Nostalgia & History > Civil War Railroad

The National Archives has Pictures of the Civil War,

http://www.archives.gov/research/military/civil-war/photos

If you scroll down on the above website to Railroads you will get 8 photos, [79 to 86].

Picture 1 is from the above website.

Picture 1, “85. U.S. Military Railroads engine No.137, built in l864 in the yards at Chattanooga, Tenn., with troops lined up in the background.”

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Picture 2, picture 1 cropped with Microsoft Office Picture Manager and lightened Midtone 100 with Office Picture Manager.

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The following website has Pictures of the Civil War taken from the Library of Congress. The website below is American Civil War Pictures and Photos page 2. The third photo on this page is captioned, “Atlanta, Georgia. Sherman's men destroying railroad. Date Created/Published: 1864. Picture of the Civil War provided by LOC [Library of Congress]. Original medium: 2 negatives : glass, stereograph, wet collodion.”

http://www.americancivilwarphotos.com/category/transportation/railroad?page=2

I went to the Library of Congress website and did a Keyword Search for Civil War Glass Railroad Men and got 11 photos. The above photo was number 3 among the 11 photos.

http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=Civil%20War%20Glass%20Railroad%20Men

Picture 3, JPG (130 kb), “Title: Atlanta, Georgia. Sherman's men destroying railroad. Creator(s): Barnard, George N., 1819-1902, photographer. Date Created/Published: 1864. Medium: 2 negatives: glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-cwpb-03391 (digital file from original neg. of variant) LC-DIG-cwpb-03394 (digital file from original neg. of variant). Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication. Call Number: LC-B811- 3630 [P&P] LOT 4177 (corresponding print). Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print.”

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On the Library of Congress webpage in addition to the JPG (130 kb) photo there was a TIFF (22.3 mb) photo. I downloaded and cropped the (22.3 mb) photo and cropped and edited it with Picasa [Google Photo Editing Program] and obtained Picture 4.

Picture 4 is from the above.

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I did a Keyword Search for Atlanta Roundhouse and got 2 photos. These 2 photos are below.

Picture 5, JPG (78 kb), “Title: Atlanta, Georgia. Railroad roundhouse. Creator(s): Barnard, George N., 1819-1902, photographer. Date Created/Published: 1864. Medium: 1 negative (2 plates): glass, stereograph, wet collodion. Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-cwpb-03473 (digital file from original neg. of left half) LC-DIG-cwpb-03474 (digital file from original neg. of right half). Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication. Call Number: LC-B811- 3672 [P&P]. Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print.”

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On the Library of Congress webpage in addition to the JPG (78 kb) photo there was a TIFF (87.3 mb) photo. I downloaded and cropped the (87,3 mb) photo and cropped and edited it with Picasa [Google Photo Editing Program] and obtained Pictures 6 and 7.

Picture 6, center of picture 5 cropped.

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Picture 7, left of center of picture 5 cropped. Boxcars.

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Picture 8, “Title: City of Atlanta, Ga., no. 1. Creator(s): Barnard, George N., 1819-1902, photographer. Date Created/Published: [1866]. Medium: 1 photographic print: albumen. Summary: Illustration showing the destroyed Atlanta roundhouse, with steam engines and train cars in place but with collapsed stone walls. Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-ppmsca-18960 (digital file from original). Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on publication. Call Number: Illus. in E476.7.B24, pl. 44 (Case Z) [P&P]. Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print.”

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Picture 9, bottom center of picture 8 cropped.

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Picture 10, bottom right of picture 8 cropped.

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Always amazes me to think of the technological advances a civil war vet could have witnessed. A 15 year old drummer boy from 1850, with a cap & ball black powder weapon, could have lived long enough to see an atomic bomb dropped out of a B-29. And a few survived long enough to see Big Boys, jet aircraft, & the first televisions.

I'm currently reading historian James McPherson's stunning history of the Civil War, Battle Cry for Freedom, and just came across a passage speaking about the Union army holed up in Chattanooga after a loss in fall of 1863.

In need of reinforcements, and facing the usual problem of ineffective, timid generals in the Army of the Potomac, Lincoln and Secretary of War Stanton decided to transfer two corps from the Army of Potomac to the Western theater.

"Stanton summoned railroad presidents to his office. Orders flew around the country; dozens of trains were assembled, and forty hours after the decision, the first troops rolled our of Culpeper for a 1,233-mile trip through Union-held territory over the Appalachians and across the unbridged Ohio River twice. Eleven days later more than 20,000 men had arrived at the railhead near Chattanooga with their artillery, horses, and equipment. It was an extraordinary feat of logistics - the longest and fastest movement of such a large body of troops before the twentieth century."

Love the photo of Sherman's men destroying a railroad....two guys working and a dozen or more standing around watching. I guess that's not a new phenomena.

Dave

inRVA Wrote:
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> I'm currently reading historian James McPherson's
> stunning history of the Civil War, Battle Cry for
> Freedom, and just came across a passage speaking
> about the Union army holed up in Chattanooga after
> a loss in fall of 1863.

Of course the reason that the Union Army was holed up in Chattanooga was the loss at the Battle of Chickamauga. Confederate General Longstreet arrived at the battle just in the nick of time after moving his Corps from Virginia by rail. An account of that is found in this webpage:

http://www.militaryhistoryonline.com/civilwar/articles/confederaterailroad.aspx

DavidP Wrote:
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> Love the photo of Sherman's men destroying a
> railroad....two guys working and a dozen or more
> standing around watching. I guess that's not a
> new phenomena.
>
> Dave

They might have been making Sherman neckties - wrapping the rails around a tree after being heated for about an hour over burning crossties.

ddg Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Always amazes me to think of the technological
> advances a civil war vet could have witnessed. A
> 15 year old drummer boy from 1850, with a cap &
> ball black powder weapon, could have lived long
> enough to see an atomic bomb dropped out of a
> B-29. And a few survived long enough to see Big
> Boys, jet aircraft, & the first televisions.

I agree. Pretty amazing - the time span is not that great. I had two great grandfathers that were soldiers in the Civil War.

Here's an incredible story. A grandson of the 10th President, John Tyler, is still living:

http://wtvr.com/2012/11/21/president-john-tyler-grandson-harrison-ruffin-tyler/

My history is getting fuzzy as I advance in years, but I seem recall Union Forces destroying RR's and then turning around and "fixing" them as soon as an area was secured so they could use them!

TomPlatten Wrote:
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> My history is getting fuzzy as I advance in years,
> but I seem recall Union Forces destroying RR's and
> then turning around and "fixing" them as soon as
> an area was secured so they could use them!

On the March to the Sea, Sherman was operating without a supply line, living off of the land. Lots of trees between Atlanta and Savannah were adorned with "Sherman neckties".