ECS
Banned
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2012
- Messages
- 11,638
- Reaction score
- 17,695
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Ocala,Florida
- Primary Interest:
- Other
The railroads in the South were all independently owned,each had their own routes and rail guage to prevent competition from other train companies.One could go from point A to point B,but to reach point C,one would have to change trains,and sometimes take a wagon to another town to a train that went to point C.Needless to say,this caused problems for Confederate supply lines.The Union also destroyed as many rails that they could-"Stoneman's cavalry came and tore up the tracks again"-including "Uncle Billy's bow ties wrapped around trees.The CSA also used the rails of "out of the way of the War" for armoring their ironclads.By 1865,not many RR lines were in usable condition.Given the conditions in Richmond near the end of the war, the surprising part to me isn't that a train was delayed. It's astonishing the trains were running at all. Among many other issues - where would they go? What tracks, stations, and train crossroads did the Union army control?
A map of CSA RR routes:
RRmap
A discussion on RR's,resources,funding,and finances during the War:
http://users.humbolt.edu/ogayle/hist110/CivilWar.html