals eventually discovered passable roads before they recrossed back to the Mississippi side of the river.

"Grant initiated the march of his down the west side of the Mississippi River, from Milliken's Bend to Hard Times, Louisiana. Leaving their encampments on March 29, Federal soldiers took up the line of march and slogged southward over muddy terrain, building bridges and corduroy roads as they went".

Grant's March (March 29-April 30) - Vicksburg National Military Park (U.S. National Park Service)

www.nps.gov

Thanks for the info.

 

[7th Texas Mounted Rifles]

I always enjoy when infrastructure work exposes old corduroy roads, such as this stretch in Virginia.

(Photo Credit: Fairfax County Park Authority)

 

[7th Texas Mounted Rifles]

I read a series of translated letters years ago, penned by a german teamster who was contracted by the army to carry fodder and cypress shingles to some of the frontier forts in Texas, circa 1850s.

He mentioned in one that he crushed many pipe stems between his teeth, climbing his wagon out of seasonal creekbed crossings on plank/rail reinforced landings.

That must have been bone-jarring… make a 'washboard road' look tame.

 

[WinterLeia]

Well, one of my favorite quotes from the Civil War is a Confederate prisoner talking about Sherman's march through South Carolina, In which he said, "If Sherman's men were sent to hell, they corduroy it and march on."

 

[frontrank2]

I always enjoy when infrastructure work exposes old corduroy roads, such as this stretch in Virginia.


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(Photo Credit: Fairfax County Park Authority)

Great photos!

 

[on again]

According to Library of Congress records

[Richmond, Va., vicinity. Engineers building corduroy road]

1 negative : glass, stereograph, wet collodion ; 4 x 10 in. | Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the Peninsular Campaign, May-August 1862.

www.loc.gov

Summary

• Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the Peninsular Campaign, May-August 1862.

Names

• Woodbury, D. B. (David B.), 1839-1866, photographer

Created / Published

• 1862 June.

ANy idea where it was taken {near Richmond or Seven Pines{?)

By the way when were the twin Houses at Seven Pines torn down?

Web link showing how the site looks today

Lost Battlefields: Seven Pines, Part 1 - Emerging Civil War

In a series of articles author Doug Crenshaw will explore some of the battlefields in central Virginia that appear to be lost forever to development. In today’s installment, Doug looks at the Battlefield of Seven Pines. I hear it all too often: “I travelled to Richmond to see the Seven Pines...

emergingcivilwar.com

Sic Transit Glory

 

[1SGDan]

Here are just two days of entries in the work log of the Peninsular Campaign*
May 19 and 20.—Laid corduroy and graded about 150 feet of road near the first crossing of the
turnpike road and the railroad after leaving White House; also built four small bridges and laid
corduroy at various points on the road along which General Franklin's command passed from the
crossing of Black Creek to a point half a mile beyond the blacksmith's shop; in all, about 1,000
feet of road corduroyed, and much ditching and grading. Finding the road crossing the valley
about a mile and a half beyond the last point mentioned (about half a mile beyond the White
Church) impassable at midnight, built two bridges across streams about 8 feet wide and 5 feet
deep; used in each nine or ten stringers, of from 10 to 15 inches in diameter, laid on crib
abutments; also laid corduroy over about 800 feet of road in manner as follows:
Longitudinal stringers were first laid over these sticks averaging 7 inches in (diameter, the
interstices again filled with smaller sticks, and the whole covered with brush and dirt. A large
portion of the force was kept constantly employed in ditching and grading, and the work thus
performed was not less valuable than that before described.

May 20 - Corduroyed 1,000 feet of road about 1 mile west of Black Creek. The same afternoon took up
and rebuilt bridge over Mill Creek at the grist-mill. Two spans 18 and 20 feet; roadway, 12 feet;
four pine stringers, 9 inches; covering, 2-inch oak plank.
* Taken from my work on the Army of the Potomac Engineers

 

[frontrank2]

Here are just two days of entries in the work log of the Peninsular Campaign*
May 19 and 20.—Laid corduroy and graded about 150 feet of road near the first crossing of the
turnpike road and the railroad after leaving White House; also built four small bridges and laid
corduroy at various points on the road along which General Franklin's command passed from the
crossing of Black Creek to a point half a mile beyond the blacksmith's shop; in all, about 1,000
feet of road corduroyed, and much ditching and grading. Finding the road crossing the valley
about a mile and a half beyond the last point mentioned (about half a mile beyond the White
Church) impassable at midnight, built two bridges across streams about 8 feet wide and 5 feet
deep; used in each nine or ten stringers, of from 10 to 15 inches in diameter, laid on crib
abutments; also laid corduroy over about 800 feet of road in manner as follows:
Longitudinal stringers were first laid over these sticks averaging 7 inches in (diameter, the
interstices again filled with smaller sticks, and the whole covered with brush and dirt. A large
portion of the force was kept constantly employed in ditching and grading, and the work thus
performed was not less valuable than that before described.

May 20 - Corduroyed 1,000 feet of road about 1 mile west of Black Creek. The same afternoon took up
and rebuilt bridge over Mill Creek at the grist-mill. Two spans 18 and 20 feet; roadway, 12 feet;
four pine stringers, 9 inches; covering, 2-inch oak plank.
* Taken from my work on the Army of the Potomac Engineers

They were no slouches were they? The Company Commander kept them pretty busy.

 

[19thOhio]

While researching the 19th Ohio I found this at the Massillon Museum in a collection of items from the Gen. Samuel Beatty archives. Dated May 8, 1862 from Brigadier General Thomas L. Crittenden to Brigadier Horatio P. Van Cleve of the 14th Brigade, an order providing details building roads. . . . 150 men to be assigned to a working party to build " . . . a road over the swamp in our rear. Let them bring 32 axes, picks, and 33 spades. Send them at once as the work must be finished as rapidly as possible . . ." Since this was infantry and the road was "in their rear" they were building the road to help with the passage of supplies for the Siege on Corinth.