"Supply Depots" Topic

Ok, my web-foo has failed me so I am in need of your expert assistance.

Trying to find map showing American and British supply depots for the 1776 – 1779 time frame. I know Washington had depot's at Fishkill and Danbury. But trying to find a map showing the different locations with supply routes has failed me. Thanky

British supplies arrived courtesy of the Royal Navy and the convoys of merchant ships they escorted across the Atlantic to the main garrisons at New York, Halifax, Quebec, Savannah, etc. So their depots were essentially Great Britain and Ireland.

For the forces of Congress, there were certain places outside of the coastal areas which were already established as key manufacturing centres for both raw materials and finished goods from before the war. However, don't forget that the supply chain would include "assembly areas" where items would be collected initially, as well as the actual depots from which distribution to the troops would occur; the former would be constant, whilst the latter could shift according to the movements of friend and foe.

I'm not sure that anyone has published anything specific on this subject, although I have come across a book "To Starve the Army at Pleasure" which looks at Continental Army logistics, (that said, it might be more political so I'm not sure if it has the kind of detail you are looking for). You would probably need to look at each State in some detail and see what resouces the main conurbations had at the time – Google "[State name] in the American Revolution" and see what that gives you. Alternatively, check out anywhere that the Crown forces raided as a likely store of food and/or munitions.

Virtually any sizeable town not under British control, or within raiding range, could be a depot for Washington's army. In particular, towns with ironworks were vital because they would be home to cannon foundries and gunmakers; similarly, anywhere with large mills – usually water-powered – as local farmers would bring their grain there to be processed, rather than build their own mill.

Hello Ironwolf, perhaps your main interest is the North (and nothing wrong with that);if so my post may not be of interest to you. In the South, the main British depot was, of course, Charleston, but they had a sizeable and important forward depot at Camden, SC. This community also had a permanent garrison and was fully enclosed by a wooden palisade. Later in the southern campaign the British also established Wilmington, NC as a modest depot. The garrisons at Savannah, GA and Georgetown, SC received their supplies by sea, directly from Britain and Ireland, but did not function as depots for other forces.

The main Rebel depot in the South was at Hillsborough, but it was fed in part by depots in Richmond, VA, Portsmouth VA and Petersburg VA. Supplies were occasionally dispatched directly from these Virginia depots to the troops in the South.

Too many supply depots to list. Besides, what does that really mean? I think you are looking for something formal that was rather transient.

What brought this about is my recent readings on the AWI. I've come across several references to Fishkill, Danbury and Morristown being large supply depots for Washington's Army through out the entire war.

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PDF link

SuperMax – from the limited readings I've done today. I believe Fishkill and Danbury were collection points. No ironworks or mills so I'm guessing the items were assembled some place else. But I am still reading more on these locations.

Rawdon – We mostly game the northern theater with Washington vs Howe. But still interested in the south. So thank you for the information on supply points.

Would like to use this to put together a campaign game for our group.

hhmm, what about a map with roads for the period. Anyone familiar with a webpage that would have something like that. Now I'm off to search for something with roads. then I can start matching up towns and ports.
Thanky

Ironwolf,

This is the type of website you need to look for:-

link

link

And a useful article with further links at the bottom:-

qmfound.com/greene.htm

You'll be lucky to find a map of the 13 Colonies showing the major roads – for a start there were very few of them (roads) and for another maps covering that much area would not really include that level of detail. There were few major roads between cities and they mostly ran north-south – I may be wrong, but I think I-95 may cover most of these. Other roads were local affairs and were maintained by individuals who needed them (farmers, foundry/mill owners, etc) or by parish councils – these would appear on local maps, but not much more, possibly not even individual Colony/State maps.

SuperMax – Thanks for the links and the information. Weird place I found some information was the US Post Office. Found a listing of Postal Roads between the larger cities in 1770. It covered the Kings Road route with a few branches.

York and Lancaster Pennsylvania are likely places as is Springfield, MA.

Ironwolf – Yes, I meant to mention the Boston Post Road, but forgot. Pretty much the only major road in or out of it, everything else moved by ship.

If this helps, from "A History of Pennsylvania":

link

All of this has really helped me fill in the blanks on a lot of questions I had about Washington's army being supplied.