US Army Tool Contracts, 1863-1865

By Paul A. Boccadoro and John C. Holman

". . . each company was supplied with 6 saws, 2 hatchets, 12 camp-kettles, 2 rakes, 12 mess-pans, 2 shovels, 2 axes, and 2 picks. These were carried in the company wagons, that is, while we had them. When the wagons were taken away, Mr. 'High Private' took his turn at carrying the axes, shovels, and picks.”
– Charles E. Davis, Jr., 13th Massachusetts Infantry

As recounted by Charles Davis and many other Civil War veterans, tools were an absolute necessity for a campaigning army in the mid 19th century. The manual labor that needed to be done, like felling trees, building corduroy roads, digging earthworks, and tearing up enemy railroads, wasn't just reserved for the Engineers; rather, it was most commonly performed by the average infantryman, and to perform those tasks, the US Army needed to supply them with an immense amount of tools. The Army turned to numerous contractors to purchase these critical supplies, and as shown in the tables below, a great supply was needed to meet the Army's needs. This information was compiled from the Abstracts of Contracts located at the National Archives in Washington, DC for the years of 1863-1865 (the abstracts for 1861-1862 were not available but is for future research).

There was a variety in the details of each type of tool used by the Federal Army, and the exact style of tools are not noted in the abstracts, although it can be researched by drawing a contractor's records from the National Archives. To see examples of the tools purchased and read the 1865 Quartermaster's Manual specifications on each, please see Examination of Original Tools Excavated from Federal Camps.

Of particular interest seen in this study are the axe and hatchet slings. It seems these were virtually non existent in western depots, but were in limited supply in the east. While browsing through another quartermaster book, Orders for Camp and Garrison Equipage for 1861-1862, it was also noticed that there were very few orders placed for these slings. It is unknown at this time why these were generally an unneeded item; perhaps it is because tools for Infantry were "supposed to be" carried in wagons as Davis stated, even though the foot soldiers sometimes found themselves wielding them anyway. In that case, an improvised sling or carrying it by hand may have sufficed.

Shovel and pick-axe slings have an ominous absence from the listings below. Unlike axe and hatchet slings, they were not listed as an option in Orders for Camp and Garrison Equipage for 1861-1862 and it is theorized these two items were of late war manufacture because they later made an appearance in the 1865 Quartermaster's Manual under camp and garrison equipage. The authors know of several examples of original shovel slings in private collections, two of which have an oval "G.T. Woodbury Sub Inspector, US Ordnance Department" stamp (Woodbury was a war time inspector and the oval style stamp is post July 1864). Therefore, records of these (and presumably pick-axe slings) would be within Ordnance Department documents and are for future research.

Data source: Quartermaster Records; Abstracts of Contracts 1863-69, Record Group 92; National Archives Building, Washington, DC.

Totals of Tools Contracted by the US Army, 1863-1865

Numbers of Tools Contracted by Year and Depot, 1863-1865

*includes 1,900 long-handled shovels
**includes 100 long-handled shovels

Tool Contracts, 1863-1865

*these contracts were part of large materials requisitions for carpenters, arsenal shops, stables, the building of structures, &c., and may or may not have been for use in the field. Other tools (such as hammers, saws, anvils, nails, &c.) were also in these requisitions, but not recorded for this study.