William Gates LeDuc was a quartermaster during the Civil War. A quartermaster was responsible for maintaining supplies for the army, including clothes and food. After the Battle of Chickamauga, part of the Union army was trapped behind enemy lines with very little food and supplies. Colonel LeDuc worked with a fellow quartermaster to put together a steamboat of supplies which became known as the "Cracker Line", to deliver food to the starving soldiers trapped in the south.