Were the Southern Railroads Destroyed by the Civil War?

WERE THE SOUTHERN RAILROADS DESTROYED BY THE CIVIL WAR? James F. Doster In 1861 the South entered the Civil War with an extensive mileage of raiboads in operation and under construction.1 These lines were important to both Confederate and Union forces in the conduct of the war. Toprevent their effective use in the hands of an enemy, the armies of both sides made numerous destructive raids upon the raiboad lines, wreaking spectacular damage and leaving a popular impression that the Southern roads were destroyed by the Civil War. Cars, engines, depots , shops, and bridges were extensively burned. Rails were puUed up, crossties stacked and burned, rails heated in fires and then twisted and sometimes wrapped around trees. Hundreds of miles of raiboad were temporarily put out of operation. Historians haveerected a fine tombstonefor the "destroyed" Southern raiboads. One weU-known American history text says: "Railroad transportation was paralyzed, and most of the raiboad companies were bankrupt . . . . Not for a generation was the raiboad system of the South properly restored. And then it was restored by northern capital." Investigation reveals, however, that this picture is grossly inaccurate. Much of the damage had been repaired before the war ended. The Southern raiboad companies were not bankrupted by the war but remained very much aUve. Some which had suffered heavy damage showed operating profits in 1865. The cost ofphysicalreconstructionwas relativelymodest, and it was effected with very Utile help from Northern capital. For examples let us choose some of the worst of war-damaged railroads. The Mobile and Ohio Railroad was opened, just as the war began, from Mobile to Columbus, Kentucky, 20 miles by water from a Northern railroad connection at Cairo, Illinois. Its 472 miles of main line traversed an area that was long fought over by the contending armies. By the James F. Doster is associate professor of history at the University of Alabama and a member of the executive council of the Southern Historical Association. Besides numerous articles on railroading in other periodicals, he is the author of Raiboads in Alabama Politics, 1875-1914. 1 This article is a product of research conducted by the author with the financial aid of the University of Alabama Research Committee. 310 spring of 1865, only a fourth of the rolling stock remained, and that was in bad condition. The repair shops were ruined. The 184-mile roadway from Okolona to Union City was damaged by decay and destruction of bridges, trestlework, crossties, and water stations. Many miles of rails were in a bent and twisted condition. The superintendent estimated the physical damage to the road resulting from the war at $1,810,937, and the loss in Confederate money and obligations at over $5,000,000. The company had a funded debt of over $6,000,000. Of great value to the Mobile and Ohio in financing reconstruction was the fact that it had been able during the war to convert a substantial portion of its Uquid assets into cotton. Although some of this cotton was confiscated or stolen, the remainder was of tremendous value to the company after Confederate money became worthless. The company's 261-mile Une from Mobile to Okolona was in "fair running order" by 1865 standards, and the damaged 184 miles of Une were repaired and reopened in 117 days. The entire road was again in operation on September 9, 1865. The company's operations were profitable from May 1, to December 31, 1865.2 The Memphis & Charleston Raiboad ran 272 miles eastward from Memphis to Stephenson, Alabama, from which it continued by trackage rights into Chattanooga. Lying between the contending armies during much of the war, the company's Une suffered severe mihtary damage. President Sam Tate was able to convert a substantial part of the company 's liquid assets into bonds of the state of Tennessee, of which he sent $300,000 to safety in Liverpool. Other assets he sent to St. Louis as the Confederacy coUapsed. When the raiboad was returned to the owners by the United States government in September, 1865, they found a gap of 114 miles, west of Decatur, "almost entirely destroyed, except for the road bed and iron rails, and...