McNairy’s Attack

McNairy’s Attack. Raiding the Supply Trains. , In May 1864, the Nashville and Northwestern Military Railroad was completed. The Federal high command hoped that the new line, running from the Tennessee River to Nashville, would provide safer and more effective transportation than either the hazardous navigation of the Cumberland River or the vulnerable Louisville and Nashville Railroad. This new supply route quickly became the target of mounted guerrilla raids., On October 18, 1864, Confederate partisan Alexander D. McNairy attacked the railroad near this site. Around midnight, McNairy captured the railroad maintenance crew and forced them to remove the spikes from one of the rails. McNairy and his men fired on the first train that came by, wounding two and killing one but inflicting no damage to the train. When a second train passed over the sabotaged track, it derailed, injuring two crewmen. The Confederates robbed the crew and then tried to set fire to the train, but failed. A third train arrived, and all hands leapt off and were robbed, but the engineer backed up the loaded train of lumber to the safety of White Bluff. Federal cavalry pursued the gang but were outdistanced. The section workers cleared the track by morning and railroad traffic resumed., McNairy's men returned on October 21, burned the railroad maintenance facilities, dwellings, and stacks of cordwood, and also damaged the tracks. Union cavalry responded once more but were unable to catch up with the guerrillas. A rapid response by Union construction crews allowed the railroad to reopen two days later without a major disruption of Federal supply efforts., "Lieutenant Orr arrived with twenty-five men twenty minutes after the gang had taken their departure, and pursued them a short distance unsuccessfully, and his horses being tired and inferior he returned." , , Lt. William L. Clark, 12th U.S. Colored Troops, (captions) , Rebels Attacking Union Supply Train Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration , Alexander D. McNairy Courtesy Nashville and Northwestern History File