Quartermaster Records, November 1861-February 1864

During the Civil War, Major General Montgomery C. Meigs led the Quartermaster Department as it expanded to support an Army over 900,000 strong. Quartermasters purchased clothing, equipment, animals, and services at an unprecedented pace. They operated a system of field depots and a transportation network to deliver the goods to the Soldiers. Also in 1862, the Quartermaster Department assumed responsibility for burial of war dead and care of national cemeteries.

Throughout the nineteenth century the Quartermaster Department functioned differently than today’s Quartermaster Corps. It did not have specialized military units. Instead Quartermasters relied upon contracted workers or detailed Soldiers. The Quartermaster Department did not purchase subsistence, although it did store and transport the provisions.

Hilton Head Island was not only a strategic location for Union Troops, it was also a restocking and refueling depot for the ships of the Department of the South Blockading Squadron. Because of these functions, the Quartermaster Corps was responsible for loading and unloading ships, transporting supplies between ships and storage, building and maintaining homes for officers, a military hospital, and public buildings for official business., and growing and harvesting food.

The compiled Quartermaster Records for Hilton Head Island, 1861-1864, are a transcription of the original records of that time, sorted by last names to enable a search of Civil War ancestors.

An analysis of the number of new contracts for the three main labor positions, carpenters, laborers, and teamsters, give a birds eye view of how work at the depot changed over time. For example, the number of carpenters hired spiked in February, 1862, when the hospital and public buildings were being built. The number of laborers spiked in October, 1863, possibly at harvest time. The highest number of teamsters were needed in November, 1861, to bring supplies off ships to sustain the Union forces who occupied the fort.