Library of Congress

Workers stand on 2,000 boxes of hardtack being delivered.

This image provides a sense of the massive effort required to feed the Union army during the Civil War. Fourteen supply workers stand on the top of a mountain of more than 2,000 boxes of hardtack while another group of 18 stand on a similar mountain of boxes in the background on the right. Between them, more workers stand atop hundreds of barrels of salt pork. The photograph was made in the summer of 1864 at Cedar Level, Virginia, on the crucial 21-mile line—known as “Grant’s Railroad”—connecting the massive Federal supply depot at City Point and the Union forces besieging Petersburg. An army of 100,000 on the move required 2,500 supply wagons, consumed 600 tons of supplies each day, and relied on three different supply departments—the Commissary Department for food, the Quartermaster Department for supplies and horses, and the Ordnance Department for arms and munitions.

Bob Zeller is president of the nonprofit Center for Civil War Photography, which is devoted to collecting, preserving, and digitizing Civil War images.

Related topics: food and drink