Civil War Tech

[cw1865]

Did anybody catch the History Channels 'Modern Marvels' show depicting 'Civil War Tech' which was on this evening at 7 PM? Fascinating stuff. Highlight of the show is when they show the Monitor which they raised off the coast of NC and is now in a vat in Newport News? (or was it Norfolk), in any event they have to take really good care of it, but they were inside the turret showing the hits from the Virginia.

Also some nice insights on rail travel and its effect on Gettysburg in getting supplies to the battlefield and also getting the wounded from the battlefield......gauges between Northern and Southern railroads was different (did not know this).

Also had a nice demonstration of the canons and Henry repeaters and some breach loaded cannons....

All in all thought it was a nice show to watch over dinner!

[samgrant]

If they hadn't mislabeled the program as "Modern Marvels" I would have enjoyed that program. The History Channel is like a box of chocolates, you never know ........

[cw1865]

A little later Modern Marvels was on again with 'high tech sex' - wonder if the censors will pick up that word! But yes, I thought it a little strange that this was under 'Modern Marvels' you would think it would've been an extension of the Wild West Tech shows that they have.

[ole]

Also some nice insights on rail travel and its effect on Gettysburg in getting supplies to the battlefield and also getting the wounded from the battlefield......gauges between Northern and Southern railroads was different (did not know this).

After this post, CW, I had to dig up a map of 1861 RRs that show's guages.

It would appear that it was not possible to get from Chicago to New York on same-guage rails. Most of the north was laced with 4' 8-1/2" tracks. Except, for some reason, Ohio which went with 4' 10" tracks. Would be interesting to find out why that was.

North to south does support your contention. Most of the few rails in the south went to the 5' guage. My map shows three crossing points: Cairo, Louisville and from Richmond.

The Cairo crossing appears to be quite indirect in that a northern RR goes to Cairo and a southern RR starts across the river. Not the same guage. Louisville appears to have a bridge but, again, different guage. And it appears to have been possible to travel from Philadelphia to Wilmington, NC, on the same guage: 4' 8-1/2."

There has been much discussion about the changing guages hampering RR travel in the South. The map tells me that southern RR were mostly of the same guage. It's just that they didn't go anywhere. Nor did they connect. One could go from Memphis to New Orleans, or Memphis to Charleston or even Richmond. Beyond that, forget it. Kinda makes one boggle about how much trouble Longstreet had getting to Chickamauga.

ole

[larry_cockerham]

It was theoretically possible to get from Nashville to Mobile or from Chattanooga to Memphis and apparently Georgia was well covered with functional lines. The problem was two-fold from a Confederate viewpoint. (1) The yanks controlled much of the railroad after 1862 and (2) Confederate locomotives and cars were scarce. P poor transportation supply along with everything else. That's why Forrest usually rode a horse. It wasn't that he didn't like railroads. He owned a couple himself and dissassembled several just to see how they worked. Even borrowed a couple briefly from the US Army.

[cw1865]

I am only paraphrasing the show, but they said something to the effect that the Federal government set up its first quasi-private corporation as a result of the railroads specifically to standardize what was a haphhazard system. Obviously the Federal government imposes standards, a postive result of the war.

[johan_steele]

As a note one of the worst problems in the CS RR sys was a lack of standardized guage which was the primary reason trains had to be switched so often. IIRC One could ride from Charleston to Savannah to Atlants w/out changing trains but from Atlanta to Augusta was a seperate guage so cargo had to be switched from one car to another. But from Atlanat west it got pretty hairy. I think I read once a man had to change trains most of a dozen times from Savannah to Vicksburg. Must have played hob w/ moving supplies.

[jessup66]

Originally Posted by cw1865

A little later Modern Marvels was on again with 'high tech sex' - wonder if the censors will pick up that word! But yes, I thought it a little strange that this was under 'Modern Marvels' you would think it would've been an extension of the Wild West Tech shows that they have.

yeah I agree it would seem like it would fall under that cadigory. Great show too! They need some new episodes though.

[larry_cockerham]

Originally Posted by cw1865

I am only paraphrasing the show, but they said something to the effect that the Federal government set up its first quasi-private corporation as a result of the railroads specifically to standardize what was a haphhazard system. Obviously the Federal government imposes standards, a postive result of the war.

Generally I agree that this was one of the more positive outcomes of the war. Standards were necessary. The problem from the individual viewpoint was that often those standards turned out to be different from the ones at hand. That was construed as 'government meddling', in some cases still true today.

[larry_cockerham]

Originally Posted by johan_steele

As a note one of the worst problems in the CS RR sys was a lack of standardized guage which was the primary reason trains had to be switched so often. IIRC One could ride from Charleston to Savannah to Atlants w/out changing trains but from Atlanta to Augusta was a seperate guage so cargo had to be switched from one car to another. But from Atlanat west it got pretty hairy. I think I read once a man had to change trains most of a dozen times from Savannah to Vicksburg. Must have played hob w/ moving supplies.

Shane, aside from the guages, as Ole pointed out earlier, much of the problem was with simple discontinuity (is that a word?). One that comes to mind is the lack of a bridge across the Tombigbee River that would have linked Selma to Demopolis. That required a ferry shuttle during the war. Forrest and Grant kept playing with rail alignment as well, sometimes rearranging them and removing bridges with fire. All in all the young nation was growing. The war helped move progress along, as well as delaying it. That's kinda how the government 'works'.