This business of war : recollections of a Civil War quartermaster / William G. Le Duc ; foreword by Adam E. Scher

Originally published: St. Paul, Minn. : North Central Pub. Co., ©1963. With new foreword.

Foreword / Adam E. Scher -- 1. Family matters -- 2. Growing up in Ohio -- 3. Farming and college -- 4. Frontier travel and Henry Clay -- 5. Westward to Minnesota territory -- 6. The Crystal Palace Exhibition -- 7. Indian trouble in St. Paul -- 8. Railroads and land -- 9. Preparations for war -- 10. The Chickahominy campaign -- 11. The life of a quartermaster -- 12. Retreat with the Army of the Potomac -- 13. With the Eleventh Corps -- 14. At Bridgeport -- 15. With General Hooker -- 16. On to Atlanta -- 17. The beginning of the end -- 18. A western trip -- 19. At Brainerd, Minnesota -- 20. Commissioner of Agriculture -- 21. At work as commissioner

"Amidst the din of battle and the chaos of armies on the move, William G. Le Duc of Hastings, Minnesota, writes of the frenzied life of a Union officer in the Quartermaster Department during the Civil War. Concerned with the logistical details of supplying the Army of the Potomac as it bogged down during the Peninsula campaign or of commandeering a steamboat to relieve the siege and get food to stranded soldiers at Chattanooga, Le Duc tells his story of mud-choked roads, incompetent commanders, and what he understands as the crucial factor necessary for the Union's success in battle: a well-supplied army.

Through his close association with Generals McClellan and Meade, Hooker and Sherman, Le Duc learned to master the army's bureaucracy and overcome the hardships of trying to keep Union supplies on the move. His memoir is unique in depicting the details of life in the Quartermaster Department."--Jacket.