The Northern Railroads In The Civil War, 1861-1865 by Thomas Weber

Author:Thomas Weber [Weber, Thomas]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, United States, Civil War Period (1850-1877), Military, Modern, 19th Century
ISBN: 9781786254399
Google: cj5vCwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2015-11-06T02:57:33+00:00

CHAPTER XI—THE UNITED STATES MILITARY RAILROADS: THE EASTERN THEATER, 1864-1865

“[The railroads’] undulations were so striking that a train moving along it looked in the distance like a fly crawling over a corrugated washboard.”—Robert U. Johnson and Clarence C. Buel, editors, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War (Horace Porter)

“It is arguable that without the railroad the South would have proved unconquerable.”—Carl R. Fish, The American Civil War

THE ORANGE AND ALEXANDRIA RAILROAD to Culpepper supplied Meade throughout the fall of 1863. In October, the Confederates destroyed 22 miles of line from Manassas Junction south to Brandy Station, but the break was repaired the last week in October. The Construction Corps rebuilt the Rappahannock River bridge (625 feet long and 35 feet high) in 19 working hours.{821} May 4, 1864, the line was abandoned by Grant beyond Burke’s Station. In the fall of 1864 it was operated to Manassas, and from November 10 until the war’s end to Fairfax.{822} Like the Orange and Alexandria, the Manassas Gap Railroad played only a minor part in the campaigns of 1864 and 1865. Operating to Piedmont in October, it was abandoned in November, the rails being taken up and carried to Alexandria.{823} Grant’s spring campaign began on May 2, 1864. A week later repairs began on the Aquia Creek Railroad, and by May 17 the line was open 14 miles to Falmouth, a job which included the construction of a 414-foot bridge over the Potomac Creek.{824} The line operated until May 22 to remove 8,000 wounded from the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, and was abandoned shortly afterwards.{825}

Even though the railroads centering in Alexandria played a minor role in the final military campaign in the east, they were nevertheless kept busy in various necessary tasks. The Construction Corps built 100 flat cars of 5-foot gauge, of which 56 were sent to the Military Division of the Mississippi.{826} Sometimes the operating personnel saw service on other roads. When a strike occurred on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, delaying coal shipments for the Navy, McCallum on July 10 ordered a force of conductors, brakemen, engineers, and firemen from Alexandria for temporary service.{827} Two weeks later the strike was ended and the men were back in Virginia.

Repairs on the Orange and Alexandria and the Manassas Gap railroads entailed combatting a great deal of guerrilla activity. The repair of the latter road to Piedmont in October, 1864, occurred at the expense of the death of the superintendent, M. J. McCrickett, and four other trainmen who were killed when a doubleheader plunged down an embankment owing to the removal of a rail.{828} Just after the road was completed to Piedmont, orders were received to abandon it after taking up the iron. By mid-November this task had been accomplished and most of the iron sent to the Winchester and Potomac Railroad. From mid-November until July, 1865, the Orange and Alexandria was operated to Fairfax, with one regular train and two wood trains daily each way.{829} During the last month of its military

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