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NED HARRISON specializes in military history. He writes about the Civil War and the involvement of Virginia and Roanoke people in it. If you know the stories of ancestors who were part of the war years, either as soldiers or on the home front, you can write Harrison in care of The News & Record, P. O. Box 20848, Greensboro, N.C. 27420, or or e-mail him at: n-b-h@mindspring.com

The Harrison Archive

The end of 'Stonewall' Jackson

Lee proves himself with Seven Days' Battle

Railroads were a major part of military strategy

Role of rail transport becomes critical

By NED HARRISON

Gen. James Longstreet engineered the movement of two divisions of soldiers.

Military rail transportation began in the American Civil War and led to radical changes in the conduct of warfare. The 31,000 miles of rails in the United States at the start of the war in 1861 -- 22,000 miles in the North and 9,000 miles in the South -- allowed commanders to shift large numbers of men and their supplies over long distances, and to do it quickly.

The First Battle of Manassas (July 21, 1861) transformed warfare. Some 11,000 Confederate soldiers used rail transport to cover the 65 miles from the Shenandoah Valley to Manassas Junction. They arrived in time to help win the battle for the South.

An interesting sideline to First Manassas: Confederate President Jefferson Davis was so nervous about the outcome of the fighting that he couldn't sit still; he chartered a train and rode the 96 miles from Richmond to Manassas Junction in time to enjoy the win with his soldiers.

Rail transport played key roles in many other Civil War battles as generals shifted soldiers to meet wartime demand. In two battles in 1863, they were critical.

Confederate hopes for independence had suffered dreadful blows with the defeats at Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Davis needed victories like those Gen. Robert E. Lee had achieved in the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. He saw opportunity in Tennessee and northern Georgia, where Gen. Braxton Bragg commanded 54,000 men.

Opposing Bragg was Union Commander Gen. George Rosecrans with 60,000 Union soldiers. Davis knew Bragg needed more men.

Accordingly, he ordered Gen. James Longstreet to move his two divisions from Virginia to reinforce Bragg.

The first of Longstreet's 12,000 men entrained on Sept. 9 for the ride to help Bragg. The direct route, 550 miles, could not be used because parts of it were threatened by Union raiders. The longer 900-mile rail route through Confederate lines was used. About half of Longstreet's men arrived to fight to Confederate victory in the Battle of Chickamauga, Ga., Sept. 19-21, 1863.

In spite of the way Gen. George Thomas (“The Rock of Chickamauga”) held his position until he could safely fall back into Chattanooga, it was a stunning defeat for the Northern soldiers.

President Abraham Lincoln knew the beaten and besieged Union Army would need replacements for the 16,000 casualties it suffered, so he ordered Gen. Joseph Hooker to transfer two full corps -- about 20,000 men -- from the Army of the Potomac to reinforce the troops in Chattanooga.

On Sept. 25, the first of Hooker's men left the Washington area for the train ride to Chattanooga. The route was entirely through Union territory -- across the Appalachians and the Ohio River -- and they arrived safely 11 days later with their horses and artillery and equipment. It was the longest and fastest movement of such a large group of soldiers anywhere in the world before the huge troop movements of World War I.

In the Battle of Chattanooga, Nov. 23-25, a battle orchestrated by Thomas and Gen. Ulysses Grant, the reinforced Union Armies stormed the Chattanooga heights and so badly whipped Bragg that his demoralized army was temporarily destroyed as a fighting force. The way to Atlanta was open. By Christmas 1863, Confederate dreams of military victory and independence were dashed.

First Manassas, Chickamauga and Chattanooga are just three examples of how railroads moved large groups of people to make 19th century warfare different from anything the world had seen. As in the Civil War, America's railroads made it possible to transport the huge armies and meet the gigantic equipment needs of World War I and World War II.

Virginia and the Civil War

Robert I. Dunn of Staunton sent in an article by Connie Jo Geary about Dunn's great grandfather, Maj. James Christian Hill, who grew up in Scottsville. When the war came, he was elected captain of the Scottsville Grays. The Grays became Company E, 46th Virginia Regiment. In 1862 and 1863, the 46th stood in defense of Richmond.

The article contains a marvelous account of wartime Richmond, where the population increased to well over 100,000. The then-Capt. Hill was occupied day and night trying to find rations and quarters for his men.

The 46th was ordered to Charleston in late 1863 but by May 1864 was needed to help defend Richmond and Petersburg against Gen. Grant and the Army of the Potomac. By June, Hill, now a major and in command of the 46th, was part of Gen. P. T. E. Beauregard's 10,000-man army trying to hold off Grant's 90,000 men.

Maj. Hill was severely wounded on June 17, 1864. For him, the war was over. He recuperated at Scottsville and while there had occasion to communicate with Gen. Philip Sheridan, who was in the area to destroy the locks on the James River and Kanawha Canal. Hill wrote a letter asking for a guard to protect his house and asked his son, Allan, to carry the note directly to Sheridan.

The lad was stopped by a guard but broke free, scooted under the legs of a second sentry and delivered the note to Sheridan. Geary writes that "Sheridan read the note, patted Allan on the head, and told him he was a brave little boy, and gave him an apple." Sheridan also posted a guard at the Hill house.

Hill died in 1906.