B&O helped the Union during Civil War

CMWinkler

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B&O helped the Union during Civil WarJAMEs RADA Jr. 12/01/2012 10:39 PM

The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was one of the Union’s greatest weapons during the Civil War. It wasn’t a weapon of destruction but of transportation.
The United States had 200 railroads when the war began. Most of them were in the North. Also, the distinctive thing about the northern railroads was that most of them had a uniform distance between their rails. This allowed the Union to move troops and goods faster and with fewer transfers than the Confederacy could.
Even among the northern railroads, the B&O was special. At the beginning of the war, the B&O had 513 miles of track that ran from Washington, D.C., to Wheeling, W.Va.
“From Wheeling, the train would be taken across the river on floats to Parkersburg,” said Courtney Wilson, executive director of the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore. From there, connections could be made to other railroads, but the Washington connection was the critical one. In terms of rail service, the B&O was Washington’s lifeline to the Union.
While the right of way of the railroad made it useful for moving troops along the front, part of it ran through areas that at times were under Confederate control. The Confederate troops recognized the advantage the B&O gave the Union and often targeted it for destruction. Over the course of the war, 143 raids and battles involved the B&O.
“Millions and millions and millions of dollars of damage was done to the railroad during the war,” Wilson said.
The Union also recognized the importance that keeping the railroad running meant to the war effort. Brigades were stationed on the eastern and western ends of the rail line and were dedicated to protecting the B&O from not only regular Confederate Army actions, but also raids from the growing number of ranger units.
John W. Garrett was president of the B&O from 1858 until he died in 1884. He was a Virginian by birth and he continued to treasure his birth state even after it seceded from the Union.
“His loyalties were in question at first because he had called the B&O a Southern railroad,” Wilson said. He also referred to Confederate leaders as “our Southern friends.”
However, Garrett realized that his financial future lay with a Union victory in the war. Once he realized this, Garrett became a staunch Unionist. Besides allowing the army to transport troops on the railroad, he allowed telegraph lines to be strung along the railroad’s right of way to facilitate communication.
His support of the Union could clearly be seen prior to the Battle of Monocacy in 1864. Railroad agents began reporting Confederate troop movements a week and a half before the battle. Garrett passed the information on to Gen. Lew Wallace, who was in charge of the Union defense. He also made sure that trains carried munitions and troops to the area.
It was a win-win situation for the railroad and the Union. The Union was able to move its men and equipment quickly to where they were most needed. Garrett got army protection for the railroad and lucrative government contracts.
The B&O went on to play an important role throughout the war from being attacked during John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry to transporting President Abraham Lincoln’s body back to Illinois after his assassination.
When Garrett County formed from Allegany County in 1872, the citizenry chose to honor the man who brought the railroad to the region by naming the new county in his honor.

http://m.times-news.com/CTN/pm_104070/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=aF6F5ECu
 
Also, the distinctive thing about the northern railroads was that most of them had a uniform distance between their rails.
Slightly misleading. Most northern rails were of uniform gauge, but they were short. One company might build a road between, say, Chicago and Cincinnati. It would stop at that company's terminal. Another company might build a road from Cincinnati to, say, Cleveland. Anything going from Chicago the Cleveland had to be offloaded in Cincinnati and transferred to the terminal of the road going to Cleveland.

The classic example of this is Baltimore. Rails connected Baltimore to Philadelphia. Another ccompany's rails connected Baltimore to Washington City. When Lincoln requested troops to defend Washington, the early responders had to march through hostile city to the other RR terminal. You know the story.

Another long, consistent railroad was that which linked Louisville to Atlanta trough Nashville and Chattanooga. Many battles were fought over control of that line. Sherman's Atlanta Campaign would have been impossible without it.
 
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