Translating that means a civilian crew member would be subject to, in accordance to military discipline, a court martial or lashing depending on the offense. And the entire crew was under military discipline. In general, the Army did not hesitate to use civilian crew members as combat personnel. However, some uncertainty exists around who manned the weaponry. If not a universal practice, arming civilian transports on the western rivers was widespread. Employed directly as carriers for the military, these civilian vessels “would become legal ships of war” and the civilian crew, “though not enlisted soldiers, are to be subject to orders, according to the rules and discipline of war.” Īrming the impressed and charted vessels was one of the many problems for the civilian owners. That subject, Army control of civilian transports and civilian crews, was evaluated extensively by Francis H Upton in 1861. Military control of civilian steamboats presented significant problems for the civilian owners. Describing his aversion to the Tennessee River, Col Richard D Cutts wrote “The railroad to Memphis and Columbus will be open next week & the Tennessee River may then go to hell where water is most needed.” General William Tecumseh Sherman expressed the antithesis in his fear of reliance on a railroad, writing ” … I am never easy with a railroad which takes a whole Army to guard, each foot of rail being essential to the whole whereas they can’t stop the Tennessee and each boat can make its own game.” Military opinions on railroads and steamboats were mixed. But due to the natural unpredictability of a river that lifeline was not always available. In the 1860′s, nothing could equal a river as a supply route. This advantage was also due in part to the fact that railroads in the South were undeveloped when compared to those in the North. This combination of power with speed could not be matched by the South. These floating fortresses could move an army in two or three hours longer distances than a regular army could march in a day. The immense superiority of the North measured in gunboats and packets turned the tide against the Confederacy in the west. And what roads they were – with the Tennessee and the Cumberland Rivers running for hundreds of miles through the central part of the Confederacy. However, it was not by chance that the Union Army followed the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and their tributaries. When they have described the role played by the transportation systems in the Civil War, most of their studies have been devoted to railroads and the great railroad barons. These perplexing problems led the Army, and Congress, to favor working with the railroad barons even though the cost was much greater.” That same attitude is partly the reason that historians have paid so little attention to steamboat transports. It was possible to make railroads wait for their money, but steamboat men had to be paid directly. For large movements of troops and supplies, the transportation offices of the Army had to manage many small charters or contracts with steamboat men. Unlike the railroads, the administration of a steamboat company seldom consisted of more than a few members and one boat. “During the Civil War railroads were well organized companies. The three major types of transportation were often used in conjunction with one another. Transportation of soldiers and supplies was not performed exclusively by railroads, steamboats, or horses and wagons. A few were even modified and used in direct tactical operations as tinclads.īackground. These boats served as a primary element of the Army supply system transporting supplies and troops. Many hundreds of other vessels were employed either under temporary impressment or charter to the Quartermaster. The government owned ninety-one (91) steamers. During the Civil War, the Union Army through the Army Quartermaster employed a large number of steamboats on the western rivers.
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