The Logistics of the United States Army, 1812–1821 A
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THE LOGISTICS OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY, 1812–1821 A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Jean-Pierre Beugoms December 2018 Examining Committee Members: Gregory J. W. Urwin, Advisory Chair, History Jay B. Lockenour, History Seth C. Bruggeman, History Samuel J. Watson, External Member, United States Military Academy, History © Copyright 2018 by Jean-Pierre Beugoms All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT The acquisition and transportation of supplies for the U.S. Army proved to be the most intractable military problem of the War of 1812. Logistics became the bane of successive secretaries of war and field commanders, and of the soldiers who fought the British and Canadian troops, and their native allies. Historians have correctly ascribed the failure of American arms to achieve its principal war aim, the conquest of Canada, to the dysfunctional logistical and supply system. The suffering of soldiers who received subpar food and clothing, and experienced a shortage of weapons, ammunition, and fuel, moreover, are a staple of the historical literature on the war. Although this dissertation analyzes the causes and consequences of the breakdown in logistics, it also focuses on the lesser-known story of how the Corps of Quartermasters made logistics work under difficult conditions. It investigates how the military professionals within the officer corps drew lessons from their wartime travails and made common cause with reform-minded civilians in the hope of creating a better logistical system. Their combined efforts led to the postwar reform drive that gave the U.S. Army permanent supply departments, a comprehensive set of regulations, effective measures to enforce accountability, a new system for distributing food to the army, and a construction boom in military roads. Reformers also transformed the Quartermaster Corps to a greater degree than previously thought. Historians have long argued that the U.S. Army did not have a professionalized officer corps until the end of the nineteenth century. Recently, historians have considered the professional aspects of the antebellum officer corps. This dissertation argues that the origins of military professionalism can be traced back to the iii War of 1812. Army quartermasters, in particular, stood in the vanguard of military progress. Quartermaster General Thomas Sidney Jesup emphasized military expertise, education, and training far more than had his predecessors, and quartermasters typified the growing commitment of army officers to a lifetime of service to the nation. Jesup envisioned that his department would become an elite staff of military logisticians. He also wanted that peacetime staff to be large enough to support an army at war. He opposed the practice of appointing businessmen to fill quartermaster vacancies during a war, believing that these men did not have the basic competencies to perform their tasks well. In fact, the performance of civil appointees and career officers improved over the course of the war and a few even proposed logistical reforms that the army would later adopt. The War of 1812 not only provided the catalyst for the postwar reform of logistics and the onset of a professional ethic among quartermasters, but the process of professionalizing logistics actually began during the war. This study’s main findings draw on the private and official correspondence of army officers and secretaries of war, which reside in published government documents and manuscript collections housed in the National Archives, Library of Congress, and various universities and historical societies. Army registers, college registers, local histories, genealogies, and officers’ letters facilitated the reconstruction of quartermasters’ careers. iv For Lindsey v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I am grateful to my mentors, colleagues, family, and friends for the myriad ways in which they have helped me in this endeavor. First, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Gregory J. W. Urwin, for his guidance and unflagging support throughout my graduate education at Temple University. Dr. Urwin demands good work from his students. His constructive criticism has been invaluable in showing me how to think like a historian and how to hone my skills as a writer. He has prepared me well for a career as a historian. For that, I am grateful. Anyone who has had the pleasure of studying under Dr. Urwin’s direction also knows that he believes in his students. I have taken heart from his confidence in me, and that is the factor most responsible for spurring me on to the finish line. I am fortunate to have him as an advocate. I owe a particular debt to the members of my dissertation committee. Dr. Jay Lockenour’s influence on my intellectual development and my growth as a teacher is considerable. I am deeply grateful for his feedback and advice through the years, and for his eagerness to write letters of recommendation on my behalf. Dr. Seth Bruggeman steered my dissertation in the right direction at an early stage, and offered interesting ways of approaching this topic. My external reader, Dr. Samuel Watson, was an ideal choice to serve on my committee because of his expertise on the U.S. Army before the Civil War. Conversations with him on the subject were always engaging and his insights introduced me to perspectives and historical problems that I had not considered before. Other scholars have had a direct or indirect influence on this work. Dr. David Waldstreicher stimulated my interest in early American history at the beginning of my vi graduate studies. I appreciate his comments during my prospectus defense and his willingness to continue to be of service even after leaving the department. I thank Dr. Andrew Isenberg once again for serving on the advisory committees for my master’s thesis and comprehensive examinations. His probing questions pushed me to rethink some of my assumptions of U.S. history. I am grateful to Dr. Kenneth Kusmer for serving on my comps committee and to Dr. Beth Bailey for introducing me to various writing moves and methodological approaches. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. William B. Skelton. His scholarly oeuvre on military professionalism laid the intellectual groundwork for my thinking on this subject. His service as a commenter on a panel that I organized at the 2017 Annual Meeting of the Society for Military History is deeply appreciated. The comments that he delivered on my paper, which later became Chapter 6 of this dissertation, made the final draft stronger than it otherwise would have been. I could not have completed this journey without the fellowship of my colleagues at Temple University. We endured graduate school together and, in the process, became friends. They are Tyler Bamford, Earl Catagnus, Jr., Martin Clemis, Michael Dolski, Chris Golding, Rich Grippaldi, Eric Klinek, Matt Shannon, Jason Smith, and Josh Wolf. The secretaries of Temple’s History Department deserve special mention for making my life a little easier, especially Vangeline Campbell and the late Patricia Williams. My experience working for the Philadelphia Rare Books and Manuscripts Company, where I was a cataloguer of the Americana collection for many years, is one of the main reasons why I became interested in eighteenth and nineteenth century America. David Szewcyzk and Cynthia Buffington, the firm’s partners, were great bosses. I thank them for their kindness, generosity, and supportiveness. vii Grants and awards were critical for completing my graduate education. These include the Temple University Graduate School’s Dissertation Completion Grant; the A. Charles and S. Nevada Adams Graduate Research Assistantship; the Society for Military History’s ABC-Clio Research Grant; and the History Department’s Sergeant Major William F. Berger Endowed Fellowship for War and Society. I also want to express appreciation to the Smith Richardson Foundation for funding my participation in the West Point Summer Seminar in Military History. My two weeks at the United States Military Academy was one of the highlights of my graduate school experience. There I had the opportunity to present my preliminary research findings for the first time, to meet other early career scholars with similar interests, and to develop pedagogical and analytical skills under the tutelage of a fine group of military historians. My brother Alain Beugoms and my sister-in-law Sarah Cohen Beugoms have been a wellspring of emotional support for me. Above all, I owe a debt of gratitude to my wife Lindsey Keskinen Beugoms for her encouragement and limitless patience. As a Ph.D. herself, she realized that there would be long stretches of time when I would be distracted or simply unavailable. I admire her ability to take it all in stride. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... iii DEDICATION .....................................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. vi GLOSSARY .......................................................................................................................x CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................1 2. THE U.S. ARMY SUPPLY AND LOGISTICS SYSTEM IN PEACE AND