Civil War Railroad Papers

I wonder what happened to Lt. Col. Bryan's paper? It is an outstanding compilation of the secondary sources. There are a few typographical mistakes.
The Confederates thought that the size of their territory would protect them. But the Blockade Planning Board and the naval forces partially neutralized that problem.
Then Sherman took over as the most detailed oriented logistical manager in the war and railroad logistics were used to project force.
 
The paper suggests that United States' pincher movement on the Mississippi presented the Confederates with a dilemma. Which was more important? The critical logistical link of the railroad through Corinth, or the vital economic port of New Orleans? They ended up losing both.
 
The United States raised the money to pay its railroads through the war. The railroads emerged from the war with the capital, the managers, and the equipment to create the national network. @DaveBrt suggests that the southern railroads emerged with little capital, damaged lines and second rate equipment. They never really recovered.
 
University of Louisville
ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
5-2004

The parents of progressive improvement : railroads and public policy in Kentucky, 1829-1900.
by David Matthew Wilkins

University of Louisville
This Master's Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected].

This thesis is a historical examination of the relationship between the railroad industry and state government in Kentucky during the nineteenth century. The thesis begins with an examination of the legal culture of the early nineteenth century and its relation to railroads. The thesis then shifts into an examination of the various political and social forces that led to regulation of railroads by 1900.
The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter One covers the historiographical issues surrounding American railroad history, and introduces the reader to the topic. Chapter Two discusses early interactions between railroads and public policy in Kentucky, from 1829 to 1859. Chapter Three covers Louisville's fight against Cincinnati for southern trade supremacy in the years following the Civil War. Chapter Four explores the growing anti-railroad sentiment in Kentucky politics. Chapter Five concludes the thesis with a discussion of the interaction between railroads and public policy in the years following 1900.


https://ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2571&context=etd
1108

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

Attachments

  • The parents of progressive improvement railroads and public policy in Kentucky, 1829-1900.pdf
    4.9 MB · Views: 76
Iowa State University
Graduate Theses and Dissertations Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations
2012

Building iron rails to their future: Examination of Davenport, Iowa's antebellum relationship with the Rock Island Line and Mississippi and Missouri railroads
by Chad Allan Hauser

This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Traditionally, historians have focused on two major periods in America’s nineteenth century railroad history. The first was the initial state of railroad construction as typified by the 1820s efforts of Baltimore building of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road to extend its commercial and banking reach eastward. The second was the concentrated push following the Civil War to establish a true trans-continental railroad to link the western coast of the nation with the eastern half and to standardize rail transportation connecting North and South. In most cases, historians place railroad-connected communities in one of two camps related to the periods covered. This narrow categorization interprets communities as either well established and building railroads to expand their already broad commercial reach to other markets or as largely fledgling municipalities established to either service the railroads themselves as they built to the west or markets established from railroad land grants to provide raw materials to fill the train cars heading back eastward.

Davenport, Iowa however, is a member of a rather unique group of municipalities largely located around the upper Mississippi valley in both Illinois and Iowa. Neither wholly established before undertaking the creation of railroads, nor beholden to railroads for their existence, these communities exerted influence on early nineteenth century railroad development far beyond what population and economic power would have otherwise predicted. Diving into the effort whole-heartedly, Davenport spearheaded a local and national drive to bridge the Mississippi River and link old eastern states to new western territories. These railroad efforts also entangled Davenport in the grand sectional and economic tensions wracking the nation prior to the Civil War. What should have been a simple congressional effort to acquire railroad land grants spawned a four-year long convoluted navigation of local politics, North-South issues brought on by the economic possibilities of the first trans-Mississippi River bridge, and a simmering east vs. west economic conflict, which would erupt into land grant debates and help shape precedents over state sovereignty. By the end of the Civil War, a tired, broke, and largely disillusioned Davenport would cease to tie its whole future to railroads largely outside of its own control, and instead concentrate on finding its next road to prosperity.

https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3710&context=etd
1145

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

Attachments

  • Building iron rails to their future Examination of Davenport, Iowa's antebellum relationship w...pdf
    1 MB · Views: 89
Virginia Commonwealth University
VCU Scholars Compass
Theses and Dissertations Graduate School
2014

Legislating the Danville Connection, 1847-1862: Railroads and Regionalism versus Nationalism in the Confederate States of America
by Philip Stanley

Virginia Commonwealth University
This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected].

This thesis examines the effect regionalism had upon North Carolina and Virginia during the 1847-1862 legislative battles over the Danville, Virginia, to Greensboro, North Carolina, railroad connection. The first chapter examines the rivalry between eastern and western North Carolina for internal improvement legislation, namely westerners’ wish to connect with Virginia and easterners’ desire to remain economically relevant. The second chapter investigates the Tidewater region of Virginia and its battle against the Southside to create a rail connection with North Carolina. The third chapter examines the legislation for the Danville Connection during the American Civil War in the Virginia, North Carolina, and Confederate legislatures. Through an examination of voting patterns and public opinion, this thesis finds that, despite Confederate President Jefferson Davis’s designation of the Danville connection as a military necessity,
regionalism overcame Confederate nationalism during this instance.


https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4497&context=etd
1198

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

Attachments

  • Legislating the Danville Connection, 1847-1862 Railroads and Regionalism versus Nationalism in...pdf
    1.3 MB · Views: 82
East Texas Historical Journal
Volume 35 | Issue 2 Article 9
10-1997

The Censoring of Lorenzo Sherwood: The Politics of Railroads, Slavery and Southernism in Antebellum Texas
by John Moretta

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in East Texas Historical Journal by an authorized administrator of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Prior to the late 1850s, Texans' values, attitudes, and interests more often reflected those of their former home states than those of their new one. Texans by and large were recent emigres clustered into homogenous groups that preserved native folkways and ideals. Less than one-fourth of the population in 1860 could claim residence before statehood in 1845. The immigrants' cohesiveness, the dramatically varied Texas climate and terrain, and the lack of adequate transportation in many portions of the state made the economic
interests of Texas as diverse as its population sources. Germans in the Hill Country, tejanos in San Antonio, cotton planters from the Lower South along the Brazos or Colorado rivers, or Yankee merchants in Houston or Galveston, had different concerns and values. Then, during the 1850s, a consensus emerged in Texas that reflected the ideology and partisanship of the Lower South. On the surface such empathy seemed impossible. Climate, geography, history, population makeup, and regional characteristics all made Texas appear
different from the South, but these differences were not enough to prevent Texans from identifying with the other cotton growing states. In the dozen years after annexation in 1845, the economy, culture, and ideology of the plantation South extended beyond East Texas to influence Texans in all regions of the state. Several years before Texans voted to secede from the Union the majority had become convinced that their society's future status, stability, and prosperity depended in some way upon slavery and the promotion of railroad construction that would further stimulate an already growing cotton-based market economy.


https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2228&context=ethj
1287

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

Attachments

  • The Censoring of Lorenzo Sherwood The Politics of Railroads, Slavery and Southernism in Antebe...pdf
    865.1 KB · Views: 76
NORTH CAROLINA’S FIRST RAILROADS, A STUDY IN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY
by James C. Burke
A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy
Greensboro 2008

Part One of this study is a historical narrative that addresses the political, economic, and technological factors associated with the building of the first railroads in North Carolina, and their relationship to the railroad in Virginia. Both the Raleigh & Gaston Rail Road and the Wilmington & Raleigh Rail Road were completed in 1840. The latter did not run to Raleigh, as was the original intention when it was incorporated in 1833, but rather it terminated near the Weldon Toll Bridge on the Roanoke River where it connected to the Portsmouth & Roanoke Rail Road. The Raleigh & Gaston Rail Road, incorporated in 1835, connected to the Greensville & Roanoke Rail Road, a branch line of the Petersburg Rail Road, by its own bridge over the Roanoke approximately twelve miles west of Weldon. The two North Carolina railroads lacked the benefit of a connection that would bring them into a network. This part of the study concludes with the assessment that trade competition between the commercial centers of Norfolk and Petersburg adversely influenced early railroad development in North Carolina.

Part Two of this study presents two spatial hypotheses. The first advances the position that early railroad development in North Carolina would mirror railroad development in southern Virginia to form an alignment of commercial centers north-to-south rather than east-to-west within physiographic regions. The second hypothesis suggests that the early railroads in North Carolina could have intersected north-to-south and east-to-west to form a productive network across physiographic regions. Of the many railroads proposed in North Carolina during the 1830s, the Waynesborough and Raleigh route seems the most likely component of an alternative network that would support the second hypothesis, if its practicality can be demonstrated by a plausible model. The empirical model prepared for this study replicates the conventions of a period railroad survey utilizing modern geographic tools and resources. The analysis of the resulting estimate supports the proposition that this railroad could have been built at that time had the interests in Raleigh and Wilmington agreed to one railroad to the Roanoke. The viability of other options suggests the possible that the rail network in North Carolina could have evolved differently under the same conditions.

https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/Burke_uncg_0154D_10006.pdf
1348

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

Attachments

  • NORTH CAROLINA’S FIRST RAILROADS, A STUDY IN HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY.pdf
    10.3 MB · Views: 81
A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ROADS OF VIRGINIA 1607-1840
By Nathaniel Mason Pawlett
Faculty Research Historian

Virginia Highway & Transportation Research Council
(A Cooperative Organization Sponsored Jointly by the Virginia Department of Transportation and the University of Virginia)
Charlottesville, Virginia
October 1977
Revised November 2003
VHTRC 78-R16

PREFACE
As previously outlined in the publications of the series "Historic Roads of Virginia", this study grew out of a program of research into the history of road and bridge-building technology in Virginia undertaken by the Virginia Highway & Transportation Research Council in late 1972. This research has produced, besides this series, another called "Metal Truss Bridges in Virginia 1865-1932" by Dan Grove Deibler.


The purposes of the road history portion of this project are two: (1) to produce a history of the development of the roads of Albemarle County, Virginia, from the beginning of settlement about 1725 to the beginning of the turnpike era with the creation of the Board of Public Works in 1816; and (2) more importantly, to use this experience to develop a guidebook [and an advisory program] to assist local historical groups and interested individuals in doing the same thing for the other counties of Virginia.

This volume, "A Brief History of the Roads of Virginia 1607-1840", consists of what was originally intended. as the introductory chapters of the Albemarle road history. Since most readers are probably unfamiliar with the history of roads in Virginia, it was thought proper to devote the first section of that work to a sketch of the development of road transportation here up to the coming of the period of intense railroad development in the nineteenth century. At the suggestion of several of the people who read the first draft, and in-the interest of increasing the utility of this particular section, a separate publication was decided upon.

The author hopes that this brief sketch will help .to place development of the roads of Albemarle, as well as those of the other counties, within the larger context of the development of Virginia’s roads, and that it will simultaneously provide some understanding of the varied and often conflicting forces which shaped transportation policy at the colonial and state levels.

http://www.virginiadot.org/vtrc/main/online_reports/pdf/78-r16.pdf
1384

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

Attachments

  • A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ROADS OF VIRGINIA 1607-1840.pdf
    216.8 KB · Views: 213
A paper to go with thread https://civilwartalk.com/threads/armored-train-car.143419/

8.jpg


Please go to link - https://search.proquest.com/docview/304202076
1423

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 
East Texas Historical Journal
Volume 22 | Issue 1 Article 5
3-1984

Vantage on the Bay: Galveston and the Railroads
by William D. Angel Jr

This Article is brought to you for free and open access by SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in East Texas Historical Journal by an authorized administrator of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected].

On the eve of the Civil War, Galvestonians cockily proclaimed, "The steady increase in the trade and general business of Galveston
leaves no room to doubt that it must ere long rival many of the principal sea ports of the South.'" Indeed, the city possessed locational endowments so overwhelming that its prosperous destiny seemed certain. Located on an island off the Texas coast, Galveston possessed a harbor which many observers contended was the best along the entire Gulf coast, from Pensacola to Vera Cruz,' and this harbor contributed to the city's antebellum prosperity. In 1860, for example, the port handled almost $16 million in cargo.' Galveston never realized its early promise, however, and by the beginning of the twentieth century, upstart Houslon replaced it as southeast Texas' premier port. Geographic advantages notwithstanding, human underachievement was responsible for Galveston's relative failure.


https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1525&context=ethj
1508

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

Attachments

  • Vantage on the Bay Galveston and the Railroads.pdf
    1.1 MB · Views: 241
The Gettysburg College Journal of the Civil War Era
Volume 8 Article 7
May 2018

A Dagger Through the Heartland: The Louisville & Nashville Railroad in the Civil War
by Gared N. Dalton

Western Kentucky University
This open access article is brought to you by The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an
authorized administrator of The Cupola. For more information, please contact [email protected].

Abstract
The Civil War was a defining moment in American history. What began as a sectional debate over states’ rights transformed itself into a bloody odyssey that would alter the national character itself. Within the wide scope of this conflict, scholars have sought to answer the multifaceted question of how the Union triumphed, often citing the proficient management of the railways as a key contribution to victory. Within this logistical network of rails, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad served as a vital mode of transportation for supplies and troop mobility through the heartland states of Kentucky and Tennessee. The Union exploited this advantage, thus making the Louisville & Nashville Railroad a case study in the field of Military History of successful: defensive strategy, offensive strategy, tactical efficiency and establishment of secure logistical lines. Doing so helped them secure the strategically important border state of Kentucky, which in turn became a launching pad into Tennessee and ultimately, the Deep South itself. Hence, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad significantly helped the Union win the Civil War.

https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1098&context=gcjcwe
1565

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

Attachments

  • A Dagger Through the Heartland The Louisville & Nashville Railroad in the Civil War.pdf
    337 KB · Views: 73
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Volume 4 1974 Symposium on Industrial Archaeology,
Paterson, N.J. Article 3
1975

The Evolution of the Rogers Locomotive Company, Paterson, NJ
by Brian Morrell

Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in Northeast Historical Archaeology by an authorized editor of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected].

INTRODUCTION
Since 1973, Great Falls Development, Inc. of Paterson, N.J. has sponsored a salvage archeology project in the city's S.U.M./Great Falls National Historic District. Funding has been supplied by both the State and Federal Departments of Transportation, since the project is the result of the intrusion into the District of a storm drain for both a state and an interstate highway. Digging and research have centered in the locomotive manufacturing portion of the District--the site of the former Rogers Locomotive and Machine Company, the Grant Locomotive and Machine Company, and the Danforth and Cooke Locomotive Companies (see Fig. 1-2). This type of manufacturing commenced in the area in 1837 and continued until the 1920's. Archeology was confined to the right-of-way line for the drain construction, which traversed the Grant locomotive erecting shop and the Rogers tender, blacksmith, hammer, boiler, and erecting shops. However, this paper deals with the chronology of all the Rogers Locomotive Company's buildings, past and present, not just those excavated.

https://orb.binghamton.edu/cgi/view...e.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1330&context=neha
1612

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

Attachments

  • The Evolution of the Rogers Locomotive Company Paterson NJ.pdf
    4 MB · Views: 104
It was the management systems in the United States railroads that were important. The ability to breakdown complex tasks into defined pieces in which performance could be assessed created accountability. The concept of accountability spread into the army. Concepts such as celerity, and efficiency were constantly coming up.
Yes, I remember reading long ago that railroads were the first to develop corporate structures similar to those used today. But ... just as steam ruined the canals, the IC engine ruined the RRs.
 
https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/1883656.pdf

There was a war coming, either a hot war, or a cold war based on economic growth. Either way, Chicago and Illinois, and the areas connected to them, were going to win the war. The value to the people sponsoring these Midwest railroads more than met their expectations.
As for the post war railroads, the Pacific railroad was more or less a bribe to keep California quiet and to keep Iowa and Missouri committed. The payoff was not a dollars and cents item, it was military victory.
Great link, but you might take some heat (in another thread) about your 2nd sentence.
 
As soon as the Confederates blocked the Mississippi, and the US took control as far south as Cairo, IL, the railroad revenues went through the roof. More engines, more stock and better management had to catch up.
The problem was noted by William Freehling, the northern population was not going to give up their jobs or their farms to fight for one party, slave system in the south. The US economy was untouched and growing, rapidly, during the war.
 
Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports
1999

From turnpikes to railroads: Antebellum transportation improvements and community development in Taylor County, Virginia
by Scott W. Daley

West Virginia University
This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by The Research Repository @ WVU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports by an authorized administrator of The Research Repository @ WVU. For more information, please contact [email protected].

ABSTRACT
In the 1820s, a revolution in transportation technology changed forever the shipment of goods, travel, and the process of communication as overland transportation shifted from turnpikes to railroads. This study examines the affect on community formation and development in two turnpike villages and one town along the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, America’s first inter-regional commercial railroad line. Between the mid-1830s and 1860, as railroads replaced turnpikes, the villages of Fetterman and Pruntytown, Virginia, came into existence, flourished, and began to decline as railroads passed along the lower Tygart River in 1850, directly competing with turnpikes. The town of Grafton in Taylor County, Virginia, built for the railroad, began in 1850, and was large enough for incorporation by 1856. Emerging railroad technology would make turnpikes obsolete and draw Taylor County, along with much of northern Virginia, into a national transportation system, reducing the isolation of many small communities.

The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad represented a new technology that shaped communities. Cities, towns, and villages not directly along the railroad began to fall into disuse. Grafton received a further boost in 1856 when it served as the junction point for the Northwestern Virginia Railroad, which connected the Ohio River valley to the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.

This thesis examines the earliest industrialization of the lower Tygart River valley brought about by railroads. In the 1850s, choices over transportation modes and alignments helped form the town of Grafton and contributed to commercial and community development in Taylor County. In Taylor County, a new form of community came into existence: a railroad town which assumed characteristics of eastern cities, and provided a prototype for railroad towns of the west during post-Civil War expansion. Although still agricultural in 1860, the seeds of industrialization had been sown in Taylor County with the convergence of two railroads which introduced modernized
transportation.


https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4999&context=etd
1806

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
 

Attachments

  • From turnpikes to railroads Antebellum transportation improvements and community development i...pdf
    1.2 MB · Views: 40
Northeast Historical Archaeology
Volume 4 1974 Symposium on Industrial Archaeology,
Paterson, N.J. Article 3
1975

The Evolution of the Rogers Locomotive Company, Paterson, NJ
by Brian Morrell

Part of the Archaeological Anthropology Commons
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). It has been accepted for inclusion in Northeast Historical Archaeology by an authorized editor of The Open Repository @ Binghamton (The ORB). For more information, please contact [email protected].

INTRODUCTION
Since 1973, Great Falls Development, Inc. of Paterson, N.J. has sponsored a salvage archeology project in the city's S.U.M./Great Falls National Historic District. Funding has been supplied by both the State and Federal Departments of Transportation, since the project is the result of the intrusion into the District of a storm drain for both a state and an interstate highway. Digging and research have centered in the locomotive manufacturing portion of the District--the site of the former Rogers Locomotive and Machine Company, the Grant Locomotive and Machine Company, and the Danforth and Cooke Locomotive Companies (see Fig. 1-2). This type of manufacturing commenced in the area in 1837 and continued until the 1920's. Archeology was confined to the right-of-way line for the drain construction, which traversed the Grant locomotive erecting shop and the Rogers tender, blacksmith, hammer, boiler, and erecting shops. However, this paper deals with the chronology of all the Rogers Locomotive Company's buildings, past and present, not just those excavated.

https://orb.binghamton.edu/cgi/view...e.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1330&context=neha
1612

Cheers,
USS ALASKA
Visited this museum while researching locomotive manufacturers. Great article, thanks.
http://www.thepatersonmuseum.com/
 
The Big One. Only a solitary plaque of the works remains in the center of Phila. today.

Locomotives were "high tech" marvels at the time and their histories deserve top rankings in the industrial development of the US. For Brits and Brit lovers at CWT, I admit that locos and cloth machinery began in the minds of your country's geniuses.

Thanks for the free book.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top