GDG- Supoplying the armies

[George Connell]

Very interesting. Thank you.

Regards,

George
26ª11'56"N   81ª48'19W"

On Jan 28, 2012, at 10:36 AM, CWMHTours at aol.com wrote:

> Esteemed GDG Member Contributes:
> 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
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