Caleb Huse

The Supplies for the Confederate Army (Dodo Press) Caleb Huse

Major Caleb Huse (1831-1905) was a significant Confederate army officer and arms procurement agent in Europe throughout the Civil War, born in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Huse purchased, primarily in England but also in Austria, rifles, cannon, and other military supplies that were to be paid for with shipments of southern cotton smuggled through the Federal naval blockade of Confederate ports. By the end of the war Huse had sent the Confederate War Department munitions whose value exceeded $10 million. He was left nearly destitute by the collapse of the Confederacy and returned to the United States in 1868. He had served at West Point under Robert E. Lee and been commandant of cadets at the University of Alabama. Early in 1861 he chose to resign his U. S. Army commission rather than accept a transfer to Washington, D. C.