Pictures of Logistics Art: Overview of main milestones of history of ...

AARMS LOGISTICS 

Vol. 8, No. 2 (2009) 357–362 

Pictures of Logistics Art: 

Overview of main milestones of history of British logistics 

from English Civil War to Zulu War 

Received: September 7, 2009 

Address for correspondence: 

BÉLA RÉGER 

E-mail: reger.bela@zmne.hu 

BÉLA RÉGER 

Miklós Zrínyi National Defence University, Budapest, Hungary 

In the past 14 years I have been participating in many MAGLITE exercises in England, 

Deepcut. The RLC Logistic Museum is also found in Deepcut. The following article was 

made from the museum’s archive materials. 

The Logistics of the English Civil War 1642–1651 

In 1642 armies lived off the countryside in a similar manner to medieval times. This 

was known as ‘Free Quarter’ and meant soldiers took what they wanted from the 

civilian population. With the financial support of the City of London Parliament was, 

unlike the King, able to offer re-imbursement to civilians for feeding and housing 

soldiers. In 1645 at the insistence of Oliver Cromwell, Parliament raised a uniformed, 

disciplined, regularly paid professional forces know as the New Model Army. The New 

Model Army had its own well-organised commissariat, whose function was to provide 

for the logistics needs of the army. By 1651 the Commissariat Department seems to 

have been able to cope with the New Model Army’s needs, hiring civilian transport and 

purchasing basic supplies. In marked contrast, Royalist armies still had to resort to 

pillage and plunder to obtain supplies. For the first time in British military history, army 

rations were issued on a regular basis. The official daily ration per man in the New 

Model Army was one pound of bread and half a pound of cheese, the former usually 

carried on the soldier’s person, the latter on pack-horses. Because soldiers of the New 

Model Army were well paid, merchants (known as sutlers) and their wagons often 

accompanied the army goods to the march. They could sell a greater variety of food and 

other goods to the troops at fixed prices set by the army’s Provost-Marshal-General. 

Overall, the commissariat of the New Model Army coped better than most 17 th century 

European military establishments, and was a definite improvement on the supply system 

in use by both sides at the beginning of the Civil War.

B. RÉGER: Pictures of Logistics Art 

Supplying Marlborough’s Army 1701–1714 

Supply and transport arrangements for the Duke of Marlborough’s army depended 

entirely on civilian contractors, working to the orders of Marlborough’s staff through 

agents of the Commissariat Department, known as commissaries. The Commissariat 

Department was answerable to the Treasury, and the efficiency of the commissaries 

depended on the ready availability of cash, as well as the sometimes questionable 

honesty of the contractors and the resources of the theatre of operations. In the 

relatively prosperous Law Countries, the Rhine Valley and southern Germany, under 

Marlborough’s scrutiny, the system worked well and, unlike some armies of the period 

which almost starved at times, Marlborough’s soldiers seldom lacked their daily bread. 

The core of Marlborough’s system of transport and supply in Flanders was a huge 

contract with Solomon and Moses Medina for providing the army with bread and 

wagons. The monies paid by the Medina brothers for being awarded the contract helped 

fund the Secret as there Intelligence Service. One ‘bread wagon’ was allowed to each 

regiment. Bread wagons were the only public service of transport for the army, and 

were used for a variety of purposes, including carrying ammunition or moving guns. A 

two-wheeled cart, or tumbrel, is thought to have been invented by Marlborough himself. 

On the march all vehicles and baggage animals were subject to the Wagon-Master- 

General. The penalty for moving without his orders or straying from their place without 

his permission was that the load should be plundered immediately. For supplies other 

than bread and ammunition the British soldier depended on sutlers. Each regiment had 

its own civilian sutlers, both male and female. These provided luxuries like meat and 

liquor, acquired through lawful trading or simple plundering. The most famous sutler of 

Marlborough’s army was Christine Davies, also known as Mother Ross. She preferred 

being with the ‘Forlorn Hope’ or Advance Guard, would be fewer rivals to share any 

plunder with. Daniel Defoe wrote about her in his book ‘The Life and Adventures of 

Mrs Christine Davies.’ 

Military Transport in the Napoleonic Wars 1789–1815 

The old military transport system in use at the outbreak of war with Revolutionary 

France relied mainly on civilians, and functioned slowly and often inefficiently. Each 

move during a campaign involved re-negotiating rates, organising new drivers and 

coping with animals of varying quality. It was not until the Duke of York raised an 

army in 1794 to fight the French in the Low Countries that the need for an alternative 

system to operate military transport was finally recognised. The Corps of Wagoners was 

358 AARMS 8(2) (2009)


authorised by Royal Warrant on 7 th March 1794. The Corps consisted of 500 men and 

its main function was to supplement the huge variety of hired civilian wagons and pack 

animals operated by the Commissariat. With poor quality soldiers and no effective 

leadership the transport organisation in Flanders fared as badly as the rest of the army in 

an ultimately unsuccessful camping. On their return to England in 1796 the Corps of 

Wagoners were disbanded. Another transport organisation, the Royal Wagon Corps, 

was established in 1799 for an expedition to the Netherlands. In 1802 the Royal Wagon 

Crops became the Royal Wagon Train. By 1808 the Royal Wagon Train was nearly 

2000 strong, divided into 12 troops. The Royal Wagon Train, although small compared 

with the 400 bullock carts and 12000 pack animals hired by the Commissariat for their 

own and Ordnance Board stores and equipment, gave vital support to the British Army 

under Wellington during the Peninsular War in Spain. Conditions tested the Train to the 

full, with huge distances to cover and sometimes appalling weather conditions, as well 

as unreliable sources and uncooperative Spaniards. As a result the Royal Wagon Train’s 

achievements, it was awarded the battle honour ‘Peninsula’ on 6th April 1815. 

The Royal Wagon Train at the Battle of Waterloo 1815 

Wellington’s campaigns in Spain and Southern France culminated in the defeat of 

Napoleon in 1814. Napoleon escaped from prison in the following year and confronted 

the British and their allies at the Battle of Waterloo in Belgium. The Royal Wagon 

Train was 8 troops strong at this time, and consisted of 1072 officers and men, 1440 

horses, 100 spring wagons, 5 store, 5 forage and 27 forge wagon. Four Hanoverian 

(German) troops were raised to bring the Train up to 12 troops, but were not present at 

Waterloo. As in the Peninsular War, the Royal Wagon Train was deployed in 

attachments to cavalry and infantry regiments and used as an ambulance service. One 

forge wagon was attached to each cavalry regiment and one spring wagon to each 

infantry regiment. The spring wagons were used to carry the sick and wounded. 

Although at Waterloo it was mainly the wagons hired by the Commissariat that were 

used for the transport of supplies, Private Brewer of the Royal Wagon Train 

distinguished himself by bringing vital supplies of ammunition to the Light Companies 

of the Foot Guards defending Hougoumont Chateau. Wellington’s victory over 

Napoleon at Waterloo was a turning point in history. There would be no war on such a 

scale in Europe for a century. The battle also marked the end of a long series of wars 

with France and major British involvement on the continent of Europe. As a mark of 

esteem, all British officers present at Waterloo had the letter ‘W’ placed against their 

names in the Army List, all men were styled ‘Waterloo men’ and were granted special 

AARMS 8(2) (2009) 359


pension. In 1816 the Royal Wagon Train was awarded the battle honour ‘Waterloo’. 

Wellington wrote in 1816: “No person can be more impressed then I am of the necessity 

of a corps of the description of the Royal Wagon Train...” In spite of his protests, the 

Royal Wagon Train was disbanded in 1833 as a result of defence cuts. 

Logistic Developments in the Victorian Era 

During the twelve years from 1855 to 1867 which followed the administrative disaster 

of the Crimean War, no less than seventeen Royal Commission and nineteen War 

Office Committees examined the supply and transport needs of the army. In 1856 a 

Royal Warrant authorised the formation of a permanent military transport corps, the 

Military Train. It ultimately consisted of seven battalions, and drew its personnel from 

the best officers and men of the old Land Transport Corps and various cavalry 

regiments. The Military Train served in India during the Mutiny, in China, New 

Zealand where it was commended for a cavalry charge and Abyssinia. As local 

transport arrangements had already been made in many of the campaigns fought at this 

time, the Military Train operated mainly as light cavalry. On 4 th November 1861 the 

Military was awarded the Battle Honours ‘Pekin’ and ‘Taku Forts’ for its services in 

China in 1860. On3rd September 1863 the Military Train was awarded the Battle 

Honour ‘Lucknow’ for its services in India during the Mutiny from 1857 to 1858. Two 

VCs were also won by the members of the Train during the campaign. In 1859 a 

Commissariat Staff Crops was raised, consisting entirely of soldiers who served under 

non-combatant Commissariat officers. Unlike its predecessor, the Commissariat 

Department, the Commissariat Staff Crops was a military units existed. In 1869 the 

Commissariat Staff Crops and Military Train were absorbed into a Control Department. 

This was an Officer Corps who commanded a small soldiers-only Army Service Corps. 

The following decades saw a number of re-organisations of the army’s supply and 

transport organisations. In 1888, General Sir Redvers Buller, then Quarter Master 

General, insisted that the supply and transport units should be staffed by officers 

wearing the same uniform and badges as their men. The result was the formation in 

1889 of a second, integrated Army Service Corps. After its abolition in 1855, the 

civilian storekeepers of the Board of Ordnance were formed into a Military Store 

Department, whose officers held army commissions. By 1896 ordnance Department in 

command of a soldiers-only Army Ordnance Corps. 

360 AARMS 8(2) (2009)

Supply and Transport in the Zulu War 1879 


A British infantry battalion of 500–800 men had to carry its own ammunition, tents, 

entrenching tools, medical equipment and rations. In Zululand the latter consisted of 

‘mealies’ (local corn carried in 200lb. bags), army biscuit and tinned ‘bully beef’. Fresh 

meat and vegetables were procured when available. These requirements alone could 

take up 17 wagons. without the luxury of the officer’s personnel baggage, and the men’s 

bottled beer. If there was no fuel around, that too had to be transported. For cavalry 

regiments, whose British-bred horses would not eat coarse local grasses, fodder had to 

be carried. There were limited number of army General Service wagons available, but 

their narrow carriage, intended for European roads, made them unstable in southern 

Africa. Lord Chelmsford’s harassed and inexperienced transport staff had to purchase 

local transport, often at inflated prices. The wagons were large and heavy, requiring 

between 16 and 18 oxen apiece to pull them. For the oxen to remain healthy they 

needed 16 hours each day for rest and grazing, which reduced their travelling potential 

to about ten miles per day. In bad conditions it was much less. Transport shortage 

remained a major problem throughout the war, and dominated British strategy. The 

camp at Isandlwana was unlagered because the wagons were about to return to Rorke’s 

Drift to fetch supplies, Rorke’s Drift proved so defensible because the supplies were 

available to build barricades. Lord Chelmsford’s extremely slow advance to relieve 

Colonel Pearson’s Column at Eshowe, in the process of which he was able to defeat the 

Zulus at Ginginhlovo, led him to remark ‘Ox wagon transport is enough to destroy the 

reputation of any number of commanders’. Colonel Evelyn Wood earned a considerable 

reputation for logistic skill during the Zulu War. He ensured that his men received fresh 

bread and meat every day while the rest of the army fed on ship’s biscuits. Together 

whit his assistant Redvers Buller, he evolved a system whereby Army Service Corps 

bakers with their ovens in wagons under escort were sent ahead of the Column to the 

next campsite. There they produced fresh bread to await the arrival of incoming men. 

The Commissariat at Rorke’s Drift 

After their overwhelming victory over the British at Isandlwana on January 22, 1879, 

the Zulus under Cetshwayo pressed into Northern Netal that night. At the supply depot 

at Rorke’s Drift 140 British troops resisted the advance of 4000 Zulu warriors. After an 

all-night assault, on January 22–23, the Zulus withdrew, leaving 400 dead on the field. 

The heroic garrison, under the command of Lieutenants Chard and Bromhead, suffered 

25 casualties. II Victoria Crosses were awarded for the battle. Commissariat and 

AARMS 8(2) (2009) 361


Transport Department officers, technically non-combatants, played a vital part in the 

defence of Rorke’s Drift. Acting Assistant Commissary James Dalton actively 

superintended the work of defence. Dalton was amongst the foremost of those who 

received the first attack at the corner of the hospital, where the deadliness of his fire 

checked the ferocious rush of the enemy. He also saved the life of a man in the Army 

Hospital Corps by shooting the Zulu who was attacking him. Assistant Commissary 

Walter Dunne supervised the erection of the defences including the mealie bag redoubt 

meant as the last rallying point. Dunne encouraged the exhausted soldiers while 

standing on the growing pile of bags high above the defences, drawing fire on himself 

and ignoring any danger. Acting Storekeeper Louis Byrne was instrumental in forming 

the entrenchment of biscuit boxes that made a vital contribution to the successful 

defence of the outpost. He was shot in the head by a Zulu while in the act of giving a 

drink to a wounded man. Throughout the action Sergeant Francis Attwood of the Army 

Service Corps successfully held at by Zulu warriors trying to set fire to the thatched 

roof of the store-house. Dalton was later awarded the Victoria Cross for his part in the 

action, while Dunne was unsuccessfully recommended for the Victoria Cross by Lord 

Chelmsford himself. Attwood received the Distinguished Conduct Medal and Byrne 

was posthumously mentioned in despatched. 

362 AARMS 8(2) (2009)

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