Mothers and Their Soldier Sons: The Logistical Significance of the Domestic Line of Supply

Military historians have discussed the difficulties of supplying the troops as well as the critical nature of such logistical support.  Historians of women have noted women’s significant role in clothing and feeding the troops through public organizations, both small local organizations, like Confederate ladies’ sewing circles, and the Union’s bureaucratized Western Sanitary Commission and U.S. Sanitary Commission.  On the other side, historians have noted the suffering of soldiers, deprived of critical items they needed for survival, and have discussed the way in which soldiers lived off the land and even the enemy civilian in ways they sometimes wished to forget after the war.  One important source of supply, however, has gone largely unrecognized and unappreciated for its larger contribution to the war effort: the direct contribution made by individual households, particularly by mothers to their soldier sons.  Soldiers’ letters home document this supply line; indeed much of soldiers’ letters focus on requesting supplies and noting which goods sent arrived in what condition.  Soldiers acquired an amazing array of necessary goods in this fashion, not simply fancy foods and socks, but also hats, gloves, shirts, pants, boots, as well as newspapers, stamps, pencils, paper, and even money vital for men who were not paid for months on end.  Without the clothing and foodstuffs sent by their mothers, many more young men would have died of dysentery or of exposure than did.  Although it is important to assess the contribution this individual domestic supply line made to the survival of soldiers in the field, it is equally important to recognize the relationship between this line of supply and the continued significance of the household and private domestic relations in a war that is so frequently assessed in terms of rendering women as public figures and centralizing and bureaucratizing production and political organization.