Was destroying US railroads useless by 1864?

[wausaubob]

While I was watching the German reaction to the rapid repair of the harbor at Cherbourg in WW 2, I thought something similar may have happened with respect to the Confederate wrecking US railroads in Tennessee and Maryland.
It seems that the US was ahead in industrial engineering which led to the development of pre-fabricated parts for bridges and culverts and maybe sections of track too.
System engineering also created the plan to have forward depots of repair equipment at many points along the road so that any break could be repaired from both directions. Instead of forwarding the massive supplies stored at Nashville with every advance of the army in the way Rosecrans preferred, everything was retained at Nashville were it was guarded in a heavily fortified city, and sent by rail forward to the US army on an as needed basis. The US maintained some smaller depots at places like Allatoona and Chattanooga. But those were also garrisoned and fortified and Sherman specifically instructed the garrison commanders the depot was not to be lightly given up.
At some point in 1864 did the Confederates make sad jokes about Sherman carrying spare tunnels with his supplies?

 

[archieclement]

Wouldn't say useless, such actions are generally for temporary gain/advantage, whether repairs take two weeks or two months.

 

[13 IL Cav & 64 GA Inf]

While I was watching the German reaction to the rapid repair of the harbor at Cherbourg in WW 2, I thought something similar may have happened with respect to the Confederate wrecking US railroads in Tennessee and Maryland.
It seems that the US was ahead in industrial engineering which led to the development of pre-fabricated parts for bridges and culverts and maybe sections of track too.
System engineering also created the plan to have forward depots of repair equipment at many points along the road so that any break could be repaired from both directions. Instead of forwarding the massive supplies stored at Nashville with every advance of the army in the way Rosecrans preferred, everything was retained at Nashville were it was guarded in a heavily fortified city, and sent by rail forward to the US army on an as needed basis. The US maintained some smaller depots at places like Allatoona and Chattanooga. But those were also garrisoned and fortified and Sherman specifically instructed the garrison commanders the depot was not to be lightly given up.
At some point in 1864 did the Confederates make sad jokes about Sherman carrying spare tunnels with his supplies?

I believe you are right on target, @wausaubob, and Sherman's capabilities to repair/rebuild railroads were astonishing. One exception to the Union retaining almost everything in the way of supplies in Nashville was the huge supply base at Johnsonville, TN, and that exception became costly when Forrest attacked the place in November of 1864.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

Unfortunately for the Confederate cause, toward the end of the war the Federals were often rebuilding in two hours - or at the worst, two days - not two weeks or two months. It was the Confederates who began to wait months for infrastructure repairs.

I grew up enjoying stories of how wily Rebels made stealth raids on Union supply depots. Later in life I realized that no matter how humorously these stories were told, what the Southern soldiers were doing had little to no effect on the bigger picture.