Finding aid for the Perley Peabody Pitkin Papers

Biography of Perley Peabody Pitkin

Perley Peabody Pitkin (1826-1891) was born in Marshfield, Vermont, on March 9, 1826. Having lost his mother at an early age, his upbringing was entrusted to his grandfather, Gerneal Perley Davis of Montpelier. As a young bridegroom, Pitkin trekked to California in pursuit of his fortune in gold. For three years he engaged in trading and mining but when success eluded him, he returned to Montpelier in 1853. The next eight years were spent in a number of business ventures. During 1859-1860 Pitkin represented the town of East Montpelier in the state General Assembly. in May of 1861 he volunteered his services in defense of the Union. On the 6th of June 1861 he was commissioned quartermaster of the 2nd Regiment of Vermont Volunteers. In April 1862, he was promoted to assistant quartermaster of the U. S. Army Volunteers with the rank of captain.

The work assigned to Captain Pitkin included the receiving of supplies at the army base from the fleet of army vessels and distributing them to the various army corps. At this time Captain Pitkin supervised more than twelve hundred civilian employees. When General Meade withdrew the Army of the Potomac from the Virginia Peninsula, Captain Pitkin was ordered to Washington. During the Antietam campaign he served as the chief depot quartermaster in charge of all supplies for General McClellan's forces with a base at Harper's Ferry. He held this responsible position at the army supply bases at Warrenton Junction, Falmouth, Belle Plain, and Aquia Creek, Virginia. During General Lee's Gettysburg campaign, Captain Pitkin handled supply matters at Frederick, Maryland. The winter of 1863-1864 found him operating from the principal supply station at Brandy Station, Virginia.

When Grant's overland campaign began in May 1864, Captain Pitkin was placed in charge of the immense train of 4,000 wagons which carried ten days' supplies for the army. In addition to the care of the enormous quantities of supplies, he was responsible for attending to the arrival of thousands of recruits and reinforcements, receiving many hundreds of prisoners and contrabands, and transporting the wounded to general hospitals. On July 8, 1864, Pitkin was promoted to the rank of colonel.

The enormity of a chief quartermaster's tasks becomes apparent upon closer examination of his specific responsibilities. During the summer on 1864, the Army of the Potomac needed over 100,000 pounds of bread; 125,00 pounds of meat; and 10,000 pounds each of coffee and sugar, in addition to large quantities of vegetables. The daily ration for the animals amounted to over 600,000 pounds of grain and forage. Quarterly 100,000 pairs of shoes and 200,000 pairs of stockings as well as large numbers of coats, trousers, and underclothing were distributed. For each periodical shoeing of the animals Colonel Pitkin distributed 200,000 pounds of horseshoes.

The opinion of his immediate superior was expressed in the report of General Rufus Ingalls, Chief Quartermaster of the Army of the Potomac in the following words: "To the quartermasters of this army I feel under a great weight of indebtedness, especially to those who had charge of the great depots. I have referred to them in the body of this report; still I would be doing much injustice if I did not mention Captain P. P. Pitkin, assistant quartermaster, who has had charge of great depots, and whose business for the year (1863) has been extremely heavy. H is a most meritorious, energetic and trustworthy officer."

This is the highest praise accorded to any man in the report. In November 1864, obedient to the wishes of his governor, Colonel Pitkin resigned from the army to assume the office of state quartermaster general, which he retained for a period of six years.

In 1872 General Pitkin represented Montpelier in the state legislature. he served as a director of the First National Bank of Montpelier from January 9, 1866 and as director of the National Life Insurance Company from January 1878. His principal business was the management of the Lane Manufacturing Company. He served as president of that company from 1888 until his death on July 28, 1891.

The hierarchy of the Quartermaster's Department of the U. S. Army during the Civil War consisted of one major general (the quartermaster general), two brigadiers, four colonels, eight lieutenant colonels, twenty-four majors, and forty-eight captains. The Quartermaster General's Office was divided into nine divisions corresponding to the principal categories into which the work of the department naturally fell. The First Division was in charge of providing animals for the armies. the Second administered clothing and equipage; the Third, ocean and lake transportation; the Fourth, rail and river transportation; the Fifth, forage and fuel; the Sixth, barracks and hospitals; the Seventh, wagon transportation; the Eighth, inspection; and the Ninth, finance.

During the Civil War, the United States Military Railroads as part of the Quartermaster's Department had operated fifty different lines with an aggregate length of 2,630 miles with 433 engines and 6,605 cars. Also 590 water transport vessels with a total tonnage of 193,936 were employed by the department.

Scope and Content

The Perley Peabody Pitkin Papers, 1861-1865, consist largely of a collection of documents relating to the daily business of a depot quartermaster for the Army of the Potomac. The vast majority of the papers deal with the years 1861-1864 when Colonel Pitkin was involved in the Union war effort. The majority of the documents consist of official U. S. Army forms dealing with the receipt, shipment, and transference of supplies to the army in the field. There are receipts for the payment of laborers, shipping vouchers covering the movement of food, clothing, and forage, and transportation documents dealing with rail and water transit of supplies arriving from the purveyor's warehouses near Washington, D. C. There is some correspondence relating to official matters.

Of particular interest in this collection are a number of payment receipts listing the funds expended for the wages of former slaves (contraband of war) who worked as laborers in the various depot warehouses. These laborers included the freedmen who were confiscated from their Southern masters by the advancing Union armies. They were designated "contraband" and dealt with as belligerent property seized during wartime. A detailed analysis of the documents would yield valuable raw data concerning the amount of supplies and material necessary to properly furnish an army in the field during the American Civil War. In addition, statistical analysis could supply information concerning the tonnage of material that was transported by water and rail and the number and cargo capacity of various vessels and railroad cars.

Statement of Arrangement

Restrictions on Access

None.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects:

Preferred Citation

[Container ___, Folder ___ ] MS 2151 Perley Peabody Pitkin Papers, Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

Acquisition Information

Gift of William Pendleton Palmer, 1913-1927; combined for ease of access in 1962.

Processing Information

One portion of this collection was initially processed by John Horton in 1962 and was designated MS 2151. A separate collection of unprocessed Pitkin documents (originally designated MS 1668) was added to MS 2151 and the entire collection was re-processed by Daniel J. Kraska in 1972.

Detailed Description of The Collection