Armies in the Fields: US Army Foraging Trains and the Metabolism of Military Occupation in Middle Tennessee, 1862–63

When the United States' Army of the Ohio first captured Nashville in February 1862, no one expected it remain for very long. Yet, for almost two years, the U.S. Army and the Confederacy's Army of Tennessee stalled over a small stretch of territory between Nashville and Chattanooga. During their occupation, the commanders of both armies vowed not to disturb noncombatants, but soldiers could not so easily separate themselves neatly from the rural neighborhoods of Middle Tennessee. In fact, the U.S. Army came to depend upon corn, timothy, rye, hogs, and mules pilfered from local plantations and farms to keep its soldiers and animals alive.

This paper explores the environmental and social history of these U.S. Army foraging raids and their consequences, especially for the enslaved people of Middle Tennessee. By bringing an ecological analysis to traditional sources—soldiers' letters and recollections, military records, local plantation ledgers, and ex-slave narratives—it aims to set the military history of the Civil War in place. In other words, it uncovers the environmental and social experiences of the military occupation.

The paper begins by explaining the emergence of the practice of foraging raids in U.S. Army quartermasters' inability to satisfy the metabolic requirements of soldiers and animals. It then turns to tracing the ecological impact of those raids on the landscapes of the farms and plantations that prevailed in Middle Tennessee. The paper concludes by suggesting how the raids, their plundering of the local food supply, and their constantly shifting lines impacted the enslaved men and women who were trying to emancipate themselves.