GDG- Supoplying the armies

[CWMHTours at aol.com]

Andy brought up the procedures of supplying the  armies.
 
At the risk of boring people with another DC story there is  something 
mildly weird in Alexandria.  Along the Potomac is a small ridge  maybe 15-20 
feet high.  I think it is millions of years old alluvial silt  deposits from 
the Potomac flooding when the water level was higher.
 
On Wilkes St there is a tunnel through it where the other  streets go over 
it.  Always wondered about it then I found out that before  the CW the 
tracks of the O&A RR ran through the tunnel to docks on the  Potomac.  During the 
war vessels would come up and offload directly into  the freight cars and 
the stuff shipped directly out to the Union armies.   Then there were some 
hospital cars that would be pushed through the tunnels,  placed onto barges 
where steam tugs would move them up to places like Balt or  Philly.
 
How much H Haupt had to do with this I don't know.  They  would load 
freight cars onto the barges- they would be loaded perpendicular to  the hull of 
the barge. From there they would be sent to Fredericksburg or City  Point 
where they would be put back on the tracks.
 
By @ 1863 the tracks of the B&O were extended across the  Potomac into 
Alexandria and connected with the O&A.
 
Hope you find this story interesting.
 
A  Loyal Neo-Anti Unionist,
Peter