While Civil War books tend to focus on the battles and leaders, the day-to-day work of running an army and navy made up the bulk of the wartime experience of the men in the armed forces. This shot, courtesy the Library of Congress, shows the Union fleet taking on coal at Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in 1862. Steamships required huge amounts of coal and hundreds, perhaps thousands of men spent their entire war mining, transporting, and loading that coal. Not very glorious but vital to the war effort!
Behind every army is an even bigger army!
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