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Re: Duties of Forage Master
In Response To: Re: Duties of Forage Master ()

I have not been able to find the exact duties of a civil war Forage Master. In my records of the 43rd Tennessee I find those appointed were young Privates. I would have thought they’d receive extra duty pay for these duties but do not find such evidence.

Here is the best definition I could find:

Forage master (Mil.), a person charged with providing
forage and the means of transporting it. --Farrow.
[1913 Webster]

…….

I would suspect that the Forage Master might have stayed behind in camp supervising the sick and surplus animals , guarding their stores and wagon train and scrounging for more feed.

.......

The daily forage allowance for a cavalry regiment was quite large.

For instance, a Forge Requisition for the 43rd Tennessee Infantry records the daily allowance for one animal as 12 pounds corn and 14 pounds hay, for a daily total of 26 pounds.

Thus, for a 1,000 man cavalry regiment, the daily forage ration for their 1,000 horses would be 26,000 pounds, or in other terms 1,739.5 cubic feet.

http://www.transportation.army.mil/History/PDF/Peninsula%20Campaign/Rodney%20Lackey%20Article_1.pdf

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