In April 1861, Private Webster Colburn enlisted in the Union infantry for three months. President Lincoln believed the war would end within that time. Five years later, with a few more stripes and thousands of miles behind him, Major Webster Colburn, a Union Quartermaster mustered out of the Army in June 1866. Haversacks, Hardtack, and Unserviceable Mules is the true story of one man's private war to survive a year in the infantry and artillery, and four more years in the demanding job of a quartermaster. Providing the Federal Army with everything from socks to horseshoes and haversacks to horses was critical to the survival and success of the Union Army. The details of Colburn's journey across Tennessee with the Army of the Cumberland during the Civil War is discovered from 6,000 original documents, letters, diary, orders, and monthly reports preserved by his family . The untold story of his struggle behind the scenes at the battles of Stones River, Shiloh, Chattanooga and Knoxville examines his difficulties and mounting responsibilities through times of starvation or through times of victory. Critical to the success of the Union Army, quartermasters kept supplies coming even when railroad bridges were destroyed and crops burned. This unique book contributes to the literature about the Civil War in Tennessee. For the first time, readers can learn about the thousands of mules and horses that were unserviceable and destroyed; or the job of digging up and re-burying hundreds of victims from the Fort Pillow massacre for $7 a body. How many know the details of the Massacre in Memphis in 1866? Or the existence of Fort Rosecrans or Mrs. Major Booth? Haversacks, Hardtack, and Unserviceable Mules examines the scope and intensity of one man's war.
