Mule Teams

[Rebforever]

We're pack mules used? With crates and stuff lashed to a frame instead of a saddle?

Wiki has many pics - "Mules rigged for carrying cannons in Civi War".

 

[Borderruffian]

Wiki has many pics - "Mules rigged for carrying cannons in Civi War".

Pack Howitzers on sawbucks?

 

[Jack7171]

Pack Howitzers on sawbucks?

By golly it seems they did!


CAPABILITY. The mountain howitzer provided an economical if limited artillery arm for demanding service where other light artillery could not be effectively taken. It could be packed up narrow foot paths to rocky heights. It could be carried on swift moving raids without being a cumbersome burden. It could be taken into areas where insufficient forage was available for a normal complement of horses/pack animals.

The piece could be taken from its pack mules, assembled, loaded and fired in less than a minute. One mule carried the gun tube & shafts, one mule carried the carriage and wheels, and other mules each carried two ammunition chests with eight rounds apiece. When traveling over good ground or roads, the piece was assembled on its carriage and pulled by a single mule (since pulling the load is more efficient

 

[1SGDan]

The troubles for the pontoon trains heading to Fredericksburg immediately began to mount for the land train as Spaulding attempted to gather the necessary resources for the move. A requisition to the Quartermaster Department for the necessary animals and harnesses to haul the train created a serious problem. The engineers were issued 270 horses and 500 "greene, wild mules" to haul the wagons. To make matters worse all the harness materiel was delivered crated. Each crate had to be opened and the pieces sorted and pieced together and then fitted to the animals.

Woodbury was forced to inform Burnside of the delay.

HEADQUARTERS ENGINEER BRIGADE, Washington, D. C., November 17, 1862—7 p. m. Lieutenant COMSTOCK, Engineer, General Burnside's Headquarters, Army of the Potomac: Major Spaulding has not been able to get off to-day. He expects to start at 10 a.m. to-morrow. I will telegraph when he leaves. H. W. BOWERS, Assistant Adjutant-General

Unfortunately many of the animals had never been in harness before, and it was difficult to find leaders. The engineers, however, could not handle the unbroken and unruly animals. The entire day of the 18th was spent looking for teamsters as an engineer officer confessed, "our men knew little of the ways of the mule."

 

[Borderruffian]

By golly it seems they did!


CAPABILITY. The mountain howitzer provided an economical if limited artillery arm for demanding service where other light artillery could not be effectively taken. It could be packed up narrow foot paths to rocky heights. It could be carried on swift moving raids without being a cumbersome burden. It could be taken into areas where insufficient forage was available for a normal complement of horses/pack animals.

The piece could be taken from its pack mules, assembled, loaded and fired in less than a minute. One mule carried the gun tube & shafts, one mule carried the carriage and wheels, and other mules each carried two ammunition chests with eight rounds apiece. When traveling over good ground or roads, the piece was assembled on its carriage and pulled by a single mule (since pulling the load is more efficient

That's how the Mountain Howitzers were designed to transported.

 

[Choatecav]

That's how the Mountain Howitzers were designed to transported.

That's exactly right. I've seen it done and practiced it with a Mtn Howitzer unit I used to work with some.
There is a special pack saddle that is grooved on top. That is where the tube goes. The two wheels of the carriage come off and hook to either side of that same saddle. Then another mule is rigged up with the front and rear portions of the remaining carriage. Other mules carry the ammo, powder, primers, worm, etc. It is fascinating to watch but they can move the pieces through almost any terrain. Of course these are mtn howitzers and not full Napoleons.....

 

[Peace Society]

4 WI cav.

So I went to work and learned to "gee-haw" a six-mule team of the stubbornest mules in the world, hauling bacon, but there was no romance in taking care of six mules that would kick so you had to put the harness on them with a pitchfork, for fear of having your head kicked off. If I ever get a pension it will be for my loss of character and temper in driving those mules. I have been in some dangerous places, but I was never in so dangerous a place, in battle, as I was one day while driving those mules. One of the lead mules got his forward foot over the bridle some way, and I went to fix it, and the team started and "straddled" me. As soon as I saw that I was between the two lead mules, and that the team had started, I knew my only safety was in laying down and taking the chances of the three pairs of mules and wagon going straight over me. To attempt to get out would mix them all up, so I fell right down in the mud, which was about a foot deep, and just like soft mortar. As the mules passed on each side of me, every last one of them kicked at me, and I was under the impression that each wheel of the wagon kicked at me, but I escaped everything except the mud, and when I got up on my feet behind the wagon, the quartermaster, who was ahead on horseback, had stopped the team. He called a colored man to drive, and told me I could go back to the regiment. I tried to sneak in the back way, and not see anybody, but when I passed the chaplain's tent a lot of officers, who had been sampling his sanitary stores, come out, and one of them recognized me, and they insisted on my stopping and taking something with them. Honestly, there was not an inch of my clothing but was covered with red mud, that every soldier remembers who had been through Alabama. They had fun with me for half an hour and then let me go. I have never been able to look at a mule since, without a desire to kill it.

George W Peck

How Private Geo. W. Peck Put Down the Rebellion (1890)
Available from Wm Caxton Ltd, Sister Bay WI, 1990

 

[Peace Society]

3-27-63

A mule has just broken the stillness of the night by a most discordant bray, and I am reminded that all horses are to be turned over to the mounted infantry regiments, and mules used in the teams in their stead. Mules are far better for the wagons than horses. They require less food, are hardier, and stand up better under rough work and irregular feeding.

John Beatty, B.G., Army of the Cumberland

The Citizen-Soldier: The Memoirs of a Civil War Volunteer, 1879
Available from Bison Books, U of NE Press, Lincoln, 1998