RAILWAYS AND WAR before 1918. AMERICAN CIVIL WAR (mid-i86os)

RAILWAYS AND WAR before 1918. AMERICAN CIVIL WAR (mid-i86os)

The American Civil War, in the mid-1860s, saw the first real use of railways for military purposes. They became important by the accident of geography; distances were so great for the Union armies in particular as they advanced that strong communication links were vital. Many many mistakes were made, and traffic organisation was so primitive that at times it was calculated that more supply trains were waiting in sidings than were on the move. Nevertheless the war saw the first tentative chords of themes that run through all military railway history: supply, destruction of supply, mounting of guns on rails.

A Confederate patrol on the line

Notable were the first primitive attempts, particularly by Confederate forces as seen here, to disrupt enemy supply lines. With plenty of room to manoeuvre, it was comparatively easy for small parties of men to come on a deserted section of line—the more so because the need to patrol such stretches had not yet been fully realised. With single track and primitive repair equipment, even the removal of a few rails and the burning of their sleepers was enough to cause serious disruption. The Confederates also became skilled in ripping up lines likely to be of use to an advancing army; their own railways were comparatively little used and indeed many were dismantled to provide iron for armour plate and other fortification uses.
2 The famous 4-4-0 'The General'

Typical of the available locomotive power was that characteristic type the high-wheeled, spark-arrester-stacked 'American' 4-4-0. This is perhaps the most famous of them all, 'The General', here seen in pre-war guise. It gained fame through being stolen by Union raiders and then recaptured after a breathless chase; it finished the war a wreck and was rebuilt. It still survives as a museum piece, far smarter than it ever was in wartime. It was only one of many similar machines not really well suited to heavy military work; perhaps their only advantage was that they burned wood, so fuel was rarely short.

3/4 Heavy mortar on rail truck (Union troops)

First real attempts to put artillery on rails to make it more mobile were the machines typified by this Union mortar or bombard. It was designed to be pushed in front of a locomotive to a point from which it could shell enemy forces and displays most of the features later common to heavy rail artillery— the crew shield often improvised from available materials, the limited traverse, the need for a massive underframe. This example was built for the Federal forces in Petersburg, Virginia, and is an obvious improvisation with its 'armour' made up mainly from baulks of timber. Like others, it saw little if any effective service. Rail artillery had to wait for a later war to become really useful.