By Earl J. Hess
During the Civil War, neither the Union nor the Confederate
army could have operated without effective transportation systems. Moving men,
supplies, and equipment required coordination on a massive scale, and Earl J.
Hess’s Civil War Logistics offers the first comprehensive analysis of
this vital process. Utilizing an enormous array of reports, dispatches, and
personal accounts by quartermasters involved in transporting war materials,
Hess reveals how each conveyance system operated as well as the degree to which
both armies accomplished their logistical goals.
In a society just realizing the benefits of modern travel
technology, both sides of the conflict faced challenges in maintaining national
and regional lines of transportation. Union and Confederate quartermasters used
riverboats, steamers, coastal shipping, railroads, wagon trains, pack trains,
cattle herds, and their soldiers in the long and complicated chain that
supported the military operations of their forces. Soldiers in blue and gray
alike tried to destroy the transportation facilities of their enemy, firing on
river boats and dismantling rails to disrupt opposing supply lines while
defending their own means of transport.
According to Hess, Union logistical efforts proved far more
successful than Confederate attempts to move and supply its fighting forces,
due mainly to the North’s superior administrative management and willingness to
seize transportation resources when needed. As the war went on, the Union’s
protean system grew in complexity, size, and efficiency, while that of the
Confederates steadily declined in size and effectiveness until it hardly met
the needs of its army. Indeed, Hess concludes that in its use of all types of
military transportation, the Federal government far surpassed its opponent and
thus laid the foundation for Union victory in the Civil War.
About the Author
Earl J. Hess, Stewart W. McClelland Chair in History
at Lincoln Memorial University, is the author of eighteen books on the Civil
War, including Civil War Infantry Tactics, winner of the 2016 Tom Watson
Brown Book Award from the Society of Civil War Historians.
ISBN 978-0807167502, LSU Press, © 2017, Hardcover, 368
pages, Photographs & Illustrations, Maps, End Notes, Bibliography & Index.
$45.95. To purchase this book click HERE.
