Saturday, May 29, 2010

LOGISTICS AND TRANSPORTATION IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART II

Copyright © 2006 by St. Louis Public Library. All rights reserved.

III. Civil War Era Manufacturing

Industrial Workers:
North: 1,300,000
South: 190,000

Capital Invested in Manufacturing:
North: $892,512,979
South: $113,099,460

Per Cent of National Industrial Investment:
North: 84%
South: 16%

Per Capita Industrial Investment:
North: $43.73
South: $13.25

The state of Massachusetts produced 1 1/2 times more manufactured goods than did the eleven seceding states combined. The city of Lowell, Massachusetts produced more cotton goods than did the eleven seceding states combined. The Northern states combined had ten times the manufacturing capacity of the South.

Of 143 important American inventions patented between 1790-1860, 133 patents were granted to inventors from Northern states, and fully half of those were granted to inventors from New England states.

At the time of Civil War, the United States was already the world front-runner in terms of firearms manufacture. The famous British Enfield rifle was produced using machinery imported from the US. A revolver factory in London used production machinery purchased from Samuel Colt and made in Connecticut.

IV. Civil War Era Land Transportation

Roads

In 1860, there were 88,000 miles of hard-surfaced roads in the United States, most of them in Northern states. Roads that had not been hard-surfaced became muddy quagmires after hard rains, and threw up clouds of people and livestock-choking dust when bone-dry in the summer. Even roads that had been hard-surfaced required regular maintenance, of course, and such efforts during the war were hampered (especially in the South) by lack of skilled labor and materials.

Railroads

Miles of Railroad in 1861:

Union: 21,276
Confederate: 9,000

Miles of Railroad in 1865:

Union: 25,276
Confederacy: 9,400 (an overall increase, although some lines essential to the war effort were unusable due to capture or damage by Union armies)

Only one Civil War era railroad line ran east to west across the South: that line ran from Richmond through Chattanooga to Memphis (and was thus situated too close to the North to be easily defensible).

United States Military Railroads

On January 31, 1862, Congress passed the Railways and Telegraph Act, which allowed the president to bring under military control as necessary men and equipment of railroad and telegraph companies. On February 11, 1862, the War Department created the United States Military Railroads, which (for the most part) ran railroads in hostile or occupied territory. It eventually ran 16 railroads in the Eastern Theater and 19 shorter lines in the Western Theater on 2,105 miles of track. It operated 419 locomotives hauling 6,330 cars over that track.

Railroads in the Southern States

Southern railroads faced numerous problems during the war:

1. Lack of a central planning/administration authority
2. Lack of a uniform track gauge
3. Few railroad lines were connected- wagon transport of goods necessary from one rail line to the next
4. Few facilities in South to manufacture replacement locomotives, cars, and track
5. Union blockade made it extremely difficult to import needed locomotives, cars, and track
6. Labor shortage made it difficult to find skilled workers to make new railroad ties
7. Confederate Conscription Act of 1864 reduced number of railroad employees exempt from the draft
8. Southern railroads often the target of invading armies/cavalry raids

Achievements of the Civil War Railroads

1. During Atlanta Campaign, railroads moved supplies for 100,000 men and 35,000 animals from a supply base 360 miles distant. Moving those supplies by wagon would have required 36,800 wagons drawn by six mules each, each moving 20 miles per day.
2. After William S. Rosecrans's defeat at Chickamauga in September 1863, 20,000 Union troops, their animals and equipment were moved 1,200 miles in eleven days to reinforce Rosecrans's besieged army at Chattanooga.
3. Braxton Bragg in July 1862 managed to move 30,000 men 776 miles from Mississippi to Chattanooga (took a roundabout route to avoid Union troops) in two weeks.

[Sources of statistics and bibliography included in last installment of this article.]

Thomas A. Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library

Saturday, May 22, 2010

LOGISTICS AND TRANSPORTATION IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, PART I

Copyright © 2006 by St. Louis Public Library. All rights reserved.


I. Civil War Era Geography & Population

Number of States:

North: 23, plus seven territories and District of Columbia

South: 11

Total Number Persons:

North: 22,339,989

South: 9,101,090

Total Black Persons:

North: 429,401 (slave); 355,310 (free); 784,711 (total)

South: 3,521,110 (slave); 132,760 (free); 3,653,870 (total)

The pool of persons liable for military service in the North was four times greater than the pool of eligibles in the South, even before free blacks are included in the totals. Also, immigration continued in the North during the war (more than 500,000 persons immigrated during 1861-1864), while the Union naval blockade halted most immigration to Southern states throughout the war.

Of the 25 largest cities in the US in 1860, only three were in seceding states: No. 6, New Orleans, LA; No. 22, Charleston, SC; and No. 25, Richmond, VA.

Because of advances in public schooling, only 6% of free adults in the North were illiterate in 1860. In the South public schooling had not yet made wide inroads, and the failure was reflected in Southern literacy rates- nearly 50% of free Southern adults were illiterate in 1860.

II. Civil War Era Agriculture

Cultivated Land:

North: 105,000,000 acres

South: 57,000,000 acres

Cash Value of Farms, Farm Dwellings, Livestock, & Farm Equipment:

North: $5,056,151,204

South: $1,579,349,508

Cash Value of Farm Implements, Machinery, & Livestock:

North: $930,413,926

South: $397,072,820

Amount of Farm Equipment per Agricultural Worker:

North: $66.00

South: $38.00

Percentage of Labor Force Engaged in Agriculture:

North: 40%

South: 84%

Farm production in the North actually increased during the war, in spite of the loss of thousands of farmers to the Union Army. Bumper crops in 1861 and 1862 actually meant that food was exported by the North in large quantities. The number of hogs butchered yearly in Chicago increased from 270,000 in 1861 to 900,000 in 1865. New farm machinery like mowers, horse rakes, separators, sowers, cultivators, and drills allowed farm wives to manage many of the chores that had recently required the physical strength of one or more men to accomplish. The US Department of Agriculture was formed during the war to help farmers produce larger crops with less labor.

Principal southern crops were cotton, tobacco, rice, and sugar. Continuous planting of cotton and tobacco tended to wear out the soil, leading to nitrogen depletion and lower crop yields. Also, the two major crops, cotton and tobacco, were not edible, and the Union blockade hindered Southern efforts to use exports of those crops to secure funds necessary to purchase war materials. The cotton-producing states kept only 5% of their crops for use by Southern mills- 70% was exported, mostly to England, and 25% was sent to mills in the North. Middlemen skimmed part of the profit right off the top, for insurance, warehousing, and shipping. The role of middlemen didn't stop there, of course- cotton goods being returned from English mills were usually sent to Northern ports, then shipped from there by rail to Southern markets.

[Sources of statistics and bibliography included in last installment of this article.]

Thursday, May 13, 2010

RESEARCHING JEWISH AMERICAN WAR VETERANS

I. Jewish Congressional Medal of Honor Winners

There have been seventeen Jewish recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor (first issued to soldiers of the Civil War):

Civil War: Six

Indian Wars: Two

Haitian Campaign: One

World War 1: Three

World War II: Three

Vietnam War: Two

II. Bibliography

A St. Louis metro-area library owns a copy of the following books unless otherwise noted. You can check ownership of a particular title at WorldCat.org . St. Louis Public Library’s catalog is available on our website.

Bendersky, Joseph W. The "Jewish Threat": Anti-Semitic Politics of the U.S. Army. New York: Basic Books, 2000.

Congregation Temple Israel (Creve Coeur, Mo.). Temple Israel in World War II: Published on the 60th Anniversary of the Founding of Temple Israel. St. Louis, Mo: 1946.

Davis, Mac. Jews Fight Too! New York: Jordon Pub. Co, 1945.

Moore, Deborah Dash. GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation. Cambridge, Ma: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2004.

Rosen, Robert N. The Jewish Confederates. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2000.

Rosenthal, Monroe, and Isaac Mozeson. Wars of the Jews: A Military History from Biblical to Modern Times. New York: Hippocrene Books, 1990.

Rubin, Eli. 140 Jewish Marshals, Generals & Admirals. New York: Jason Books, 1952.

Spivak, Michelle, and Robert M. Zweiman. Jewish War Veterans of the United States. Paducah, Ky: Turner Pub. Co. 1996.

Weinberg, Sidney R. Jewish Combatants in the Wars of Early America: American Jewish Combatants in the Wars of Early America : All Were Military Casualties--Killed, Wounded, Taken Prisoner, or Seriously Ill in Line of Duty, During the Early Days of the American Republic, 1776-1865. Philadelphia: Xlibris Corp, 2000. [no local owners]

III. Webliography

Websites that provide information about Jewish American war veterans:

American Gold Star Mothers, Inc.

American Jews Serve in WWII

Famous Jewish Sailors

Four Chaplains

GI Jew

History of Jews in the Military

Jewish Chaplains Council

Jewish Heroes & Heroines of America

Jewish Recipients of the Congressional Medal of Honor

Jewish Sailors Memorial- WWII & Vietnam

JewishSailors.com

Jewish War Veterans of the United States

Jewish War Veterans Timeline

Tom Pearson, Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library
314-539-0381
tpearson@slpl.org

Friday, May 7, 2010

CENTRAL LIBRARY CLOSURE

St. Louis Public Library's Central Library in downtown St. Louis is closing on 14 June 2010 for a two-year renovation project. Here's the official announcement from the SLPL website:

LINK

NOTE: Central Library is located at 1301 Olive Street, St. Louis, MO 63103. History & Genealogy phone number is 314-539-0385.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

WARS OF OUR COUNTRY

An often times overlooked source of information on our ancestors is military records. If you had male ancestors in the age groups specified during the following wars, there may be a military service record at the National Archives in Washington, DC, or at the State Archives in the state whose military unit he served in:

1775-1783 Revolutionary War (Was your male ancestor 10-45 years of age in 1775?)

1812-1814 War of 1812 (Was your male ancestor 15-45 years of age in 1812?)

1846-1848 Mexican-American War (Was your male ancestor 16-45 years of age in
1846?)

1861-1865 Civil War (Was your male ancestor 13-45 years of age in 1861?)

1898 Spanish-American War (Was your male ancestor 18-45 years of age
in 1898?)

An often times overlooked source of information on our ancestors is military records. If you had male or female ancestors in the age groups specified during the following wars, there may be a military service record at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, or at the State Archives in the state he or she enlisted from:

1917-1918 World War I (Was your male ancestor 17-45 years of age in 1917?)

1941-1945 World War II (Was your ancestor 13-45 years of age in 1941?)

1950-1953 Korean War (Was your ancestor 15-45 years of age in 1950?)

1964-1973 Vietnam War (Was your ancestor 9-45 years of age in 1964?)

1990-1991 Gulf War (Was your ancestor 17-45 years of age in 1990?)

ROOTS: DISCOVERING YOUR AFRICAN ORIGINS, PT. VI

X. Bibliography

Bergman, Peter. Chronological History of the Negro in America (1969). HG-Ref 326

Cooke, Jacob E., ed. Encyclopedia of the North American Colonies (1993), vol. II. HG-Ref 940.03

Davidson, Basil. Africa in History: Themes and Outlines (1991). HG-Ref 960.03

Miller, Randall M., ed. Dictionary of Afro-American Slavery (1988). HG-Ref 305.567

Morrison, Donald G. Black Africa: a Comparative Handbook (1972). ST-Circ 309.167

Murdock, George P. Africa: Its Peoples and Their Cultural History (1959). ST-Circ 572.96

Oliver, Roland, ed. Cambridge Encyclopedia of Africa (1981), pp.78-86, 145-155. HG-Ref 960.03

Compiled by Thomas A. Pearson
Reference Librarian
Special Collections Department
St. Louis Public Library


Other SLPL indexes and bibliographies

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