Road building

[JerryD]

This may be a little arcane, but I have a question about roadbuilding. Reading about Grant's crossing of the James and ran across an account of engineers cutting a road through woods in a matter of a few hours. They did not mention corduroying, which I am familiar with, but I think that was mostly used in swampy or muddy locales. The account mostly talked about men with axes chopping down trees, but this leaves the issue of stumps. Does anyone here have a good idea of what it took to cut a new road through a forest? Were they able to pull up the stumps? That seems like a rather arduous task, but I can't imagine a column with wagons and artillery traveling through a forest with stumps still in place. And was any effort put into leveling the road?

 

[Bentonville]

I'm not a hundred percent on the topic you brought up. I would imagine that roads were cleared and improved depending on how big the units and how many, of whatever, would move on that road.

I've removed stumps with a winch from a truck. I would imagine mules and some prying could budge them.

I'm not sure as I say. If you can find a thread on engineering they might well be able to help.