A Brigade Commissary and his Wagon Train.

   Federal general Henry Halleck, in November 1862, told Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton that the Confederates had an advantage over the Federal armies. Due to the lack of wagons in the Confederate army, Confederate soldiers “exhibited much more mobility and activity than our own… Once accustomed to a certain amount of transportation, an army is unwilling to do without the luxuries which it supplies in the field.” (Official Records, vol. 19, pt. 1, 6) I’m sure that Lee, at any part of the war, would have liked to have better amounts of transportation.

   At some point prior to October 1, 1862, Lee had set the number of wagons for his army: three wagons for division headquarters, two for brigade headquarters, and one for regimental baggage. Each regiment also had one wagon for hospital stores, one for medical stores, one regimental ordnance wagon, and one wagon for every one hundred men in the regiment.

   Lee, in this October 1, 1862, letter to Jackson, tells us that D. H. Hill’s Division also contained a division ordnance train of 22 wagons, division commissary train of 20 wagons, and division forage train of 10 wagons. (Official Records vol. 19, pt. 2, 641) At the time of the battle of Sharpsburg, the Confederate army contained nine infantry divisions. If the other infantry divisions were so equipped, then division trains would have been composed of 198 ordnance wagons, 180 commissary wagons, and 90 forage wagons. Lee believed that each infantry regiment averaged 300 men, so, that is 6 wagons per regiment. At Sharpsburg, there were 183 infantry regiments in the Army of Northern Virginia. That is 1,098 wagons, plus 94 more for brigade headquarters, 27 for division headquarter. That comes to 1,687 wagons, just for the infantry.

US Army wagon. (Library of Congress) 

   On July 16, 1863, Lee issued a general order reducing the army’s wagon train. Now, Division headquarters had two wagons, and brigade headquarters, one wagon, plus one wagon for medical stores. Regimental headquarters had one wagon for headquarters, which included the surgeon, quartermaster, and commissary. If a regiment had 300 men or less, one wagon, and over 300 men two wagons. (Official Records vol. 27, pt. 3, p. 2015) As Lee was preparing for active campaigning in April 1864, new guidance was being issued by army headquarters. Division headquarters were authorized three wagons, plus three wagons for forage, and one for medical supplies; brigade headquarters one wagon, plus three wagons for forage, and one for medical supplies. Each regiment received one wagon for headquarters and one wagon to haul cooking utensils. (Official Records Vol. 33, 1263)

   While these numbers do not give us an exact number of wagons, they do supply us with an idea of the numbers involved.

   When the army was in camp, a wagon would have visited the nearest depot to pick up rations for the regiment or brigade. In the winter of 1862-63, it appears that the Army of Northern Virginia was only issuing rations once a week. So a wagon would have gone and picked up their week’s allotment, regimental and commissary sergeants would have divided up the rations issued to the regiments, which would have been further divided up and issued to the companies.

   There is really not a lot of information from the men who drove these wagons. One interesting account comes from Nicholas B. Gibbon. Gibbon grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina, served in the 1^st North Carolina Volunteers, and from October 1861 to September 1863, as assistant commissary of subsistence in the 28^th North Carolina Troops. (At times it appears he was on brigade staff as well.) Most readers might be more familiar with Gibbon’s older brother, Federal Maj. Gen. John Gibbon. Nicholas Gibbon’s diary/memoirs survives and is interesting in his details about being with the wagons.

      During the Seven Days battles, Gibbon writes that “each regimental commissary was ordered to report at Division Headquarters with sufficient transportation for two days rations and await orders, so that the part I took in the fight around Richmond was to deliver rations of hard bread and bacon to my Regt but always waiting orders before moving up. The Brigade train was altogether and generally moved at night after the men had stopped fighting so that it was my luck to travel nearly all night and arise early in the mornings.”

   On August 6, Gibbon was assigned as temporary brigade commissary, Branch’s brigade. They went into camp that night near Madison Court House. “I assisted in driving my beef cattle with the wagons and came up with the Infantry after they had gone into camp.” Gibbon built a temporary pen for the cattle. The next morning, some of the cattle were slaughtered and issued to the brigade. Gibbon was with the wagon train for the next few days, missing the battle of Cedar Mountain. The day after the battle, Gibbon found Branch and made arrangements to issue food to the brigade. Since the men were not  allowed a fire, Gibbon selected a point behind the lines, and as the brigade moved by the next morning, issued them fresh beef.

   Right before the battle of Second Manassas, Gibbon writes that the brigade was crossing the Hazel River. The wagon train and beef on hoof “had to be driven higher up the river and crossed over” at a different point, taking a roundabout way to reach the camp. Once there, the brigade marched into the woods near the wagon park, “and though the night was very dark I fed the men with flour and fresh beef.” Gibbon moved with the troops to Maryland and back. While back at Hedgesville, charged with destroying the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Gibbon reported that he “had to subsist the Brigade from the surrounding country which had been drained of nearly everything like commissary stores. But by constant riding and empressing cattle and flour I managed to keep the men supplied with flour, beef, and salt.”

   Gibbon returned to the 28^th North Carolina after five months detached duty. In April 1863, the position of Assistant Commissary of Subsistence on the regimental level was abolished by Congress. Gibbon would serve as assistant Commissary of Subsistence to Cadmus Wilcox for the rest of the war.

   If anyone is aware of a diary or letters or reminisces by other Confederate commissaries, I’d love to hear from them.

(Nicholas Gibbon's Diary is at UNC-Charlotte.)