Target - A Supply Wagon train

[Nathan Stuart]

The below photograph shows about two hundred and forty U.S. Army supply wagons parked at Brandy Station, in May, 1863. (It's plate 64 in 'Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the Civil War').

Thought after examining this picture one can gain a sense of comprehension of the difficulties involved in running such a vast size wagon train.

When Stuart rode north during Lee's Gettysburg Campaign, he seized a 150-wagon Union supply train near Rockville, Maryland, on June 28. He and his troopers managed to return with 125 of these wagons intact (and mostly laden with fodder).

Stuart's captured wagon train prize was about half the size of the number of wagons displayed in the above picture - that's still an enormous effort getting that many vehicles through enemy countryside.

 

[bankerpapaw]

What always amazed me was the 17 mile long wagon train retreating from Gettysburg.

 

[MAJOR DUNDEE]

I counted 225 wagons

 

[Borderruffian]

Supply Train In Open FIRE FOR EFFECT
SPREADING FIRE WEST TO WEST
OVER

 

[Tom Elmore]

The Army of the Potomac wagon train on the way to Gettysburg extended a total of 65 miles.

My rough rule of thumb is 62 wagons per mile while on the march.

That applies to Imboden's train of "nearly 20 miles" - say 19.5 miles, which works out to 1,209 vehicles (one source said Imboden escorted 1,200 vehicles).

Or similarly to the Army of the Potomac's train of 65 miles, which works out to 4,030 vehicles (Ingalls said the army at that time had over 4,000 heavy vehicles).

The 225 wagons shown in the image would thus stretch out to approximately 3.6 miles on the march. That would be roughly equivalent to a wagon train belonging to a larger-than-average Union infantry division in mid-1863.

JEB Stuart's capture of let's say 125 wagons (estimates range from 120 to 200) on the way to Gettysburg would extend more than two miles in length because they were large wagons driven by six mules each. An average-sized wagon had four mules or horses; ambulances generally had two.