how were railroads used in the civil warhow were railroads used in the civil war

For the Union's many successes the South enjoy its own triumphs with this technology. They became both strategic resources, as well as a military targets, precisely because they were strategic resources. While the Civil War had emotionally and physically scarred the country, the railroad paved the way for further expansion and growth after hostilities ended. The most comprehensive and authoritative history site on the Internet. It was a war, which was both avoidable and inevitable. Amtrak, the national railroad service in the United States, provides convenient and reliable transportation for millions of passengers each year. Anything that needed to be transferred from one railroad to another had to be hauled across town and loaded onto new freight cars. The Civil War was the first conflict in the world fought with trains, a new technology at the time. Car ferries were an important link in that logistical chain. Updated on March 27, 2019 The Civil War was fought at a time of great technological innovation and new inventions, including the telegraph, the railroad, and even balloons, became part of the conflict. Individual armed cars also accompanied supply trains, usually coupled to the front of a locomotive. Interestingly it was the very B&O that initially proved the railroad's tactical effectiveness; on June 2, 1861, more than a month prior to the war's first major engagement at the "First Battle of Bull Run" (known within the Confederacy as the "Battle of First Manassas") it transported troops from Grafton, Virginia to a location about six miles east of the city to capture the town of Philippi ("Battle of Philippi"). A great deal has been written about railroads in the war, and in particular the spectacular engineering feats of the U.S. Military Railroads Construction Corps under Herman Haupt. This article was written by Alan R. Koenig and originally appeared in the September 1996 issue of Americas Civil War magazine. They are most likely former slaves who were included in the Union war effort. to transport troops and civilians as needed. Commanders took this idea a step further during the war by mounting heavy artillery pieces, which were very cumbersome to maneuver in the field, on flatcars for combat operations. Throughout the war, enemies would oftentimes disable telegraph lines, either hindering or eliminating the prospect of communication. These heavily armed railroad cars proved good substitutes for armored trains, since several cars were not dependent on a single locomotive for mobility. However, after consultation with USMRR engineer Daniel McCallum, he predicted that by rail, the move could be completed in just seven days. There were four potential routes chosen; a northern, central, and two southern corridors. On a hot summer day in 1861, Union and Confederate troops lined up along Bull Run Creek preparing to fight the first major battle of the Civil War. History Net, 2006. The railroads also lacked a standard gauge, so that trains of different companies ran on tracks anywhere from four feet to six feet wide. During the Civil War, Hanover Junction was the connection between the Hanover Branch Railroad a local Pennsylvania carrier and the Northern Central Railroad, which extended northward from Baltimore up the Susquehanna River Valley into central Pennsylvania. Ralph White had a harrowing adventure to save his Vietnamese colleagues. The Civil War was the first war to use railroads and turn them into a weapon of war. These torpedoes (known today as mines) included simple artillery shells with percussion fuses as well as specially constructed pressure-detonated contrivances filled with gunpowder. built and repaired freight cars to supply Union forces as they advanced through the South. Indeed, modern armored forces today use a similar combined-arms approach of mutually supporting firepower, although the vehicles operate independently rather than being coupled together in units, and, of course, are not limited to the rails. Supplies could now be transported quicker and more efficiently by the ironclad railcar, and be utilized to secure victory against the opposing force. Mortar technology was not new during the Civil War but making it mobile was, as seen here with the "Dictator" near Petersburg, Virginia in 1864. The rarest road-switchers EMD ever cataloged was the RS1325 of 1960. Every purchase supports the mission. USMRR Locomotive J.H. In one instance, a large handcar carried a 10-pounder Parrott gun to duel with a much larger Confederate railroad battery. There was the previously mentioned "Battle of First Manassas" when General Joe Johnston used the Manassas Gap Railroad to move his troops into position, eventually securing a Confederate victory. A view of Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania during November, 1863. The National Archives identifies this as the new Master Mechanics Office at Chattanooga. Running from the Hudson River to the Great Lakes, it was a major economic artery through New York. Other railroad batteries relied on their superior range to batter opposing forces from afar. Their march order, or sequence of cars, is noteworthy. The North not only held a commanding advantage in total mileage but also boasted a mighty industrial machine across New England. Also useful in railroad warfare were armed trains, which, as their name implies, carried combat-ready troops and, at times, artillery. Some Federal commanders even issued draconian decrees threatening to deport local inhabitants or destroy their farms if depredations occurred on local railroads. It was also a time of great technological change. Rifle cars and monitors coupled to a locomotive formed an ironclad (or armored) train. The two men were also adept at preventing field officers from interrupting everyday affairs through either meddling or special requests. Railroads allowed the transportation of goods over very long distances without having to worry about horse flesh or mules or anything like that. Donations to the Trust are tax deductible to the full extent allowable under the law. ). In special situations, locomotives served as rams. The Civil War was a time of great social and political upheaval. This was an important consideration, since a ruptured boiler could scald a crew in their iron cab like lobsters in a pot. It was one of the most critical moments of the war. These new railroad monitors resembled elongated pyramids and were the same shape as casemated ironclad vessels (turrets were not used with the light artillery on railroad monitors, though armored railroad cars in subsequent conflicts did use turrets). The information includes original numbers, serials, and order numbers. Many were pulled up in the 1970's and 1980's although others were removed long before that. It was also featured on the front cover of the book, "Railroads In The Days Of Steam," published in 1960. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. The Civil War is renowned for the introduction and employment of many new weapons, including rifled artillery, machine guns and submarines. Armies would also send trains to distract the enemy forces, as decoy trains would be sent to enemy territory, causing them to fire rounds at the train, therefore, pinpointing the location of the enemy army. As the war progressed and the lethality of rifled muskets became all too evident, soldiers attitudes changed toward using cover in combat. Beginning in Bealeton, Virginia, the USMRR owned, Orange and Alexandria Railroad operated to Washington D.C., where the Baltimore & Ohio commanded the movement until reaching Benwood, West Virginia. Finally, two major technological advances were introduced just a few years after the war; George Westinghouse's automatic air brake of 1869 and Eli Janney's automatic coupler of 1873. They were also vital to the economies of the divided nation. One of the most advantageous aspects of the railroads during the Civil War was the implementation of the U.S. Military Railroads Construction Corps (USMRR). These types were oftentimes utilized on the move, as they could strike anywhere the railroad would take them. The junction had an engine house, machine shop, locomotive servicing facilities, and yard tracks. Light artillery pieces were fired from hatches cut in the hull. This was exponentially time consuming, as oftentimes, there was a lengthy layover between trips, an extreme disadvantage especially when time was of the essence. Because telegraph communication was sporadic at best, railroad crews were often unaware of broken rails and collapsed bridges. The northern end of the O&A was a combat zone from the time of First Manassas (the First Battle of Bull Run, in July, 1861) through the end of the war in early 1865. Once the war began, the Union blockade of the Atlantic and Gulf ports was very effective in shutting off that supply. As Mr. Hankey points out, had the U.S. lost one battle here or there it may have turned the tide. The south, an agrarian society, focused on crops such as tobacco and cotton, however, lacked the vast industrialization of the north. By the end of the war (in 1865, in Virginia), the conflict had lost its honor and devolved into a cold, hard, senseless war of attrition. They proved a vital asset in the movement of troops and materiel, ultimately allowing the North to achieve total victory. The arched doors on each end allowed a train to pull through. The side doors allowed teamsters to back their wagons against the cars and workers to transload the freight. Its economic success sparked a wave of canal building. The demographics of the Union and Confederacy were entirely different entities. The civil war is considered the first modern war, as railroads now carried ammunition and troops to battle, instead of on horseback or by sheer manpower. Meanwhile, another Federal armed train, only recently commandeered from the Confederates, carried a conventional force through Confederate territory to rendezvous with the renegade train. As in the rest of the South, most of the lines were relatively short, having been designed originally to move . The north learned from their shortcomings at Bull Run, and began utilizing their sprawling railroad network to their advantage. Today, the station and tracks are still in use. Just as rifle monitors foreshadowed modern tanks, rifle cars were early versions of infantry fighting vehicles. In contrast, by 1862 the North began laying the groundwork for what became a unified and efficient transportation network. With the growing tension between the north and south, the repeal of the Missouri Compromise led to the inevitable onslaught of war. The "Train Of Tomorrow" was a post-World War II, dome car trainset developed by GM/EMD and Pullman in 1947. Railroad's Critical Role in the Civil War. When buried in the roadbed under a crosstie, torpedoes could be detonated by a passing train. However, the lack of standardized rails in the south hindered the swift movement of troops and supplies, as various transfers to railroads of various gauges took place in order to reach a destination. According to the British news magazine The Economist, "They are universally recognized in the industry as the best in the world." [2] Building through the very rugged and remote regions of western Montana, northern Idaho and Washington it took NP nearly twenty years before its completion in 1883 (hampered, partially, by the financial Panic of 1873). When the war began, there were 22,000 miles of railroad track in the North . @media(min-width:0px){#div-gpt-ad-worldwiderails_com-medrectangle-3-0-asloaded{max-width:728px!important;max-height:90px!important}}var cid='9002289870';var pid='ca-pub-6549105736590396';var slotId='div-gpt-ad-worldwiderails_com-medrectangle-3-0';var ffid=1;var alS=1021%1000;var container=document.getElementById(slotId);var ins=document.createElement('ins');ins.id=slotId+'-asloaded';ins.className='adsbygoogle ezasloaded';ins.dataset.adClient=pid;ins.dataset.adChannel=cid;ins.style.display='block';ins.style.minWidth=container.attributes.ezaw.value+'px';ins.style.width='100%';ins.style.height=container.attributes.ezah.value+'px';container.style.maxHeight=container.style.minHeight+'px';container.style.maxWidth=container.style.minWidth+'px';container.appendChild(ins);(adsbygoogle=window.adsbygoogle||[]).push({});window.ezoSTPixelAdd(slotId,'stat_source_id',44);window.ezoSTPixelAdd(slotId,'adsensetype',1);var lo=new MutationObserver(window.ezaslEvent);lo.observe(document.getElementById(slotId+'-asloaded'),{attributes:true}); Railroads played a pivotal role throughout the course of the Civil War. American-Rails.com collection. Large military forces were, of course, the worst danger to railroads. The location is City Point, an arm of land where the Appomattox River separates from the James River, some miles to the east of the junction of the James River and the Chesapeake Bay. @media(min-width:0px){#div-gpt-ad-worldwiderails_com-leader-1-0-asloaded{max-width:250px!important;max-height:250px!important}}if(typeof ez_ad_units!='undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[250,250],'worldwiderails_com-leader-1','ezslot_13',114,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-worldwiderails_com-leader-1-0'); Attacks against the opposing forces railroads were prevalent during the war, as torpedoes and other weapons were hidden in the ballast beneath cross ties, which would detonate under the weight of a locomotive, resulting in a derailment. Naval events at Hampton Roads, Va., which included a duel between the ironclad vessels Monitor and Merrimack, convincingly illustrated the efficiency of iron plating in stopping projectiles. Its objective was to throw exploding shells behind the earthen and masonry fortifications erected around the Virginia city of Petersburg. Very little track had yet been laid west of the Mississippi. Railroads grew slowly in the decades before the Civil War, as many people did not trust the new technology. The NP was dealt a series of logistical and financial problems that delayed its completion by nearly two decades. During the war, railroads were second only to waterways in providing logistical support for the armies. Traveling by rail, Generals Stonewall Jackson, Joseph Johnson and their cavalries arrived at the Battlefield from the Shenandoah Valley. American-Rails.com collection. The Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad's yard and station in Nashville, Tennessee as it appeared in March, 1864. This Union artillery crew was assigned to a uniquely powerful weapon: a heavy mortar nicknamed The Dictator. The idea was that the massive 200-pound explosive shells it hurled far behind Confederate lines would help dictate the terms of Southern surrender. The railroads were owned by civilians and the Confederate government opposed taking over civilian industries. Stay up-to-date on our FREE educational resources & professional development opportunities, all designed to support your work teaching American history. To this list should also be added railroad weapons, which were the predecessors of modern armored fighting vehicles. But it strongly hints at the more profound loss of over 600,000 American lives. Railroads were used in the Civil War to transport supplies and troops to the battlefield. by George A. McLean, Jr. Confederate troops were rushed by rail to confront the Union army led by Brigadier General Irwin McDowell at Bull Run. Donations to the Trust are tax deductible to the full extent allowable under the law. Maintaining the trains and rail lines became a major problem as well. Because they supplied the units that were on campaign, railroads were often major objectivesan army without supplies cannot operate for long. [3] In practice, however, the USMRR restricted its authority to Southern rail lines captured in the course of the war. Furthermore, windows would be reduced to minute size and circular in shape in order to avoid shots being fired at them. American-Rails.com collection. Between 1850 and 1871 the federal government offered more than 170 million acres of western land to railroads in exchange for establishing new routes between the Midwest and the west coast. A train might run back and forth into an area, tricking scouts into reporting that the enemy was reinforcing his position, when in fact he was leaving. The cars armor was only thick enough to withstand small-arms fire, however, so commanders generally relegated the boxcar-shaped monitors to areas known to be infested with partisans. During the war, both the North and the South used railroads to transport supplies and men, though the North had . Issues like these resulted in a lack of fluidity. Another means of segregating the infantry from the artillery was the rifle car. The USMR was under the command of General Daniel C. McCallum (former general manager of the Erie Railway) and General Herman Haupt (former chief engineer of the Pennsylvania Railroad). The Reconstruction era, spanning 1865-1877, was a twelve year period of rebuilding the nation, primarily the south, after the Civil War. By September 1863, the Southern railroads were in bad shape. A popular pastime for many is studying and/or exploring abandoned rights-of-way. tender, the construction debris, and the presence of African American workers. Track, too, became a problem, and crossties, spikes, and track were taken from the less important railroad lines and used on the major lines. Since the North had more of the railroads, they were able to use it greatly to their advantage, and it was . With polished brass, polished iron, vivid red and blue paint, fancy lettering, and elaborate portraits of Devereux on the sand dome, the locomotive was the epitome of 1860s decoration. The Civil War is the first war in which railroads were a major factor. Small-arms apertures cut in the sides allowed infantrymen to supplement the fire of the main guns. There were many reasons for the South's failure to achieve victory. More often than not it, however, it was military strategy and not the railroad which led to Southern victory. The nation saw record-setting increases in passenger and freight volume, with railroads carrying more than 90% of the military's freight and 98% of its personnel. Our FREE Virtual Teacher Institute is the can't miss online educator event of the summer. In a sense, the utilization of the railroads during the Civil War solidified their importance in the American landscape. They did not have the parts to replace worn out equipment. All written content, photos, and videos copyright American-Rails.com (unless otherwise noted). Not only did the railroads materially help the north to victory through movement of troops and materiel, but the war materially changed the way railroads were built, run, financed, and. They also helped troops escape superior forces and reconnoiter in fluid tactical situations. Since operable locomotives were at a premium during the war, it was not always economical to use them on missions for which a smaller vehicle would suffice. We have no idea who they are, what roles they played, or what they thought of the war. Optimally, however, an ironclad train employed a number of cars in a specific sequence as had the armed trains. This enabled a battery to fire on the move, a significant advantage over its horse-drawn counterparts. Fittingly, troops called them railroad monitors, to honor the Federal vessel that inspired the fever. This led to various crews jumping from the locomotives in the event of a derailment. In particular was the Louisville & Nashville which saw the most destruction of any system. The railroads therefore began to run into difficulties very quickly. Federal Identification Number (EIN): 54-1426643. The Civil War was the first war to use railroads, encouraged by President Lincoln himself a former railroad lawyer who understood how vital they were for moving men and supplies.. When discussing railroads during the Civil War their role is often overlooked. American-Rails.com collection. But we can at least be impressed by photographs such as this. Sign up for our quarterly email series highlighting the environmental benefits of battlefield preservation. JOHN P. HANKEY is a historian who lives near Annapolis, Md. He believed that by crippling B&O's network the Union could not effectively wage war. Classic Railroad Scenes: Railroads at Work. These flatcars, known today as control cars, pusher cars or monitor cars (not to be confused with railroad monitors), also protected locomotives from rams. For the Confederate States Army, the system was fragile and was designed for short hauls of cotton to the nearest river or ocean port. A posed but interesting scene of the Orange & Alexandria's bridge crossing Bull's Run (Virginia), circa 1863, with Union soldiers in the foreground. One of the most noteworthy was its inability to properly utilize the railroad. Join us online July 24-26! On one occasion, Confederate soldiers lurking near a burned bridge suddenly saw a burning ammunition train hurtling straight toward them, forcing them to skeddadle. As the war progressed, the opposing forces realized the various advantages the railroads could supply their regimes. You could load a train with lots of cargo and send it a very long way. The span was a Haupt Truss type designed by the United States Military Railroad's General Herman Haupt. Subscribe to the American Battlefield Trust's quarterly email series of curated stories for the curious-minded sort! The United State Military Railroad (USMR) picks up debris following General Pope's retreat of the 2nd Battle of Bull Run at Clifton, Virginia in the fall of 1862. One Federal ruse involved sending a deserted train down the tracks to entice masked Confederate artillery into firing, thereby revealing their location to counterfire. The artillery was transported on a flat car to the battlefield, which was exponentially more effective than horse haulage. American-Rails.com collection. For instance, Southern leaders believed civilian rail movements should take precedence over military transports. Most importantly, the USMRR operated confederate railroads seized by the Union, furthering their advantageous rail network. The Federals therefore applied off-the-shelf technology to warfare, using recently developed steam passenger cars (self-propelled railroad coaches) to inspect the tracks and deliver pay to isolated posts. A view of Hanover Junction, Pennsylvania during November of 1863. Looking back, the South may have achieved its desired result if Lincoln had never found an effective commander. Get updates and special offers via email from Trains.com brands! While both understood their importance, the South saw trains as a means of maintaining slavery's status quo for economic growth. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.. After 1861, the W&A was a lifeline for the Confederacy, linking the Upland South with the critical rail junction at Atlanta. Why were the railroads important to the South? This video is part of the American Battlefield Trust's In4 video series, which presents short videos on basic Civil War topics.