- Joined
- Jan 16, 2015
During the Gettysburg campaign, several thousand teamsters were employed driving wagons that kept the armies supplied with food and ammunition, or else they hauled baggage such as cooking utensils, entrenching tools, tents, official paperwork and personal effects. Rarely are we afforded a glimpse into their mundane daily activities, which were absolutely essential to sustaining soldiers on the march and in a battle.
July 1 – This morning we are waiting for orders. Our mules are hitched into the wagons. … I stepped over to the regiment and got a letter dated June 21st, and got back just in time to start with my team. We drove 10 miles, arrived at the town of Gettysville [Gettysburg]. Fighting had commenced. I was ordered to the front with my load of ammunition, to supply the boys. Went as far as the foot of Cemetery Hill, worked lively and “scooted” back. [Comment: Late on July 1 the Eleventh Corps shared some of their small-arms ammunition with the First Corps.] … July 2 – … Was on the field most of the day, giving out ammunition. … July 3 – … At 5 o’clock this afternoon, while I was munching some fried pork and a “hard-tack,” I was ordered to go to Westminster [Maryland] for a load of ammunition; arrived about 9 p.m. … July 5 – I am still in the village of Westminster, waiting for my load of ammunition. I shall start very soon for the front. (Record of the 33d Mass. Volunteer Infantry, by Boies, Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts)
On the morning of the 3rd we went up with several wagons to issue rations to the boys. We reached the field about sundown [7:32 p.m.]. We drove our wagons to within a quarter of a mile of our brigade who were skirmishing on the right wing [Culp’s Hill]. The field in which we stood was plowed in every direction by shell. Close to us the sharpshooters were popping away. Far away on the left artillery were still engaged. … It was midnight before we got through. We slept on the field, leaving early in the morning to return to Westminster, 25 miles. … On the 5th we left Westminster about 10 o’clock at night. It was dark, raining heavily and the roads very bad. (July 8 letter from Sebastian Cabot Duncan, Jr., Company E, 13th New Jersey, to his father, Family Papers, 1861-1915, New Jersey Historical Society, Newark)
June 16, the baggage was inspected, everything except a small valise for each officer [was] thrown from the wagon – chairs, beds, mess chests, etc., [creating] considerable dissatisfaction. Teamsters are known to retain and carry along … articles of convenience and luxury just thrown out for various officers. (From the diary of Major John I. Nevin, 93rd Pennsylvania -‘On the March Again at Daybreak,’ ed. by Dana B. Shoaf, A Journal of the American Civil War, vol. 6, no. 3 (Savas Publishing Company), p. 118)
Heavy army wagons are drawn by six or eight mules … driver on the tongue drives his three span of ugly, kicking, fractious mules by a system of slapping, spurring and jerking of the line. (Autobiography of George Perry Metcalf, Company D, 136th New York, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus)
June [25], 1863, at Barnesville, Maryland. To add to our discomfort the [wagon] train came up and went into park near us … four-mule teams. And as it came up and swung into park, every one of those long eared quadrupeds set up his ehaw and [kept] it up until they got their feed. But as soon as the feed bag is adjusted to their noses, it ends that [the braying] for the night. (Avery Harris Civil War Journal, 143rd Pennsylvania, ed. by Peter Tomasak)
F. Pope Rucker, Company A, was 30 years old when he enlisted. He was a professional stage driver and hence was made a teamster. He drove my headquarters wagon while I was colonel of the regiment. (The War Between the Union and the Confederacy, by William Calvin Oates, 15th Alabama)
[Encamped at 10 p.m. on July 1, west of Gettysburg] and I surrounded by wagons, their teams of mules and noisy drivers, cursing and swearing at their tired beasts. (Diary Extracts from Robert P. Myers, Surgeon of 16th Georgia, from collections of the Museum of the Confederacy – now the American Civil War Museum, on file at Gettysburg National Military Park)
July 3 – My ordnance wagon is ordered up to the field about 8 o’clock [a.m.]. Go about a mile and a half to the first field hospital – a stone house, and wait for a detail to get ammunition. Detail comes and issue about 4,000 rounds [four boxes], supply Rodes’ division also with ammunition. Keep moving backward and forward a good deal to get out reach of shell that are flying all around pretty thick. Am edified by several reports that the Yankees in great force are flanking our position and move at once to get out of their way. … Move back after a while to our old place near Johnson’s [division] hospital. … July 4 – Wakened this morning about 3 o’clock and ordered instantly to move the train out on the Cashtown road. (Diary of Watkins Kearns, 27th Virginia, Diaries 1861-4, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond)
July 1 – This morning we are waiting for orders. Our mules are hitched into the wagons. … I stepped over to the regiment and got a letter dated June 21st, and got back just in time to start with my team. We drove 10 miles, arrived at the town of Gettysville [Gettysburg]. Fighting had commenced. I was ordered to the front with my load of ammunition, to supply the boys. Went as far as the foot of Cemetery Hill, worked lively and “scooted” back. [Comment: Late on July 1 the Eleventh Corps shared some of their small-arms ammunition with the First Corps.] … July 2 – … Was on the field most of the day, giving out ammunition. … July 3 – … At 5 o’clock this afternoon, while I was munching some fried pork and a “hard-tack,” I was ordered to go to Westminster [Maryland] for a load of ammunition; arrived about 9 p.m. … July 5 – I am still in the village of Westminster, waiting for my load of ammunition. I shall start very soon for the front. (Record of the 33d Mass. Volunteer Infantry, by Boies, Essex Institute, Salem, Massachusetts)
On the morning of the 3rd we went up with several wagons to issue rations to the boys. We reached the field about sundown [7:32 p.m.]. We drove our wagons to within a quarter of a mile of our brigade who were skirmishing on the right wing [Culp’s Hill]. The field in which we stood was plowed in every direction by shell. Close to us the sharpshooters were popping away. Far away on the left artillery were still engaged. … It was midnight before we got through. We slept on the field, leaving early in the morning to return to Westminster, 25 miles. … On the 5th we left Westminster about 10 o’clock at night. It was dark, raining heavily and the roads very bad. (July 8 letter from Sebastian Cabot Duncan, Jr., Company E, 13th New Jersey, to his father, Family Papers, 1861-1915, New Jersey Historical Society, Newark)
June 16, the baggage was inspected, everything except a small valise for each officer [was] thrown from the wagon – chairs, beds, mess chests, etc., [creating] considerable dissatisfaction. Teamsters are known to retain and carry along … articles of convenience and luxury just thrown out for various officers. (From the diary of Major John I. Nevin, 93rd Pennsylvania -‘On the March Again at Daybreak,’ ed. by Dana B. Shoaf, A Journal of the American Civil War, vol. 6, no. 3 (Savas Publishing Company), p. 118)
Heavy army wagons are drawn by six or eight mules … driver on the tongue drives his three span of ugly, kicking, fractious mules by a system of slapping, spurring and jerking of the line. (Autobiography of George Perry Metcalf, Company D, 136th New York, Ohio Historical Society, Columbus)
June [25], 1863, at Barnesville, Maryland. To add to our discomfort the [wagon] train came up and went into park near us … four-mule teams. And as it came up and swung into park, every one of those long eared quadrupeds set up his ehaw and [kept] it up until they got their feed. But as soon as the feed bag is adjusted to their noses, it ends that [the braying] for the night. (Avery Harris Civil War Journal, 143rd Pennsylvania, ed. by Peter Tomasak)
F. Pope Rucker, Company A, was 30 years old when he enlisted. He was a professional stage driver and hence was made a teamster. He drove my headquarters wagon while I was colonel of the regiment. (The War Between the Union and the Confederacy, by William Calvin Oates, 15th Alabama)
[Encamped at 10 p.m. on July 1, west of Gettysburg] and I surrounded by wagons, their teams of mules and noisy drivers, cursing and swearing at their tired beasts. (Diary Extracts from Robert P. Myers, Surgeon of 16th Georgia, from collections of the Museum of the Confederacy – now the American Civil War Museum, on file at Gettysburg National Military Park)
July 3 – My ordnance wagon is ordered up to the field about 8 o’clock [a.m.]. Go about a mile and a half to the first field hospital – a stone house, and wait for a detail to get ammunition. Detail comes and issue about 4,000 rounds [four boxes], supply Rodes’ division also with ammunition. Keep moving backward and forward a good deal to get out reach of shell that are flying all around pretty thick. Am edified by several reports that the Yankees in great force are flanking our position and move at once to get out of their way. … Move back after a while to our old place near Johnson’s [division] hospital. … July 4 – Wakened this morning about 3 o’clock and ordered instantly to move the train out on the Cashtown road. (Diary of Watkins Kearns, 27th Virginia, Diaries 1861-4, Virginia Historical Society, Richmond)