ABSTRACT
The Unionarmy began the Civil War without a realistic field transportation doctrine. The Napoleonic emphasis on foraging could not be met in even the most populous of Civil War campaigning areas, and the fact that American doctrine set a subsistence standard double that for the Napoleonic soldier placed an even heavier burden on Civil War field transportation. George B. McClellan's preparation for the Peninsula campaign was the initial experiment in practical field transportation standards for a mass Civil War army. The army coped reasonably well, in part because of McClellan's increasing reliance on the talented Rufus Ingalls to hold together his quartermaster organization. The Maryland campaign was a particularly arduous logistical test for an army of some 130,000 men at this stage of logistical development. Reorganization of the wagon trains during the Maryland campaign ensured that there was no repeat of the traffic jams that occurred on the Peninsula.
