Source: https://www.kshs.org/p/supplying-the-frontier-military-posts/12750
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 14:38:58+00:00

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If the army could be concentrated and quartered in the region of supplies, the expenses could be kept down to a comparatively small sum; or if we had, as in former years, a single line of frontier a little in advance of the settlements, the same or similar would be the result; but now, from the nature of the case, our troops are scattered by companies to posts in the most inhospitable parts of the continent, to which every article of food, forage, clothing, ammunition, &c., must be hauled in wagons hundreds of miles at great cost. For the same reason this department [quartermaster] is heavily taxed by the cost of fuel and materials for making huts, sometimes at a distance of one or two hundred miles from a place where a growing twig as large as a walking stick can be found.
The quartermaster department of the army made all the contracts for transportation. Bids were received for the transportation of 100 pounds of goods over a certain route at a certain rate per 100 miles. The transportation of supplies from the army depots to many of the larger and more permanent posts was more economical and satisfactory when done by contractors than by the use of military trains.  The contractors generally used ox teams on the Plains because there was less danger of stampedes from thieving Indians (for the Indians did not care for oxen), and the oxen were better able to subsist on grass alone than mules or horses.
So far from being self-sustaining, the settlers could sell nothing except to the post, and if it goes they must go also, and that entirely irrespective of Indians.
The soldier's usefulness depended to a large degree upon his health. The free open life of the army tended to take care of his physical condition if his food was wholesome. Under the best conditions the rationing of an army is a difficult problem and it increases in proportion to the distance the troops are stationed away from sources of supply.
This ration was so large that if the food was wholesome and supplied in full the soldier fared very well.  In many cases in the permanent posts the companies were more than able to maintain their mess on the rations issued. The surplus was used to purchase extra articles for their mess, or applied to the company fund to be expended for the benefit of the company.
The common method, and in fact the only practical method, for supplying fresh beef to the army posts on the frontier was to purchase cattle on the hoof and graze and feed them at the posts, killing them for beef when needed.  The staple subsistence stores, however, were largely purchased in the large market cities such as St. Paul, Chicago, San Francisco, St. Louis and New Orleans. The average cost for a completed ration for the years of 1867, 1868 and 1869 was about 23 cents in currency.  This cost did not include the expense of transportation which in many cases increased the cost of a ration delivered at the place of consumption several times the original price.
Mrs. Summerhayes does not relate whether pink butter continued to be a staple article at the commissary, but she at least intimated that the commissary department was only subject to reform but not reformed.
Probably the most dreaded attack upon the health of the soldier in the frontier post was scurvy. Improper nourishment during the winter months was common at posts which were hundreds of miles away from civilization. The salt pork diet, with no vegetables, during the long winter months at the northern posts usually took its toll before summer. At Fort Lyon in the territory of Colorado the entire garrison, officers and men, on March 20, 1864, were affected with scurvy. Camp Fillmore in the same territory was also Reported in a similar condition.  To combat this disease fresh vegetables and fruits were necessary.
It was almost impossible, even at almost exorbitant prices, to secure a dependable supply of vegetables at many posts from the settlements hundreds of miles away. Because of this condition the military authorities encouraged the growing of vegetables near the post. Sometimes settlers would move into the vicinity but this often was impossible either because of Indian hostilities or the undesirability of the locality compared to other regions open to settlement. Another way to secure a supply was by post or company gardens. The company gardens served two purposes: First, they furnished a supply of fresh vegetables for the soldiers, which enriched their rations, and, second, the surplus could be sold and the money added to the company's mess fund.
Of the many duties of the quartermaster department of the army the purchase of all military supplies, except commissary and ordnance stores, was very important. These supplies included clothing, camp and garrison equipage, fuel, horses, forage, wagons, harness, tools and all other articles needed in the army. This department built or let the contracts for the construction of all buildings and transported all the military stores of every description used in the army. It also purchased the animals and equipment for all military trains. In other words the quartermaster furnished the supplies from the clothing on the enlisted soldier, to the flag on the flagstaff, or from the kettles in the mess kitchen to the mowing machines used for cutting the hay for the post.
The soldier on the frontier, to be effective, needed to be mounted. Because of this many of the infantry companies were mounted. In addition to horses for mounting troops a large number of mules were used by the quartermaster department. The number of animals used in the army June 30, 1868, was 9,433 cavalry horses, 749 artillery horses, 17,866 mules and 211 oxen for the military trains, and 1,808 officers' horses.  In 1869 there were in the service 8,232 horses, 16,670 mules and 161 work oxen; and in 1870 8,225 horses, 14,968 mules and 155 work oxen.  The vast majority of these animals were at the frontier posts where practically all the military trains were located.
Corruption, graft, and inefficiency were common in the army. The extent to which it affected the army on the frontier cannot be estimated. The fact that the army was poorly supplied in the quartermaster, commissary and ordnance stores was due either to corruption or "red tape." When the corruption took only the form of excessive rates of transportation or high prices it did not so materially affect the efficiency and morale of the army as it did when it involved also an inferior quality of goods such as rotten blankets and spoiled food.  The taxpayers were in both cases paying the high bill but in the latter case there was also an injustice done to the soldiers.
1. Report of the Secretary of War, 1869, v. I, pp. 30-31.
2. Ibid., 1866, p. 4.
4. House Executive Documents, No. 45, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 8-9.
5. Ibid., pp. 40-48; ibid., No. 20, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 3-4, 11; Secretary of War, Report, 1869, v. I, p. 442.
6. For an illustration see ibid., 1867, v. 1, p. 60.
7. Ibid., 1865, v. I, p. 112.
8. Paxson, Frederic L., The Last American Frontier (New York, 1910), pp. 190-191, quoting Frank A. Root's The Overland Stage to California (Topeka, 1901), p. 308; Lummis, Charles F., "Pioneer Transportation in America," McClure's Magazine, v. XXVI (October, 1905), P. 85.
9. Report of Lt. Col. J. H. Simpson in Report of the Secretary of the Interior, 1865, p. 885; Fite, Emerson David, Social and Industrial Conditions in the North During the Civil War (New York, 1910), pp. 36-39.
10. For descriptions of overland freight trains see Majors, Alexander, Seventy Years on the Frontier (Denver, 1893), pp. 102-105; Inman and Cody, The Great Salt Lake Trail (New York, 1898), pp. 388-389.
11. Secretary of War, Report, 1866, appendix, pp. 57-58.
12. Ibid., 1865, v. I, pp. 113-114.
13. Ibid., 1866, "Report of Quartermaster General," pp. 57-58.
14. Ibid., 1867, v. I, pp. 533-534; ibid., 1868, v. I, p. 830; ibid., 1869, v. I, p. 216; ibid., 1870, p. 152.
15. Ibid., 1869, v. I, p. 124.
16. Ibid., 1866, "Report of the Quartermaster General," p. 57. Custer had 800 six-mule wagons in his military train for the campaign of 1868-1869. &emdash; Lummis, loc. cit., p. 85.
17. Secretary of War, Report, 1866, "Report of the Quartermaster General," p. 58.
18. Ibid., 1865, v. 1, pp. 113-114. For descriptions of army wagon trains see Custer, Elizabeth B., Tenting on the Plains (New York, 1903), pp. 223-227.
20. Secretary of War, Report, 1868, pp. 61-62.
21. Custer, Tenting on the Plains, pp. 224-225.
23. Custer, Elizabeth B., Following the Guidon (New York, 1890), p. 78.
24. Secretary of War, Report, 1870, p. 152.
25. Ibid., 1868, v. I, p. 830.
26. Ibid., 1870, p. 152.
27. Welty, R. L., "The Frontier Army on the Missouri River," North Dakota Historical Quarterly, v. II, pp. 85-99.
28. Secretary of War, Report, 1866, "Report of Quartermaster General," p. 58.
29. Summerhayes, Martha, Vanished Arizona (Philadelphia, 1908), passim. Gives an account of the Arizona posts in the 1870's.
30. Secretary of War, Report, 1870, p. 17.
31. Ibid., 1868, v. I, p. 810.
32. Ibid., 1869, v. I, p. 212.
33. Ibid., 1870, p. 151.
34. Senate Executive Documents, No. 26, 40 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1.
35. See letter of General Sherman in ibid., No. 13, 40 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 3-4.
36. Secretary of War, Report, 1870, pp. 15-16.
37. Ibid., 1869, v. I, pp. 124-126.
38. Ibid., 1870, p. 265.
39. Custer, Following the Guidon, p. 205; Cf. Revised Regulations For the Army of the United States, 1861 (Philadelphia, 1861), p. 243.
40. Custer, Following the Guidon, p. 230.
41. Ibid., pp. 204-205, 241-246.
42. Greeley, Horace, An Overland Journey From New York to San Francisco in the Summer of 1859 (New York, 1860), p. 199.
43. Secretary of War, Report, 1868, v. I, pp. 966, 971. For a description of desiccated vegetables which were used in the army see Ostrander, Olsen B., An Army Boy of the Sixties (New York, 1924), p. 150.
44. Secretary of War, Report, 1860, p. 237.
45. Ibid., 1867, v. I, pp. 576-577; ibid., 1868, pp. 959-961; ibid., 1869, p. 410.
46. House Executive Documents, No. 5, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 1.
47. Senate Executive Documents, No. 74, 40 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 1-2.
48. Custer, Tenting on the Plains, pp. 393-394; Cf. Ostrander, An Army Boy of the Sixties, pp. 134-135.
49. Secretary of War, Report, 1869, v. I, p. 31.
52. Summerhayes, Vanished Arizona, p. 206.
53. The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Ser. I, v. XXXIV, Pt. II, pp. 670-671.
54. Forsyth, George A., The Soldier (New York, 1908), pp. 97-98.
55. Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1865, pp. 204-205.
56. House Executive Documents, No. 248, 40 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 2-8.
57. Secretary of War, Report, 1868, v. I, pp. 23, 972.
58. House Executive Documents, No. 20, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 2; Cf. Stanley, Henry M., My Early Travels and Adventures (New York, 1895), v. I, p. 84.
59. House Executive Documents, No. 5, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 1-2.
60. Ibid., No. 45, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 32. Wood was bought at this post for $109 a cord. &emdash; Cf. Ibid., No. 20, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 2.
61. Senate Executive Documents, No. 74, 40 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 1-2.
62. Secretary of War, Report, 1867, v. 1, p. 609.
63. Senate Executive Documents, No. 13, 40 Cong., 1 Sess., pp. 29-30.
64. House Executive Documents, No. 20, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 14.
65. Secretary of War, Report, 1866, appendix, p. 59.
66. House Executive Document, No. 23, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 7.
67. Secretary of War, Report, 1870, p. 146.
68. Ibid., 1868, pp. 812-814, 850-851. The officers owned their horses.
69. Ibid., 1870, p. 146.
70. Ibid., 1868, v. I, pp. 812-814.
71. Ibid., pp. 812-814, 850-851; ibid., 1869, v. I, p. 224; ibid., 1870, p. 245.
72. House Executive Documents, No. 20, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 15; Cf. Gen. J. F. Rusling's inspection, ibid., No. 45, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., p. 45.
73. Secretary of War, Report, 1870, pp. 146-147.
74. The War of the Rebellion . . . Records, Ser. I, v. XLVIII, Pt. II, p. 947.
75. Secretary of War, Report, 1869, v. I, p. 223.
76. See House Executive Documents, No. 111, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 3-5, for an illustration of corruption.
77. Ibid., No. 20, 39 Cong., 2 Sess., pp. 5, 13-14.

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