Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1890-02-20
CAMPFIRE STORIES.
A ooMmIssARrs STORY.
Incidents Comic and Tragic in the Army
of the Potomac.

/ of the Potomac.
At the beginning of hostilities, the
| Commissary Department of the army
| was meager affair. Brigadier-General
| Taylor was at its head. But as the war
| went on, it soon became evident that
the department needed oyerhauling and
enlarging. This was successfully done
by Colonels Amos Beckwith, George
Bell, Thomas Wilson and some others
of the old regular army, who formulated
bill to be presented to Congress, max
ing it distinct and separate depart
ment, with one Major-General and as
many Brigadier-Generals, Colonies, Ma
jors and Captains as the service required.
The bill passed, and the department
was reorgan.zed early in the spring of
1868.
At this time Lieutenant-Colonel Geo.
Bell was the chief Depot Commissary
| Of the Army Of the Potomac, and sta
toned at Alexandria, Va. He ran the
largest grocery store this country ever
saw. In fact, many in the service had
| only faint idea of the immense amount
of stores required to feed the large Army
of the Potomac. or of the labor Of I'M
loading vessels and reloading into
lighter draft boats, cars and wagons
At the time of McClellan's evacuation
of the Peninsula in August, 1862, large
amount of stores on land, at the water
base, were ordered to be burned. After
throwing on to the mountain Of hard
tack and other stores large quantity of
Xxx Commissary whisky, it was fired,
although before the last boat was well
out into the stream the Johnnies were
trying to save some Of the rations.
During the war there were many mill
lions of dollars worth of stores de-
stroyed to prevent their falling into the
hands of the enemy.
1t was in August, 1862, that General
John Pope was holding Lees army at
bay along the Rappahannock river, and
after fighting the second Bull Run
battle, and was forced TO change his base
to Washington on the double quick
march.
Before going into the battle the
troops piled their knapsacks, overcoats,
blankets and haversacSs, and left them
in the rear, expecting to return for them
after the fight. In their hasty retreat
to Washington they had no time to re-
cover their baggage. 1t was at this
time that / was ordered to take supply
train of sixteen wagons, loaded with
marching rations, bareback, pork, cof-
fee and sugar, and proceed toward
Fairfax Court House and issue them to
the troops wherever could find an Of
6cer to receipt for them.
/ left Alexandria late in the afternoon,
with wagons loaded to the top of the
bows. We followed the London pike
during the night, meeting no large body
of troops. but stragglers by the hun
dreds, all hungry and footsore. The
demands for bareback we're numerous.
could issue only TO a commissary or
quartermaster, and was in a tight place.
had to account for every pound in the
wagons on my return, but there was no
resisting the demands for bareback, and
I ordered the men TO throw out fifty
pound boxes of hardtack-enough to
give them lunch-and whenever l met
an officer who wanted rations made
his invoices and receipts cover all my
extra issues.
In the afternoon of the next day 1
found myself we'll out into the country, |
and could not learn whether there were |
any more Of our troops in front OF me. |
At last | met an old colored man, and |
asked him where l was. He said: rs |
you uns Marser LinlSum's men9" When
Ireplied Eyes" he said: For de Lords |
sake, Marser, turn back just as quick as |
ever you can, for de Johnnies is right |
ober dere, and dey catch you sure if dey
see you"
took him at his word, and turned
the train as quick as possible. We Just |
few over ten miles of ground toward AL
exandria in better time than army mules
were ever known to make before. We
ratified into Alexandria with an empty |
train and receipts for five hundred ra-
tons more than / started with.
In the spring of 1868 the depot COM
missary at Alexandria had on hand ready
for issue 1,0O0,0 900 ffty-pound boxes of
hard bread, 10, 900 barrels of pork and
beef, beans, peas and rice, coffee, tea and
sugar, soap and candles, pepper, salt and
desiccated mixed vegetables
(French) cabbage and curry, all in pro-
portion.
During the winter months the army
had to be supplied with potatoes to keep
off the scurvy. When it became known
along the New England coast that the
wanted large quantities of
potatoes, they did not stop to put them
in barrels, but shipped in bulk in sail
ing vessels. The first load to arrive
came from Maine. On removing the
matches the men who were to unload
them jumped down, and before they had
time to wink they were up to their necks
in frozen potatoes. They had frozen on
the way down the New England coast,
and when they arrived in the Potomac
river it was warm enough to thaw them.
The consequence was that they lost over
half their load.
During the winter of 1862 the brigade
field bake-ovens were found not to be a
success. The ration of -four was wasted,
and what bread was baked was poor in
nualifv and short in ouantitv