Markings on the Great Blue Army Wagons

Supply wagons were blue. Yes, blue. With red wheels. 

lolwut?! Seriously, I had no idea that the supply wagons were painted blue with red wheels. Seems really obnoxious. Ordnance wagons, those that supplied ammunition, were painted the scheme we've all come to expect, olive green with black hardware. But now that I've read more on the Great Blue Army Wagon my view of how the army looked during the war has changed drastically.

Of course the wagons were caked in mud, dulling the vibrancy of color. But the blue, red, and white canopy make for a rather cheery appearance in a sea of misery. I'm not going to repaint the two wagons already done in the ordnance color scheme. The two new ones, however, I did best I could to match the supply colors. A little "dirt" wash on the wheels and lower frame help the look.

They look sharp, and now there's another point of conversation when viewing the layout. You can see all the recent miniatures/figures I added to the layout in the last post.

So far, the canopies have been left blank, and the question about them remains in the air...

They had markings, but when and where?

Now for the markings, this all depends on what time and place I'm going to model within the eventual permanent layout. But I've begun to explore what markings were put onto the supply wagons during the war. Looking through the Library of Congress, I found a few examples, some of which you've likely seen before. The full photos are at the bottom of this post. Here are the crops showing just the supply wagons and their markings.

All but one of these are from the Overland and Petersburg campaigns of 1864. I'll have to spend more time researching. I did read somewhere that Joe Hooker had the corps insignia along with a horizontal stripe painted onto wagons, but I don't know if that was during his command of the Army of the Potomac or when he was fighting in Georgia.

The first crop shows Supply Wagon No. 34 of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division at Belle Plain, Va. in May 1864. If that unit sounds familiar, it's Col. Thomas Devin's command of Gettysburg fame. There are many other photos available of Belle Plain around this time, but this is the best one showing a wagon with markings on it.

Once the railroad to Aquia Landing was complete, Belle Plain was reduced a secondary role, though it did handle thousands of rebel prisoners from 1864 onward. While the images of the wagons there serve as a guide, I won't be modeling Belle Plain.

The next crop is one I'm sure many of you have seen before, of supply wagons No. 16 of the 2nd Brigade, 1st or 3rd Division, Second Corps, and No. 20 of what appears to be corps-level command of the First Corps, at City Point, Va. in 1864.

This one is interesting in that we know the First and Third Corps were reorganized into the Second and Fifth Corps on March 24/25, 1864. It wasn't uncommon for men of the disbanded corps to keep wearing their old corps badges through the duration of the war, so I guess it shouldn't be surprising that wagons were left with the old insignia.

City Point 1864 is still in the running for when and where I'd like to model. But I'm hesitant because of how distinctive the layout was of that supply point. The volume of photos available would be great compared to other points in the war, but again, I'm still gravitating toward something farther north and a little earlier in the war.

Clear photos of people are hard to come by when not in a studio, but as long as wagons aren't actively rolling along, they're great for posing. The one here is said to be at Cedar Level, Va. in August 1864, and has the markings "Supply Train," a white cross pattée signifying the 2nd Division, Fifth Corps, "Commissary" below, and the wagon numbers toward the front.

These wagons were lined up along side a loading dock, with mountains of barrels and boxes nearby, and boxcars on the tracks behind. Cedar Level was a stop along the City Point & Army Railroad in 1864, and if this was in fact taken in August 1864, it was during the Siege of Petersburg. The battles of Second Deep Bottom and Globe Tavern happened mid-month, with Gen. Romeyn B. Ayres' 2nd Division of the Fifth Corps engaged in the latter.

The last two images were from a pontoon bridge crossing of the Germanna Ford along the Rapidan River. I'm a pretty well-versed amateur historian when it comes to the U.S. corps badges, but this one I still cannot identify after house of searching. If anyone has leads, let me know. It kind of looks like a variation of the Fifth Corps insignia, possibly with the circle in the center representing the First Corps after it had been merged.

I don't think this was taken in 1863 during the Chancellorsville crossing, since the Fifth Corps crossed at Ely's Ford, not Germanna Ford. The Fifth Corps did cross Germanna Ford on May 4-5, 1864 during the Wilderness Campaign. I'm still very curious about the insignia.

Click on the images below for the uncropped versions.

Belle Plain, Va., May 1864 

Cedar Level, Va., August 1864

City Point, Va., 1864

Germanna Ford, Rapidan River, Va., Date Unknown