Overview

The official historian of the Army Transportation Corps provides a vivid account of supplying the army during the famous Peninsula Campaign in Virginia during the American Civil War. Contents include: Establishment of the Supply Base and Line of Communication; White House on the Pamunkey River; Importance of the Quartermaster; The Union Supply Base - White House; Contraband Labor; U.S. Military Railroad (USMRR); Battle of Fair Oaks and Stuart's Raid; Abandoning White House Supply Base; The Army's Retreat to the James River; On to White Oak Swamp. Excerpt: Contraband of War - Local Labor During the 19th century, the actual manual labor of logistics, such as teamsters and stevedores, was performed by civilians hired by the Quartermaster. The increasing size of the Army for the war created an increasing need for civilian labor to support it, especially when it invaded the Virginia Peninsula; but to encourage Southern states to rejoin the Union and prevent Border States from seceding to the rebel cause, President Lincoln's official policy toward slavery was to protect the rights of states to own slaves, thus enforcing the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 and confirming the slaves' status as legal property. By a twist of fate, the commanding general of Fortress Monroe was a former New York lawyer and it was this definition of slaves being property that allowed Major General Benjamin Butler to find a legal loophole to offer freedom to escaped slaves. This was the same shrewd general who shot his wife's lover in broad daylight in Washington and was acquitted by being the first to plea temporary insanity. A master of interpretation, if slaves were property; then by law any property employed by the enemy could be commandeered for military service. Consequently, when the Army of the Potomac arrived at Fortress Monroe in April 1862, the Quartermaster had a ready pool of local labor from which to hire.

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9781719889889

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