This is interesting. I know next to nothing about railroads, except that they were considered vitally important.
How important were freighters with supply wagons? I don’t mean as distribution from the RR yard to troops in the field, I mean for long range transport.
After all, armies were supplied for millennia before railroads, using everything from wagon trains to camel caravans. Were long range supply trains over roads simply impossible due to time and logistics?
What a good question. Until the Civil War, armies moved at the same rate as Roman Legions. The thousands of miles of paved road allowed Rome to move troops & supplies with unprecedented ease. That was as good as it got until the 1850’s when the US RR system came into existence.
When Lincoln & Stanton learned of Rosecras’ setback at Chickamauga, they immediately issued orders for two corps from the A of the P southward. Within 24 hours, troop trains were rolling along the 1,100 miles to the Tennessee River.
Not only were two corps transported, the supplies necessary for keeping them in fighting trim rolled out of the Nashville depot. A train an hour 24/7 left Nashville headed south & passed trains headed northward on the single track Nashville & Chattanooga RR.
As I write this, I can hear the sound of trains signaling as one waits on the siding for the other to pass. The CSX mainline between Nashville & Alabama is still a single track because of the 2,200 foot tunnel through Monteagle Mountain. That is exactly what was happening during the Civil War.
Depending on whether it was loaded with bacon or beef/pork in barrels, a rail car was loaded with 8-9,000 daily rations. A single ten car lash-up could deliver one day’s ration for Rosecrans’ army. No logistical system in history came close to that efficiency.
Where the RR totally revolutionized logistics is something that modern people never think about. A horse required 26 pounds of feed/day. All you have to do is multiply the 125 horses of an artillery battery by a week or a month to get dome idea of the challenge feeding them involved. A round bale weighs 1,000 pounds & is a good way to conceptualize.
CW fodder was shipped in gunny sacks. The return of the empty sacks was absolutely essential. Historically, armies had to keep on the move in order to feed their horses. Even Henry VIII had to move from palace to palace because no locality could support his retainers & their horses for more then a few weeks at a time. During the Tullahoma Campaign, Rosecrans ordered the RR to transport fodder southward, broken down animals northward. Rations & ammunition were transported by wagon. It was the RR that made the 100 mile advance from Murfreesboro to Chattanooga possible. It was the N&CRR that made it possible to stay & build up for the Atlanta Campaign.
The Civil War was the first RR war. As in so many things, it was the harbinger of things to come.
Hope this answers your question. CW railroading is a fascinating topic. Dig in & enjoy.