CONFEDERATE RAILROADS OF TENNESSEE

At the outset of the Civil War, Tennessee's antebellum railroad network fell completely within the geographic area controlled by the Confederacy.  Although Tennessee's overall railroad system was smaller and more modestly equipped than those of more northerly states, it nevertheless covered most of the state and provided a new form of transportation which could move masses of people and supplies more rapidly than any previous form of land transport used by Tennesseans.

The map below depicts the statewide railroad network at the time Tennessee joined the Confederacy:

 
For detailed information about specific railroad lines, click on the corresponding railroad abbreviation in the following table:
 
 
E & K Edgefield and Kentucky
E T & G East Tennessee and Georgia
E T & V East Tennessee and Virginia
   Associated branch:
      Rogersville & Jefferson (R&J)
K & K Knoxville and Kentucky
L & N Louisville and Nashville
M & C Memphis and Charleston
   Associated branch:
      Somerville branch (Sm Br)
M C & L Memphis, Clarksville, and Louisville
M & O Memphis and Ohio
Ms C Mississippi Central
M & T Mississippi and Tennessee
Mob & O Mobile and Ohio
N & C Nashville and Chattanooga
   Associated branches:
      McMinnville & Manchester (M&M)
      Shelbyville branch (S Br)
      Tennessee Coal & Railroad Co. (TC&RR) 
      Winchester & Alabama (Wn & Al)
N & NW Nashville and Northwestern
T & A Tennessee and Alabama
   Associated branch:
      Mt. Pleasant branch (MP Br)
W & A Western and Atlantic

Confederate strategists realized the railroads' potential early on, and they employed rail transport extensively in support of a number of major military events (see  Railroad-Associated Military Events of the Civil War), most notably at the battles of Shiloh and Chattanooga.  In addition, Confederate raiders were especially effective, repeatedly harassing and interrupting Federal railroad operations to such an extent that the Union advance was greatly slowed.  Moreover, some Confederate railroaders displayed remarkable tenacity in keeping their rail systems running despite increasing scarcity of basic equipment and supplies.

Nevertheless, in the end the Confederacy lost the war, and it seems likely that Confederate railroads contributed to this failure.  Certainly the physical shortcomings of Southern railroads (including Tennessee's) were factors:  railroad historians have pointed to the inadequate rail line mileage, the crippling gaps in what should have been a continuous system, and the South's grossly inadequate manufacturing capacity.

But beyond these physical constraints, the South's philosophical obsession with individual and state rights and the concurrent fear of centralized power seems to have prevented the cooperative action that is necessary to wage modern warfare successfully.  The Confederate government was extremely hesitant to enforce a realistic national railroad policy, so that the Confederacy's railroad supervisors (including such able men as William Wadley and Frederick Sims) were never able to exercise real authority over individual railroad owners, managers, and employees.  By contrast, the Northern railroad bureaucracy understood the potential power--and did not hesitate to use it.

For general information about Confederate railroads, refer to Robert C. Black's The Railroads of the Confederacy (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1952, reprinted 1998).  Specific information used in these pages about Tennessee's Confederate railroads was drawn from the works listed in the railroad bibliography along with research in primary resources currently housed in vertical files at the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation.
 

   Tennessee Civil War Railroads  |  Civil War Technology & Industry in Tennessee

Last update:  May 15, 2000