Civil War Soldiers: Pontoniers

During the American Civil War when troop movement often involved fording rivers, the pontonier or engineer soldier was a valuable member of the army. Building a permanent bridge took too long when regiments had to get to or retreat from the scene of a conflict. It could also be used by the enemy. Some streams and rivers were too dangerous to cross without a bridge.

To save time and prevent the enemy from using the same means of fording a river, armies had regiments assigned to constructing pontoon bridges. My great-great-great grandfather Jonathan Cramer was a pontonier with Indiana's 58^th Regiment, Company D, from October 21, 1864, to June 25, 1865, when he was mustered out of service. He was 36 years old when he served as a private in the Grand Army of the Republic.

Although the Indiana 58^th Regiment started out in 1861 as a fighting unit, in April 1864 it became a unit of pontoniers. John J. Hight, chaplain to my ancestor's regiment left a journal of the regiment's activities from its formation in 1861 to the end of the war. It is his journal which provides much of the insight in this article of the life of an army pontonier.

Traveling With a Pontoon Train
In both Union and Confederate Armies, assigned regiments accompanied the mule-drawn wagons on which the material for building a pontoon bridge was transported. The pontoniers ensured the wagons kept moving on the crude dirt roads, sometimes freeing them from bogging down in muck and mire. The roads were so bad at times that moving ten miles took all of one day and into the night.

A pontoon train was several wagons long and a target for attack. They were not usually in the forefront of any troop movement but came along toward the rear.

Building Bridges
When the regiment came to a river, the men would begin their most hazardous work. They lifted the trestles, canvas, oars, anchors, ropes and other materials from the wagons. Canvas was stretched over trestles to make pontoon boats which were then aligned across the water. The boats were anchored and held together by rope. Planks were laid along the pontoons so the troops could cross. Many times, this work would keep the pontoniers busy all night long.

During the Carolinas Campaign from March 19 to March 24, 1864, the Indiana 58^th was ordered to Cox's Bridge nine miles from Goldsboro, North Carolina. The structure they constructed there was composed of twelve pontoon boats and extended 250 feet over the water. The regiment had enough materials to make a pontoon bridge that could span 800 feet.

On March 6, 1864, the bridge-builders were ordered to construct a pontoon bridge over the Great Pedee at Pague's Ferry above Cheraw, North Carolina. The river was 900 feet wide at that point and eight feet deep. Construction took 36 hours. It was completed only after one of the men suggested using two of the wagon train beds, stretching tent canvas over them and weighting them down with rocks to form makeshift pontoons. At other times, the men had to cut down trees and dismantle buildings for use in the bridge being constructed.

Danger and Mixed Commands
Sometimes the men would be fired upon by enemy sharpshooters to prevent them from building their makeshift structure. At any time, the regiment could receive orders to dismantle the pontoon bridge, pack the materials and march to a new location. There were times when the order was given to dismantle and prepare to move. Then, several hours later, the order was changed and the regiment was commanded to stay and make camp.

Many times, the generals who ordered the pontoon bridges to be built would fume at the men for what they considered inefficiency and slowness.

Rebuilding
Pontoniers were also ordered to construct earthworks and rebuild damaged railroad and foot bridges.

On May 23, 1864, in the days prior to the bloody battle at Spotsylvania, Union pontoniers laid a pontoon bridge above the Chesterfield bridge. This allowed two of General Grant's corps to cross the North Anna at Jericho Ford. Another two pontoon bridges were placed below the Chesterfield bridge the following day to allow Grant's troops to cross in sufficient numbers. These two enabled Federal troops to drive the Confederates from defending the Chesterfield bridge. When that was accomplished, the pontoniers set to work strengthening a foot bridge downstream to allow more troops to cross. This was later used by the Union Army in its retreat from General Lee's trap on the opposite side of the North Anna.

Deprivation and Hardship
Most times, pontonier regiments were close enough to the battle to see the smoke from artillery being fired and to hear gunfire but did not often engage in the action themselves. Just because the pontoniers were not in the heat of battle themselves did not mean they did not suffer the deprivation and hardship the rest of the army endured. The Indiana 58^th Regiment lost two officers and 192 enlisted men to the diseases which were by-products of army camps during the Civil War. Those numbers were almost three times greater than the number of men the regiment lost to battle wounds.

The regiment had times of starvation when foragers were not successful in their efforts to find food or when rations were not delivered.

Disgraceful Orders
During the period known as Sherman's March to the Sea, huge groups of newly liberated slaves followed in the Union Army's wake. The slaves had nowhere else to go and did not know what else to do. Some of the Union generals had pro-slavery sentiments before and throughout the Civil War.

In his journal Chaplain Hight recounts General Davis' order in December 1864 to leave the ex-slave group on the other side of flood-swollen Buck Head Creek in Georgia. The freed slaves were kept from crossing on the pontoon bridge by armed guards. When the last troops crossed the bridge, it was cut loose and the materials packed. The panicked ex-slaves, fearing they would be sent back to their owners, attempted to cross the creek by wading and swimming. Many drowned.

This happened more than once during the Georgia and Carolinas Campaign. Hight writes of these incidents, ending with the statement "I cannot find words to express my detestation of such cruelty and wickedness. May God Almighty save the Nation from the responsibility of General Davis' acts!"

The responsibilities of a Civil War pontonier were necessary to an army which had to move as quickly as possible from one battle to the next. Their duties were often not appreciated by the generals who ordered them to build the structures which kept the army advancing.

Sources:
http://www.dunelady.com/laporte/CivilWar/CivilWar42nd.htm La Porte County (Indiana) Civil War Union veterans roster
http://princeton-indiana.com/pages/history/civil_war.htm Summary of the Indiana 58^th Regiment actions during the Civil War
http://www.floridareenactorsonline.com/pontoon.htm An excellent resource about building pontoon bridges
http://www.archive.org/stream/historyoffiftyei00high#page/n5/mode/2up John J. Hight's book online
Hight, John J. and Gilbert R. Stormont. History of the Fifty-Eighth Regiment of Indiana Volunteer Infantry: Its Organization, Campaigns and Battles from 1861 to 1865 (Princeton, IN: Press of the Clarion), 1895, p. 397-534.
Miller, Francis Trevelyan, and Robert Sampson Lanier. The Photographic History of the Civil War (New York: The Review of Reviews Company), 1912, p. 71-77.