Supplying an Army
By Paul Zeller, a VHS volunteer
Did you ever move, feed and clothe an army? No? Well Perley P. Pitkin of Montpelier did during the Civil War. Within the collections at the Vermont History Center are over a hundred of Pitkin’s military papers and they tell quite a tale. Pitkin was commissioned a first lieutenant and quartermaster of the 2nd Vermont Infantry Regiment on June 6, 1861, and was
with the regiment at the first battle at First Bull Run. By February 1862, his talents as a logistician were recognized by his superior officers and he was promoted to captain and made assistant quartermaster of the Army of the Potomac. In the spring of 1863, after the disastrous Chancellorsville Campaign, the Army of the Potomac was at Fredericksburg in a stand off with Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern of Virginia. The Federal supply base was at Belle Plain, a few miles north of Fredericksburg and Captain Pitkin was in charge.
In addition to the supply base, he was also in charge of the port at Aquia Creek. In his papers are several log pages of the arrival and departure of vessels, 36 arrivals and 31 departures. The log page for June 3 paints a vivid picture of what the little port must have looked like. There were steamers, schooners, tug boats and barges, gun boats and a ferry boat with such names as steamer Hero, tug Lioness, gun boat Ella, and the steamer Three Brothers. The vessels carried a wide variety of personnel and supplies such as commissary supplies, mail and passengers, hay, soft bread, contraband (run away slaves) and refugees, and troops. One can just see the ships anchored in mid stream being unloaded by black stevedores and Union troops, with braying mules being winched over the side of a ship and vessels at the wharf being unloaded by hand and loaded into rail cars, with sergeants and officers barking orders.
After the battle at Gettysburg July 1-3, 1863, the Army of the Potomac was on the move chasing Robert E. Lee’s army back to Virginia. Pitkin was in charge of a depot in Alexandria and feverishly working to provide support to his army. Typical of the telegrams in his papers was one sent on July 9, by a captain at Sandy Hook, Maryland, “AQM can you supply me tonight one (100) artillery horses and one hundred (100) mules?” Three days later a frantic telegram was received reading, “I have over 700 animals here and can find no forage on post. QM please send me immediately 35,000 lbs. grain and 25,000 lbs. hay and one case of about 100 pairs of shoes.”
In the winter of 1863-1864, the Army of the Potomac lay in and around Brandy Station, Virginia. The rail yard there was full of hustle and bustle as Pitkin, now a colonel, fed and clothed the 100,000-man army. Again from his papers is a daily log of the rail cars at the station and their contents. The following are a few examples of the contents of the rail cars: car No. 1101, 25 barrels whiskey, 40 barrels flour; car No. 1114, 33 barrels beans, 30 barrels dried apples, 15 barrels salt; and car No. 384, 60 barrels pork.
Perley P. Pitkin served as assistant quartermaster of the Army of the Potomac until November 1864, when the Governor of Vermont requested he return home to be promoted to brigadier general and become the Quartermaster General of Vermont. Pitkin did as requested and served in that position until the fall of 1869.
Pitkin’s folder of military papers is only one of many of the Civil War papers, letters, diaries and memoirs in the Vermont Historical Society’s collections. All are interesting, some are humorous and others will just break your heart.
