"Pontoon Trains" Topic

As I understand it, the pontoons were pulled by six horse teams. My question is whether any of these horses had outriders similar to those pulling artillery limbers

If you are asking about the drivers riding the horses, yes. Same harness as for the artillery, according to the Ordnance Manual. These are not, however, outriders. Those are mounted men riding separately who rode ahead, behind, and beside the vehicles (hence the name).

Thanks, I did indeed mean drivers. Silly error on my part

In a similar manner, army supply wagons were driven by a single driver mounted on the left wheel-horse. It's a pet peeve of mine that many miniature manufacturers depict their ACW wagons with a driver seated in the wagon. Unless it was a confiscated civilian wagon it wouldn't even have had a drivers' seat!

Geeze… the things I don't know. I assumed wagons had seats.

Which is the wheel-horse?

The two horses closest to the front wheels are the wheel horses. If I'm not mistaken the center pair are the swing horses and the front pair are the lead horses.

Here are two good picture of supply wagons. They were usually pulled by mules, not horses.

link

Was there any particular reason why the military favoured having a driver riding the wheel-horse rather than a driver sitting on a seat?

@William – Thanks. I was thinking wheel as in pivot around a point, not wheel as in round turning thing.

William – nice article, thanks!

Jim

Was there any particular reason why the military favoured having a driver riding the wheel-horse rather than a driver sitting on a seat?

Training issue. It was much easier to learn to control a four or six-horse hitch from the saddle than from the vehicle.

Civilian freight/stagecoach drivers were considered highly skilled workers and paid accordingly. Butterfield required six years of experience at least two of which had to be with a six-horse hitch for new drivers. Who would then spend several years on subsidiary routes (six horses) and a couple as assistants on the main routes before being trusted as lead with an eight-horse hitch.

Thanks rmaker,

It had never occurred to me that would be the case. When I finally get round to painting all the ACW wagons I have got sitting in a box I shall have to remember to dispense with the seated drivers (mind you it sounds like I also need to get rid of all the horses and replace them with mules).

Very informative.

The Army preferred horses for artillery as the battery needed to maneuver as a group, and had numerous evolutions it needed to learn. Ploying and deploying a battery required an intelligent animal and the horse was that choice.

Mules, on the other hand, were the choice for wagons and other menial tasks. The wagons only needed to follow each other, and to make this or that turn into a park, etc.

FWIW, battery wagons, forges, ambulances, and wagons assigned to medical needs were also given horses wherever possible.

A note on US army QM wagons: These were painted a mid-blue that lightened with age, and a reddish brown color for the wheels.

In May of 1863, when Hooker took over the AoP, one of his General Orders issued was that all supply wagons, medical wagons, etc, should have the insignia and number of the Corps to which it was assigned painted on each side of the canvas top.

In addition, ammunition wagons would have a 6" wide horizontal stripe painted the length of each side, in the center, underneath the Corps insignia (if applicable) in the color of the type of ammunition carried.

In other words, artillery ammunition wagons had a red stripe, cavalrt a yellow, and infantry a blue stripe. This was actually done, and images of these wagons exist showing the Corps insignia and color band on the canvas covers.

This G.O. was specific to the AoP, but it was, to a haphazard extent, carried over to the western armies as well.

V/R