Water Keg

Again the barrel depicted is a British Naval keg or cask, regardless of what the museum has on it. The museum collection was assembled in the late 1900s when knowledge of what we now know was limited. We used to go to the Medical Museum and depict ACW soldiers and the last time I was there that barrel was absent and it is no longer on their digital tour. The barrels beneath the ambulances were simple affairs and pictures that I have seen show 2 and 4 banded kegs without feet. There has been much confusion regarding these "hospital" casks.

boer-war-1899-serving-rum.jpg


royal-navy-grog-channel-fleet-1907-keg.jpg
Thanks for your info. Back to the search.
 
I have been trying to get a handle on how water was provided and transported during the CW. There is no shortage of information on food stuff and equipment but water seems to be too mundane to research. The reality is that water would have been more important than food for survival, especially when you consider the effects of the heat.

Obviously foot soldiers would fill their canteens at every available brook, stream etc. But much larger quantities would be needed for cooking, hospitals etc.

I often see water "barrels" as the catchall term for everything, but in fact, barrels were designed to hold dry goods not fluids. Cask's were built so at to not leak and held a variety of liquids.

One photo I found on the net was this ambulance water cask.

Has anyone else looked into this topic?
A stream or river supplied water to soldiers either in camp or on the march. Most camps would be situated very close to a source of water. One of the reasons for the high disease rate was the fouling of the water by troops. You would be very surprised at how many streams and rivers there are in ACW campaign regions, on the march a member of a squad would fallout with the complement's canteens, fill them and catch up. You read where marches are broken up, by allowing the men to periodically rest near a water source, again not all of the men would fill individual canteens, but one of the squad would fallout and fill them. Cooking was the same, chances are the line of march would halt near a water source and if not, canteen water would suffice for the mess. A mess consisted of 4 to 6 men who would combine their resources to produce a meal.

You will also find that ACW cooking did not require a substantial amount of water. Coffee was the main concern.
 
Last edited:
I have read that the Barrel chimney's were lined with mud which would crack and allow the barrel to catch fire.
Different soil and how wet the mud was would effect how much it shrinks and the ability of the plasterer, would effect how long it would last. some early log cabin chimney were with a square frame of wood lined with clay.
 
(Thomas L. Livermore, an officer of the 5th New Hampshire, attached to the ambulance corps) Three ambulance trains, one for each division in Second Corps. Total force of ambulance corps, 13 officers, 350-400 men and 300 or more horses with a little over 100 ambulances and 10 or 12 forage and forge wagons. Each two-horse ambulance was a stout spring wagon; inside this wagon were two seats the whole length, stuffed and covered with leather. Hinged to the inner edges of each of these seats was another leather-covered seat, which could be let down perpendicularly so as to allow the wounded to sit on the first seats facing each other, or could be raised and supported horizontally on a level with the first seats, and, as they filled all the space between the first seats, thus made a couch on which three men could lay lengthwise of the ambulance. In the rear of the ambulance under each seat was a water keg with the end out and containing a faucet, which contained fresh water for the wounded.
 
(Thomas L. Livermore, an officer of the 5th New Hampshire, attached to the ambulance corps) Three ambulance trains, one for each division in Second Corps. Total force of ambulance corps, 13 officers, 350-400 men and 300 or more horses with a little over 100 ambulances and 10 or 12 forage and forge wagons. Each two-horse ambulance was a stout spring wagon; inside this wagon were two seats the whole length, stuffed and covered with leather. Hinged to the inner edges of each of these seats was another leather-covered seat, which could be let down perpendicularly so as to allow the wounded to sit on the first seats facing each other, or could be raised and supported horizontally on a level with the first seats, and, as they filled all the space between the first seats, thus made a couch on which three men could lay lengthwise of the ambulance. In the rear of the ambulance under each seat was a water keg with the end out and containing a faucet, which contained fresh water for the wounded.
What eventually happened with the Rosecrans/Wheeling ambulance was the hanging of the water keg under the carriage and the space under the seats was occupied by stretchers. Some would retain one of the kegs under the seat and the other slung under the carriage and stretchers stowed in lieu of the keg. The Rosecrans ambulance was the most prevalent 4 wheel ambulance of the war, but is often confused with the Rucker ambulance which appeared towards the end and served to the turn of the century.
 
Back
Top