Industrial production confederate

[atlantis]

Why didn't the confederacy not keep producing rails and equipment for the railroads but instead resorted to cannibalizing existing railroads.
Given how important the railroad was for the confederate military.

 

[DaveBrt]

Why didn't the confederacy not keep producing rails and equipment for the railroads but instead resorted to cannibalizing existing railroads.
Given how important the railroad was for the confederate military.

One dispute the South had with the North pre-war was the use of government money for infrastructure improvements -- canals, railroads, harbor improvements -- believing that it was not the government's responsibility to assist businesses this way. Once on their own, the South made good on that belief by refusing to allow such spending in the Confederacy. What little was spent by the government on railroads was always justified as a military necessity and the money was always provided as a loan to the company.

President Davis never took control of his cabinet in regard to the allocation of Confederate resources. Each Department could have what it could get Congress to authorize. With the success of the CSS Virginia, the Navy Department was able to force the main iron foundries to provide most of their rolling capacity to provide armor for more gunboats, leaving little space for railroads to get work done, including manufacturing and re-rolling of existing rails.

Both the War and Navy Departments forced the foundries to produce artillery tubes to the point that there was little iron left that could have been spent on railroad wheels, axles, car iron work, locomotives, etc.

To keep the railroads running, rails that needed to be replaced had to be replaced by cannibalizing minor lines and sidings.

See my site, Confederate Railroads, at csa-railroads.com.

 

[Rhea Cole]

The answer to the question, "Why didn't the Confederacy produce railroad rails?" Is a simple one. Other products were given priority for the South's very limited rolling mill assets.

This was not a new thing, British "U" rails were used to construct both the Nashville & Chattanooga & the Southside RR's. The rails were an inverted U shape. This type of rail did not hold up well under heavy wartime traffic. When A.S. Johnston ordered the evacuation of Nashville TN, the N & C RR had (+/-) 1,500 rails in need of replacement.

Here are useful links for understanding Southern RR rails:


This article explains the "puddle iron" process that was used to produce malleable iron during the 19th Century.

Link:

Puddlers, Shinglers & Rollers: the Story of Malleable Iron – CultureNL Museums

www.culturenlmuseums.co.uk

It wasn't just iron rolling mills for producing railroad rails that the Confederacy lacked. Read more here.

Link:

East Tennessee and Confederate Copper - Emerging Civil War

On November 25, 1863, Colonel Eli Long rode into Cleveland, Tennessee, at the head of 1,500 Union cavalrymen. They were there to wreak general havoc. When it comes to Civil War cavalry raids, Long’s Cleveland incursion does not garner much attention. It was not a spectacular bit of insolence...

emergingcivilwar.com

This is an example of a ground breaking technology for rolling steel rails that the South did not have. See more here:

Link:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54eb7fcce4b0a4e937b40d71/t/55033892e4b04d51bd423000/1426274450881/98050+Route+29+booklet+-+Rolling+Rails+by+the+River.pdf

This survey of Confederate railroad trackage is a good background for understanding the different types of rails in use during the Civil War. Read more here:

Link:

Confederate Track

This Combat Studies Institute publication, "Rails to Oblivion, Decline of Confederate Railroads in the Civil War." is a source that you will want to archive. See more here.

Link:

https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/combat-studies-institute/csi-books/gabel6.pdf

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

One dispute the South had with the North pre-war was the use of government money for infrastructure improvements -- canals, railroads, harbor improvements -- believing that it was not the government's responsibility to assist businesses this way. Once on their own, the South made good on that belief by refusing to allow such spending in the Confederacy. What little was spent by the government on railroads was always justified as a military necessity and the money was always provided as a loan to the company.

President Davis never took control of his cabinet in regard to the allocation of Confederate resources. Each Department could have what it could get Congress to authorize. With the success of the CSS Virginia, the Navy Department was able to force the main iron foundries to provide most of their rolling capacity to provide armor for more gunboats, leaving little space for railroads to get work done, including manufacturing and re-rolling of existing rails.

Both the War and Navy Departments forced the foundries to produce artillery tubes to the point that there was little iron left that could have been spent on railroad wheels, axles, car iron work, locomotives, etc.

To keep the railroads running, rails that needed to be replaced had to be replaced by cannibalizing minor lines and sidings.

See my site, Confederate Railroads, at csa-railroads.com.

Your knowledge, and the information at your site, go far beyond the information provided in the one book on CSA railroads that I have read, "The Railroads of the Confederacy," by Robert Black. When it comes to railroads I pay close attention to the comments of @DaveBrt.

 

[atlantis]

Thanks for the feedback.