Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1890-01-30
CAMPFIRE STORIES.
A coMMISSARYS STORY.
Incidents Comic and Tragic I'm the Army
of the Potomac.

At the beginning OF hoStlntleS, 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 overhauling and
enlarging. This was successfully done
by Colonels Amos Beckwith, George
Bell, Thomas Wilson and some others
| of the old regular army, who formulated
a 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
iors and Captains as the service required.
The bill passed, and the department
was reorganized 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, 1t 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 mil
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 hayersacks, 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 l 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 l could find an Of
fcer 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 were 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
l 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 l made
his invoices and receipts cover all my
extra issues.
In the afternoon of the next day
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 l met an old colored man, and
asked him where l was. He said: SIS
you uns Marser Linkum's men?" When
Ireplied YES" he said: ''For de Lord S
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"
l took him at his word, and turned
the train as quick as possible. We just
flew 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 1000, 900 fifty-pOund boxes of
hard bread, 10, 600 barrels of pork and
beef, beans, peas and rice, coffee, tea and
sugar, soap and candles, pepper, salt and
vinegar, 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
Government 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
| nd hofOro fhaU 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 flour was wasted,
and what bread was baked was poor in
quality and short in quantity.
The idea was conceived by Colonel
Bell of building a bakery with a capac-
i*y to supply an army Of 100000 men
with fresh bread daily. On laying his
plans before the Commissary-General
at Washington he was ordered to build
the bakery at Alexandria The build
ings were duly erected in the outskirts
of the city, on branch of the Orange
.. & Alexandria railroad leading to
Washington, and had a capacity for
baking 100, 900 loaves every twenty-four
hours.
In four months they made a saving
for the Government of $50, 900 and fur
nished the soldiers the same weight of