Confederate Railroads

[JohnDLittlefield]

I know its generally accepted that Confederate railroads were in sufficient for military use. In going over the Acts of the 4th Confederate Congress, I noticed there were several acts to improve the rail system for the military by connecting
a) Richmond, Danville, and North Carolina railroads through Act No. 385, and
b) Selma AL, to Meridian, MS through Act No. 403
(link provided to the texts- https://archive.org/details/actsresolution00conf)

So, my question is two-fold: First, did these connections actually happen and second, is there a good, concise book on the topic of Confederate Rail systems that you might recommend?

 

[BKey]

Off hand, I can't answer your question. Here is an Internet site that probably will.
Confederate Railroads: http://www.csa-railroads.com/

The Confederacy had a lot of problems with their rail roads. The Navy received a lot of rail for use as armor which was needed to build lines. The different railroads were built to different gauges as opposed to the North. At the beginning of the war, a lot of lines weren't connected at a mutual town so the local teamsters could profit by transferring / hauling goods across the town in wagons. The army took the men needed to run the railroads. It was a mess.

I highly recommend the book Confederate Railroads by Robert C. Black III. Amazon has it.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0807847291/?tag=civilwartalkc-20

 

[JohnDLittlefield]

I did find this interesting,

"Thus the Confederate States of America was, at the time of its inception, endowed with a major asset in the form of its railroads. It is also true, however, that the Southern railroads labored under some serious deficiencies that prevented their full utilization for military purposes. The most significant of these problems was that the Confederate rail system was really a collection of relatively small railroads, and was in fact not a 'system' at all." (Gabel 2002, 2)

 

[DixieRifles]

b) Selma AL, to Meridian, MS through Act No. 403

I dont know the answer but I've read an account of a soldier traveling this route in May 1863. In the book "A Life for the Confederacy", he travels by rail from Atlanta to Mobile but takes a wagon from there to Meridian--as best as I can recall. He was going on leave from Virginia to his home in Holly Springs, Miss., mostly by rail, including a bypass around Vicksburg---believe it or not.
I can get the wuote for you if interested.

 

[Carronade]

I did find this interesting,

"Thus the Confederate States of America was, at the time of its inception, endowed with a major asset in the form of its railroads. It is also true, however, that the Southern railroads labored under some serious deficiencies that prevented their full utilization for military purposes. The most significant of these problems was that the Confederate rail system was really a collection of relatively small railroads, and was in fact not a 'system' at all." (Gabel 2002, 2)

I've read that the Confederacy had the third largest rail network in the world at that time, after Great Britain and the Union, and they did achieve some creditable things with it, notably the concentrations of troops for Shiloh, the invasion of Kentucky, and the battle of Chickamauga.

On the other hand, it did prove inadequate to the needs of a massive, sustained war, for a number of reasons including those cited thus far. Railroads and rolling stock need ongoing maintenance; in their heyday they had a crew assigned to every few miles of track. Wartime shortages of material and manpower made it difficult even to maintain track quality, let alone expand or fill in the missing links.

Although I'm an ex-Navy officer and generally an advocate of sea power, I concur that the Confederates made a crucial mistake in assigning priority to ironclad warships over railroads, even to the point as noted of tearing up tracks to provide armor. One of their key advantages was interior lines, which could only be fully exploited by rail. While I respect the effort and dedication that went into building and fighting ironclads, they did not and could not provide comparable benefit to the Confederate cause.

 

[DaveBrt]

I know its generally accepted that Confederate railroads were in sufficient for military use. In going over the Acts of the 4th Confederate Congress, I noticed there were several acts to improve the rail system for the military by connecting
a) Richmond, Danville, and North Carolina railroads through Act No. 385, and
b) Selma AL, to Meridian, MS through Act No. 403
(link provided to the texts- https://archive.org/details/actsresolution00conf)

So, my question is two-fold: First, did these connections actually happen and second, is there a good, concise book on the topic of Confederate Rail systems that you might recommend?

Yes, the Danville to Greensboro road was completed (the Piedmont Railroad) in the early summer of 1864.

Yes, the Selma to Meridian railroad was completed (a portion of the Alabama & Mississippi Rivers Railroad) in the summer of 1862.

Please do check my web site, www.csa-railroads.com. I have the details of the 120 Confederate railroads and transcriptions of over 13,000 Confederate documents relating to the roads.

 

[JohnDLittlefield]

Yes, the Danville to Greensboro road was completed (the Piedmont Railroad) in the early summer of 1864.

Yes, the Selma to Meridian railroad was completed (a portion of the Alabama & Mississippi Rivers Railroad) in the summer of 1862.

Please do check my web site, www.csa-railroads.com. I have the details of the 120 Confederate railroads and transcriptions of over 13,000 Confederate documents relating to the roads.

I did check the site very shortly after posting the questions. Very impressive and answered most of my questions. Thanks. It's bookmarked for future reference

 

[DaveBrt]

I did find this interesting,

"Thus the Confederate States of America was, at the time of its inception, endowed with a major asset in the form of its railroads. It is also true, however, that the Southern railroads labored under some serious deficiencies that prevented their full utilization for military purposes. The most significant of these problems was that the Confederate rail system was really a collection of relatively small railroads, and was in fact not a 'system' at all." (Gabel 2002, 2)

Gabel, Rails to Oblivion, is a pretty good summary of the Confederate railroad story. It does, however, have many errors of fact in it, so use it carefully.

Examples of errors: A map showing a railroad from Montgomery to Columbus, Ga which did not exist; Ashe was the President of the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad, not "had once been" the president; strap and U rail were almost unknown in the Confederacy; the map of 1850's RR construction in the South is short of many completed construction projects; the map of Richmond showing the Chesterfield RR as one of the 6 serving Richmond is incorrect since the road had been removed in 1855.

An additional thought -- Gabel does not mention that the reason the various iron works could not make rail and locomotives was not that they were totally occupied in Government work. It was because the iron mines could not provide enough iron to fully use the capacity of the iron works and the railroads lost out in the prioritization of the capacity that could be used. The Confederacy's number 1 problem was lack of manpower -- it was the root of every other weakness.

 

[DaveBrt]

I've read that the Confederacy had the third largest rail network in the world at that time, after Great Britain and the Union, and they did achieve some creditable things with it, notably the concentrations of troops for Shiloh, the invasion of Kentucky, and the battle of Chickamauga.

On the other hand, it did prove inadequate to the needs of a massive, sustained war, for a number of reasons included those cited thus far. Railroads and rolling stock need ongoing maintenance; in their heyday they had a crew assigned to every few miles of track. Wartime shortages of material and manpower made it difficult even to maintain track quality, let alone expand or fill in the missing links.

Although I'm an ex-Navy officer and generally an advocate of sea power, I concur that the Confederates made a crucial mistake in assigning priority to ironclad warships over railroads, even to the point as noted of tearing up tracks to provide armor. One of their key advantages was interior lines, which could only be fully exploited by rail. While I respect the effort and dedication that went into building and fighting ironclads, they did not and could not provide comparable benefit to the Confederate cause.

I agree with you that the Government's prioritization was poor and I discuss that on my site.

The railroads were able to manage most troop movements, until the final months of the war. The real problem that an inefficient railroad system produced was poor logistical support of the troops and armaments industries. Most of war is moving troops, supplies and food -- not supporting grand troop movements. Compute the number of pounds of human food, horse food, ammunition, general stores (like uniforms, shovels, etc) required by an army for one day in a non-campaigning condition and you will see that it took 2 - 4 trains daily just to sit in place. The South just could not meet that level of support for a long war. Then add in the movement of cotton to blockade runner ports, supplies received from the runners going to industrial centers, internal raw materials to industries, food to cities and camps, and on and on. Without the ability to repair and replace railroad material, the system just wore out.

 

[Carronade]

Iron mining and smelting is a good point; where in the Confederacy was this done, other than what is now Birmingham, Alabama (the town was incorporated after the war)? Did "Birmingham" at that time manufacture many products like rail or armaments, or mainly just ship iron to places like Tredegar (quite a haul)?

 

[DaveBrt]

Iron mining and smelting is a good point; where in the Confederacy was this done, other than what is now Birmingham, Alabama (the town was incorporated after the war)? Did "Birmingham" at that time manufacture many products like rail or armaments, or mainly just ship iron to places like Tredegar (quite a haul)?

Most iron mining was in western Virginia. There was a little (could have been more, with support) in central North Carolina. The future Birmingham-area mines were just being opened and could have produced much more, with early support. There was a little iron mining in north Georgia/southeastern Tennessee. Last, there was a little iron mining in northeastern Texas.

The major iron works were in Richmond, north Georgia, Atlanta, west Alabama and, eventually, Selma.

 

[JohnDLittlefield]

There were also several iron mining operations on Alabama

 

[UCVRelics]

Yes, the Danville to Greensboro road was completed (the Piedmont Railroad) in the early summer of 1864.

Yes, the Selma to Meridian railroad was completed (a portion of the Alabama & Mississippi Rivers Railroad) in the summer of 1862.

Please do check my web site, www.csa-railroads.com. I have the details of the 120 Confederate railroads and transcriptions of over 13,000 Confederate documents relating to the roads.

DaveBrt, Has an excellent site for CS railroads which I use from time to time on my digging research. On the Selma & Meridian (which I know very well) when the war started the S&M stopped in Uniontown and the CS Congress Acts helped finance the completion of the road to Demopolis and the cars had to be off loaded and sent down the Tombigbee to McDowels landing where is was off loaded back on to the railroad o Merdian. A later act gave the funds to build a bridge over the Tombigbee but it was never finished.

Toward the end of the war the CS had moving railroads around down to an art form. A lot of the rail that was part of the short lines was relocated to maintain the main roads. They also had to compete with the CS Navy who wanted the rail for their ironclads.

 

[UCVRelics]

Here is the main reason for the CS having to move railroads. The dreaded Sherman's bow ties

 

[DaveBrt]

Here is the main reason for the CS having to move railroads. The dreaded Sherman's bow tiesView attachment 105352

Rails bent around a tree took a bit of work to become useful again, but the job could be done on site surprisingly quickly. But if rails were twisted (one end twisted clockwise, the other also clockwise) the rail had to be re-rolled and that did not happen.

 

[UCVRelics]

Yep, It has always amassed me how fast the troops were able to get the 60 plus miles of M&O back in service after Sherman's raid on Merdian

 

[UCVRelics]

DaveBrt, here is the map showing the RR in Demopolis and how it snaked thru town to the river landing

 

[DaveBrt]

DaveBrt, here is the map showing the RR in Demopolis and how it snaked thru town to the river landingView attachment 105360

Great! I've not seen that map before. Could you tell me its source? Also, it looks like there is more to the map -- the bottom look cut off; do you have more to it?