Transport

TRANSPORT. Wheeled vehicles, the mainstay of transport, were needed to move large quantities of military goods for the Revolutionary armies. A Continental army Wagon Department, subordinate to the quartermaster general, was created in 1777 to deal with increasingly complex transportation needs. Headed by a wagonmaster general, deputies were assigned to the main army and each regional military department. The Northern Department's deputy wagonmaster general alone had five wagonmasters under his direction; they, in turn, each had charge of one or more wagon brigades, comprising ten to twelve vehicles and drivers. The historian Erna Risch has noted, "The [1777] regulation establishing the Wagon Department remained in effect until 1780, when Congress drastically reorganized the Quartermaster's Department following the adoption of the system of specific supplies [via state governments]" (Supplying Washington's Army, p. 71).

Large numbers and various types of vehicles were needed for both the supply lines and army carriage. An October 1780 Continental army "Estimate of Waggons" listed "Total waggons for a regiment" as four "4 horse close covered waggons," one "2 horse close covered waggon or tumbril," six "4 horse open waggons," and one "2 horse open waggon or tumbril." Another document included brigade support vehicles, namely one covered wagon for the brigade quartermaster and stores, four open wagons for the commissary and provisions, two open wagons for the foragemaster, two open wagons for the commissary of military stores "for spare ammunition and arms," one traveling forge, and two covered wagons for ammunition. "Close" covered wagons had a canvas tarpaulin fitting snugly over the vehicle's load. Other wagons were topped with a high-standing, cloth-covered frame or bonnet. Depending on circumstances, American and British forces also used sleds and often packhorses.

Finding suitable wagons was a concern of Francis Rush Clark, "Inspector and Superintendent of His Majesty's Provision Train of Wagons and Horses," who wrote of British transport in 1776 and 1777

The English Waggons, sent over for the use of the Army, were undoubtedly much heavyer, than was either necessary or proper … [and] Orders were given, to hire Country Waggons in preference…. Nothing of this sort could be constructed more unfit for an Army. They are so slight, as to be perpetually in want of repair…. These were taken pro miscuously from the Farmers on Long Island & Staten Island, & some from the Jerseys. Many of them in a wretch'd Condition, & none having any Cover[s].

Clark's solution was to devise an "English reduced" wagon, having "One of the English Waggons … alter'd & set up upon the same principle, & reduced in Weight from 1350 lb to 900 lb, & made up very serviceable, & with some still lighter."

Both sides procured civilian wagons, and some, such as the large but serviceable Pennsylvania Conestogas, were used predominantly as long-distance carriers rather than for regimental baggage. Suitability for campaign use was based on a vehicle's balance of endurance, capacity, and weight. One Conestoga example, dating to about 1762, had a bed four feet wide by fourteen feet long (comparable in size to the cumbersome "English Waggons"), and a June 1781 Continental artillery transport estimate called for "Waggons or carts well coverd each to carry about 1400 lbs." According to Superintendent Clark, the "large English" wagon was about the same weight as a "Philadelphia Waggon" (1,350 pounds, 12 feet 3 inches long). Among the several vehicle types noted by Clark were the "Dutch or American" wagon (700 to 800 pounds, 9 feet 10 inches long), the "English reduced" (850 pounds), and the 700-pound "new Waggon with Rope Sides & Bottom, [that] runs light & handy." Clark stated this last vehicle "has been greatly approved by all that have seen it, as the best & most fit for American Service":

The Body of this Waggon is 10 Feet long, & 3 Feet 6 Inches wide, The Sides are 18 Inches high, & turn down with hinges; a Box before, a hind Board framed light, to take off at pleasure, The Hind Wheels 4 Feet 8 Inches high, & the Fore Wheels 3 Feet 8 Inches high…. This Waggon is made 4 Inches lower before than behind, which greatly facilitates the draught & light going, & the floor & Sides are made of Rope, spun of old Cordage, as few or no boards are to be purchased in these times … if thought better, the floor & sides might be made with thin, light battins, flat hoops or twisted hay (ibid).

Army trains could be inordinately long, and that of Lieutenant General Sir Henry Clinton's during the Monmouth campaign was likely the war's largest, with 1500 wagons taking up "near twelve miles" of road.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Clark, Francis Rush. Papers. Sol Feinstone Collection. David Library of the American Revolution, Washington Crossing, Pa.

Greene, Nathanael, "Estimate of Teams to be employed in transporting Provisions and Forage from Trenton to Kings Ferry," 19 October 1778, George Washington Papers, Presidential Papers Microfilm, Washington: Library of Congress, 1961, series 4, reel, reel 53.

Rees, John U. "'Employed in Carrying Cloathing & Provisions': Wagons and Watercraft during the War for Independence." Part 1: "'Country Waggons,' 'Tumbrils,' and 'Philadelphia Carts': Wheeled Transport in the Armies of the Revolution." The Continental Soldier 12, no. 2 (Winter 1999): 18-25.

Risch, Erna. Supplying Washington's Army. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1981.

Shumway, George, Edward Durell, and Howard C. Frey. Conestoga Wagon 1750–1850. York, Pa.: George Shumway, 1964.