Massachusetts. Commissary General

During the Revolutionary period, Massachusetts provided medical services to the military beginning in 1775, when the Committee of Safety votedin February that Dr. Joseph Warren and Dr. Benjamin Church form a committee to inventory military needs, and on Apr. 29 empowered Dr. Isaac Foster to remove sick and wounded soldiers to a Cambridge hospital. On May 8, the Second Provincial Congress resolved that commanding officers recommend surgeons for their regiments to be approved by a committee of doctors. During the spring and summer of 1775, these surgeons, who dealt with minor illnesses, were stationed in Cambridge, Roxbury, and Prospect Hill, near the main army camps, working in conjunction with general hospitals in Cambridge, Roxbury, Metonomy, and Watertown. After the bulk of the Continental Army moved out of Massachusetts in the spring of 1776, Craft's artillery regiment on Castle Island and other troops used hospitals at Rainsford Island, West Boston, and Sewall's Point in Brookline.

Richard Devens, a member of the Committee of Safety, was appointed commissary general by Nov. 1775 (Resolves 1775-76, c 343). The commissary general was occupied in the delivery of arms and provisions needed by the state for the war effort. A store building was built in Watertown in Feb. 1776 (Resolves 1775-76, c 679), where the state government was then located. In May 1776 the commissary office was moved to Boston and a store established there, following the British evacuation of that city.

Richard Devens, a member of the Committee of Safety, was appointed commissary general by Nov. 1775 (Resolves 1775-76, c 343). A store building was built in Watertown in Feb. 1776 (Resolves 1775-76, c 679), where the state government was then located. In May 1776 the commissary's office moved to Boston, and a store opened there, following the British evacuation of that city. The commissary general initially was occupied in the delivery of arms and provisions needed by the state for the war effort. As war activity moved outside New England in the late 1770s, and following the end of the war, the office focused on supplying state forces, including provisioning the garrison established on Castle Island (Resolves 1785, Feb 1786 Sess, c 166) and the troops fighting Shays' Rebellion. It also arranged for the building of lighthouses and helped administer a program of tax payments in kind instituted subsequent to the rebellion (St 1786, c 39). Once the Board of War was disbanded in 1781, the military stores in the board's possession were forwarded to the commissary general. The commissary office closed in June 1792 (Resolves 1792, May Sess, c 61). Resolves 1793, May Sess, c 52 (June 22, 1793) provided the elderly Devens with one year's compensation for his services in closing his office.

Fort Halifax was built in 1754 in present-day Winslow, Me., at the Kennebec and Sebasticook Rivers. Massachusetts Governor Shirley ordered its construction as a defense against threatened attacks by Indians allied with the Canadian French. Built under the direction of John Winslow, the fort was in use through 1766; William Lithgow replaced Winslow as fort commander shortly after the fort opened. A truckhouse for trade with the Indians was established at the fort per Resolves 1760-61, c 281 (Jan. 26, 1761), with John Preble and then (by 1764) William Lithgow serving as truckmaster. The truckhouse appears to have ceased operation around 1768.

During the Revolution, the Massachusetts Board of War was directed to reestablish the truckhouse at Fort Halifax per Resolves 1779-1780 c 331 (Sept. 27, 1779), with Josiah Brewer as truckmaster, presumably to support the colony's war ally, the Penobscot Indians. Massachusetts also supported Juniper Berthiaume, a lay Franciscan recommended by the French consul, who lived with and instructed the Penobscots in 1780-1781. Berthiaume petitioned the General Court per Resolves 1781, Jan 1782 Sess, c 569 (Mar. 8, 1782), accusing Brewer of misconduct as truckmaster and with supplying the enemy. Resolves 1782, Sept Sess, c 63 (Nov. 6, 1782) closed the truckhouse at Fort Halifax, dismissed Brewer and an interpreter, and reinstated Berthiaume as instructor at the request of the Indians.

During the Revolutionary War, procurement and manufacture of gunpowder were crucial to supplying troops with adequate ammunition. One of the primary components of gunpowder, saltpeter, was in short supply when the war began, and special attention was paid to its manufacture and purchase by the government of Massachusetts. On the recommendation of the Continental Congress, the Massachusetts General Court authorized the creation of a committee on saltpeter (Resolves 1775-76, c 162, Aug. 24, 1775), consisting of Dr. William Whiting, Deacon Samuel Baker, and Captain John Peck. (Jedediah Phips was added per Resolves 1775-76, c 326, Nov. 2, 1775.) They were instructed to identify and publicize methods of manufacture of saltpeter, to buy up all saltpeter available in the colony by Oct. 1776 at half a dollar a pound, and to deliver it to a Court-designated manufacturer. Meantime the towns were to acquire and prepare raw materials for saltpeter manufacture as well.

Resolves 1775-76, c 319 (Nov. 1, 1775) authorized committee research on saltpeter manufacture in Connecticut, provided for the committee's subsequent headquartering in Newburyport, and directed it to pay an additional bounty of four shillings a pound to saltpeter manufacturers of fifty pounds or more, vouched for by town selectmen, if delivered before June 1776. Per Resolves 1775-76, c 470 (Dec. 28, 1775), all assembled saltpeter was to be delivered to Richard Devens, recently appointed commissary general. Resolves 1775-76, c 625 (Feb. 9, 1776) appointed Dr. John Greenleaf to the committee and appropriated a sum to allow Phips to receive and purchase saltpeter at the Watertown state store twice monthly. Devens was added to the committee per Resolves 1775-76, c 648 (Feb. 14, 1776); the next month Samuel Tufts replaced Greenleaf on the committee, to receive and purchase saltpeter at Newburyport at the rate of seven shillings a pound through May (Resolves 1775-76, c 737, Mar. 25, 1776), with Edmund Sawyer joining him there per Resolves 1775-76, c 838 (Apr. 16, 1776).

Resolves 1775-76, c 969 (May 3, 1776) set a new purchase rate of five shillings a pound to run from June until October, the original target date set the previous August. Resolves 1776-77, c 15 (June 6, 1776) clarified procedures for qualifying for that rate, as well as for the four-shilling a pound bounty rate set in November. Resolves 1776-77, c 54 (June 15, 1776) effectively replaced the committee, empowering the commissary general, Zebediah Abbot (at Andover), and Thomas Crane (at Stoughton) to examine and purchase saltpeter. Resolves 1776-77, c 74 (June 21, 1776) deputized Alexander Sheppard, Jr. to receive saltpeter at Watertown and Resolves 1776-77, c 336 (Sept. 17, 1776) appointed Capt. James Sikes to do the same at Springfield, future site of the Continental Army's laboratory ((M-Ar)2357X).

The price of saltpeter was lowered to four shillings a pound by Resolves 1776-77, c 529 (Nov. 16, 1776), and at some point after June 1, 1777, to three shillings. That the drop in price was the result of a large inventory is suggested by Resolves 1777-78, c 176, 216 (July 5, Aug. 7, 1777), which provides for the delivery to a manufacturer of two tons of saltpeter. The last references to saltpeter during the Revolution in Massachusetts are in Resolves 1778-79, c 99 (June 20, 1778), directing delivery by the Board of War of stores of saltpeter to Samuel Phillips of Andover, to be manufactured into gunpowder.

Additional references to appropriations by the General Court for purchase of saltpeter are found in Resolves 1775-76, c 1030, and Resolves 1776-77, c 14, 54, 371, 418, 432, 862, 1068.

The first legislative mention of a commissary serving armed forces of Massachusetts dates from 1676 (Mass Recs 5: 74). For references to subsequent commissaries general and special commissaries prior to the Revolution see: Province Laws 8: 384-385 (explanatory matter for Resolves 1704-5, c 43) and indexes to subsequent volumes.

During the Revolutionary War, the government of Massachusetts provided for the procurement of and provisioning of military forces with food, clothing, accouterments, arms, ordnance, and other supplies somewhat idiosyncratically through a number of public agencies.

Initially the Committees of Safety and Supplies, created by the first Provincial Congress in Oct. 1774, dealt with organizing and securing supplies. At various times these were joined by other committees with specific responsibilities for such items as clothing, wood and hay, and saltpetre.

Soon a supply department began to evolve, as in Feb. 1775 the second Provincial Congress directed the Committee of Safety to designate one of its members as commissary. Later that month John Pigeon was named commissary of stores, and as such responsible both to the Committee of Safety and the Committee of Supplies. By April, he was identifed as commissary general (Journals of each provincial congress of Massachusetts, p. 520). In May, the Committee of Safety appointed a deputy commissary and a first clerk to the deputy to assist the commissary general (Journals, p. 542, 546). As colonial forces began to gather in camps at Roxbury and Cambridge, the supply network began to expand with appointment in June of additional personnel to coordinate activities between the commissariat and these forces (Journals, p. 577). Commissary officers in the military units became the principal liaisons with the commissary general. In August, shortly after the arrival of George Washington as commander of New England forces, victualling responsibilities were transferred from the Committee on Supplies (and by extension, the commissary general) to Joseph Trumbull, commissary general of the Continental Army (Resolves 1775-76, c 93); these arrangements presumably persisted until Washington's departure in Mar. 1776.

Meantime, by Nov. 1775, Richard Devens, a member of the Committee of Safety, had replaced Pigeon as commissary general by action of the now-resumed General Court (Resolves 1775-1776, c 343). By early 1776 it was apparent that the commissary general was taking the place of the Committee of Supplies. Resolves 1775-1776, c 512, c 527 directed that the committee's papers be passed on to the commissary and discharged it from further responsibility for unsettled accounts. In Feb. 1776, the commissary general was granted an appropriation (Resolves 1775-1776, c 629) to facilitate procurement of warlike stores. Later that month (c 679), the building of a commissariat in Watertown was authorized. Subsequently other stores, laboratories (i.e., munitions factories), and magazines were created at sites including Boston, Watertown, and Springfield.

Despite the growing definition of the commissariat, the commissary general continued to be subject to legislative control. In July 1776, the General Court resolved (Resolves 1776-1777, c 152) that the Council should serve as a committee of safety during legislative recess, directing as needed the affairs of the commissary general. In October, in establishing the Board of War, the General Court made it clear that the commissary general was to be subordinate to the board (Resolves 1776-1777, c 455). This relationship was further defined in July 1777 (Resolves 1777-1778, c 194)

As the Revolutionary War progressed, major theaters of action developed outside New England, with a corresponding constriction of the commissary general's responsibilities. From an agent charged with delivering a variety of military and nonmilitary supplies, the office came by the late 1770s to be focussed more on provision of rations and other foodstuffs for the military forces of the state (e.g., Resolves 1778-1779, c 280, c 304)

The Constitution of 1780 (Pt 2, C 2, S 4, Art 1) provided for the annual legislative election of the commissary general, who would make annual returns to the governor (C 2, S 1, Art 12). The commissary general provisioned the garrison established on Castle Island (Resolves 1785, Feb 1786 Sess, c 166 et seq); he also provisioned the troops fighting Shays' Rebellion (Resolves 1786, Jan 1787 Sess, c 128; Resolves 1786, Apr 1787 Sess, c 12), and helped administer a program of tax payments in kind instituted subsequent to the rebellion (St 1787, c 39). Nevertheless, by 1792 the commissariat was in the process of closure: Resolves 1792, May Sess, c 61 undertook to dispose of the commissary general's stores and papers (consigned to the quartermaster-general and the Committee on Accounts respectively), and Resolves 1793, May Sess, c 52 provided for compensation for one year's service to the commissary general (i.e., Richard Devens) for closing his office.

Const Amend Art 4 (ratified 1821) provided for the exigent appointment of a commissary general by the legislature in a manner to be prescribed by it. During the 1830s there was a military store keeper associated with the state militia, and a commissary general did function during the Civil War. Const Amend Art 53 (ratified 1918) revised the appointment procedure for all military offices, repealing the relevant section of Amend Art 4.

Richard Devens, a member of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, was appointed commissary general by Resolves 1775-76, c 343 (Nov. 4, 1775). The commissary general initially was occupied in the delivery of arms and provisions needed by the colonial/state war effort. As war activity moved outside New England in the late 1770s, and following the end of the war, the office focused on supplying state forces, including provisioning the garrison established on Castle Island (Resolves 1785, Feb 1786 Sess, c 166 (Mar. 22, 1786)) and the troops fighting Shays' Rebellion. It also arranged for the building of lighthouses and helped administer a program of tax payments in kind instituted subsequent to the rebellion (St 1786, c 39)

The commissary was instructed by the Provincial Congress on Oct. 29, 1776 to manage the provisions procured by the Board of War (Resolves 1776-77, c 455). After the Board of War was dismantled in 1781, following passage of Resolves 1780, Jan 1781 Sess, c 62 (Feb. 8, 1781), its affairs were settled by Caleb Davis, as state agent, who was in turn succeeded in that function as of Jan. 1783 (Resolves 1782, Sept Sess, c 34 (Oct. 21, 1782)), by the Commissary General. The state commissary was involved in keeping accounts, weighing provisions, making small bill payments, and in the employment of laborers, coopers, cooks, magazine keepers, cattle drivers, butchers, salters, and packers.

HISTORICAL NOTE: The post-Revolutionary Massachusetts legislature endeavored to collect taxes levied to pay war debt and other state expenses, particularly burdening farmers in the western part of the state. Angered by foreclosures and imprisonment imposed for tax delinquency and not receiving satisfaction for grievance petitions filed with the legislature, the protesting farmers rioted and closed courthouses under the leadership of Revolutionary veteran Daniel Shays. The state militia was called out to suppress Shays' Rebellion in Sept. 1786, in Jan. 1787 a state army was formed for the purpose, and by February the insurgents were defeated.

With the establishment of the state army, the commissary general's office was responsible for furnishing provisions for the army, including food rations as well as other supplies such as wood, stationery, rum, and candles. These duties continued through March, when the commissary general was empowered by the General Court per Resolves 1786, Jan Sess, c 128 (Mar. 9, 1787), to contract with persons to supply rations to the troops, funds to be provided by the treasurer. This resolve indicated the precise number and type (beef, pork, bread, vegetables, rum) of rations to be received on a daily basis. Resolves 1786, Apr Sess, c 12 (April 30, 1787) and Resolves 1787, May Sess, c 26 (June 18, 1787) directed the paying of bills submitted by individuals or town selectmen for supplies furnished directly to the commissary general.

The munitions laboratory erected by Massachusetts at Springfield in 1777 on behalf of the Continental Congress had its origins in the colony's own arrangements for self-defense in the early days of the American Revolution. Resolves 1775-76, c 961 (May 2, 1776) licensed John Hale to erect a powder mill in Springfield; Resolves 1776-77, c 336 (Sept. 17, 1776) authorized funds to allow Capt. James Sikes to procure saltpetre on behalf of the colony to allow manufacture of gunpowder at the mill to proceed; Resolves 1776-77, c 593 (Nov. 29, 1776) directed that Hale purchase sulphur from state stores through the commissary general and thereby convert the saltpetre to gunpowder at a price of seven pence per pound; Resolves 1776-77, c 675 (Dec. 10, 1776) directed Hale to supply powder to towns in Hampshire and Berkshire counties; Resolves 1777-78, c 48 (June 13, 1777) provided state subsidy for rebuilding the mill after it was accidentally demolished by explosion the previous December.

In Dec. 1776, the Continental Congress had resolved that a laboratory for supplying the Continental Army be built in Brookfield, Mass. On Apr. 6, 1777, Gen. Henry Knox wrote James Bowdoin, Massachusetts Council president, conveying Gen. George Washington's suggestion that the proposed laboratory and accompanying magazine be built instead at Hartford. However, Gen. Knox favored a Springfield site (Massachusetts. Office of the Secretary of State. Massachusetts archives collection ((M-Ar)45X) (MA), v. 196, p. 367-369; v. 197, v. 42) and Congress ratified that choice per a resolve of Apr. 14 (Journal Cont. Cong.)

On Aug. 6th, Congress authorized payment of 30,000 dollars to Massachusetts to build the magazine, laboratory, and barracks (known collectively as the arsenal at Springfield). The Massachusetts Council was responsible for the project; related petitions, orders, and correspondence are found in Council records contained in: MA v. 167, p.93 and v. 198, p. 40-43. The laboratory was staffed by the artillery company headed by Capt. Benjamin Frothingham and Capt. Lieut. John Bryant, listed in: Massachusetts. Office of the Secretary of State. Muster rolls of the Revolutionary War ((M-Ar)57X), v. 46, p. 55. (Guards for the facility are listed in the same series, v. 25, p. 172-194.)

HISTORICAL NOTE: The post-Revolutionary Massachusetts legislature endeavored to collect taxes levied to pay war debt and other state expenses, particularly burdening farmers in the western part of the state. Angered by foreclosures and imprisonment imposed for tax delinquency and not receiving satisfaction for grievance petitions filed with the legislature, the protesting farmers rioted and closed courthouses under the leadership of Revolutionary veteran Daniel Shays. The state militia was called out to suppress Shays' Rebellion in Sept. 1786, in Jan. 1787 a state army was formed for the purpose, and by February the insurgents were defeated.

With the establishment of the state army, the commissary general's office was responsible for furnishing provisions for the army, including food rations as well as other supplies such as wood, stationery, rum, and candles. These duties continued through March, when the commissary general was empowered by the General Court per Resolves 1786, Jan Sess, c 128 (Mar. 9, 1787), to contract with persons to supply rations to the troops, funds to be provided by the treasurer. This resolve indicated the precise number and type (beef, pork, bread, vegetables, rum) of rations to be received on a daily basis. Resolves 1786, Apr Sess, c 12 (April 30, 1787) and Resolves 1787, May Sess, c 26 (June 18, 1787) directed the paying of bills submitted by individuals or town selectmen for supplies furnished directly to the commissary general.