Memphis & Charleston Railroad

Memphis and Charleston Railroad. Civil War Walking Trail. The Federal troops quickly understood the importance of taking control of railroads and by May 1862 the US Government held the Memphis and Charleston Railroad with few exceptions until the end of the Civil War. Note that there were up to 15,000 Union troops stationed in camps along the railroad between LaGrange and Memphis to protect the rails, bridges, telegraph depots, and intersecting roads according to The Official Records of the Rebellion., The Official Records Of The War Of The Rebellion:A Compilation Of The Official Records Of The Union And Confederate Armies Prepared Under The Direction Of The Secretary Of War, By Bvt. Lieut. Col. Robert N. Scott, Third U.S. Artillery And Published Pursuant To Act Of Congress Approved June 16, 1880 Washington: Government Printing Office 1880, One of the earliest campaigns to seize the Memphis and Charleston Railroad was mounted by Union General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1862. He was ordered to cut the line between Corinth and Iuka, MS. Uncharacteristically, Sherman backed down from the effort, saying, "I am satisfied we cannot reach the Memphis and Charleston Railroad without a considerable engagement, which is prohibited by General Halleck's instructions.", However, concurrent with Sherman's failed attempts to disrupt the railroad, Confederate General Braxton Bragg wrote that the fall of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad was eminent. "The disorganized and demoralized condition of our forces... gives me great concern. The unrestrained habits of pillage and plunder [by Confederate troops] have done much to produce this state of affairs and to reconcile the people of the country to the approach of the enemy, who certainly do them less harm than our own troops. The whole railroad system is utterly deranged and confused. Wood and water stations are abandoned; employees there and elsewhere, for want of pay, refuse to work: engineers and conductors are either worn down, or, being Northern men, abandon their positions, or manage to retard and obstruct our operations.", At the war's end, the Memphis and Charleston Railroad rebuilt surprisingly quickly. By November of 1865, the entire road was passable with the exception of one bridge crossing the Tennessee River at Decatur. That bridge was rebuilt and opened to traffic in July of 1866. However, financial recovery for the Memphis and Charleston Railroad came too slowly, and the railroad entered receivership and was taken over by the Southern Railway in 1897., The Memphis and Charleston Railroad line owned 50 locomotives, 41 passenger cars, and 13 baggage cars. From the outset, the Confederate military had acknowledged the importance of the line. Jefferson Davis told Robert E. Lee, Brig. Gen. in the Regular Confederate States, "The Memphis and Charleston Road is the vertebrae of the Confederacy and must be defended at all hazards.” The Memphis and Charleston Railroad fell into Union hands early in the war and was held by the Union Forces until the end of the war in 1865., Collierville was a thriving community located along the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. Holly Springs Mount Pleasant Road connected Collierville to north Mississippi and into Corinth, Mississippi. Corinth was important because it was located at the intersection of the Memphis and Charleston Railroad and the Mobile and Ohio line. Control of Corinth meant control of railroads from Columbus and Memphis, as well as those running south into Mississippi and eastward to connect with Nashville and Chattanooga. [1] Many Union leaders thought that Union occupation of two strategic locations within the confederacy could end the war. The first was Richmond, VA, and the other was Corinth, MS. [2] Ulysses S. Grant called Corinth"the great strategic position at the West between the Tennessee and Mississippi rivers and between Nashville and Vicksburg.", [1] Archer Jones, Civil War Command and Strategy: The Process of Victory and Defeat (NY: The Free Press, 1992) 57-58., [2] Robert Doughty, American Military History and the Evolution of Western Warfare (Lexington, MA: D. C. Heath and Company, 1996) 123., (sidebar) , The letter below is from General W. T. Sherman telling of the death of his nine year old son Willy Sherman. He died only 7 days before Sherman's Train came through Collierville on October 11, 1863, where he fought in the Battle of Collierville. General Sherman remained on duty in Memphis, making preparations to move to Chattanooga over the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. While in Memphis, he had the photo located below taken in a local studio. Finally on October 11, 1863, General Sherman and his staff and his escort, the 1st Battalion of the 13 US Regulars boarded a train in Memphis. Included in his staff was General Hugh Boyle Ewing, the foster brother and brother-in-law to General Sherman, General Joseph Andrew Jackson Lightburn, and Sherman's aíde-de-camp, Captain Joseph C. Audenried. These men and soldiers would be active participants in the Battle of Collierville., My Dear Friend:, I cannot sleep tonight till I record an expression of the deep feelings of my heart to you, and the Officers and Soldiers of the Battalion for their kind behavior to my poor child. I realize that you all feel for my family the attachment of kindred; and I assure you of full reciprocity. Consistent with a sense of duty to my profession and my office. I could not leave my post, and sent for my family to come to me in that fatal climate, in that sickly period, and behold the result! The child that bore my name... now floats a mere corpse, seeking a grave in a distant land, with a weeping mother, brother, and sisters clustered about him ..., But , my poor WILLY was, or thought he was, a Sergeant of the 13th. I have seen his eyes brighten and his heart beat as he beheld the Battalion under arms... Child as he was, he had the enthusiasm, the pure love of truth, honor, and love of country, which should animate all soldiers, God only knows why he should die this young..., Please convey to the Battalion my heartfelt thanks, and assure each and all, that if in after years they call on me and mine, and mention that they were of the 13th Regulars, when poor WILLY was a Sergeant, they will have a key to the affections of my family that will open all it has, that we will share with them Our last blanket, our last crust. YOUR FRIEND,, W.T. Sherman , Major General, (sidebar) , A ticket from Memphis to Chattanooga was expensive, twelve and a half dollars, but progress came at more than a monetary price: passenger cars were open to the smoke and cinders from the wood-burning firebox in the engine. The typical locomotive burned a cord of wood each 50 or 60 miles, and the principle fuel was pine, an acrid wood made more volatile by its nigh concentration of resin., The Memphis and Charleston Railroad began limited service over newly built segments of track in October of 1852 to Collierville. By May 1857, the line was offering regular service over the entire route from Memphis to Charleston and south into Mississippi and Alabama. With its link in Stevenson, AL to the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, the Memphis and Charleston Railroad became part of the first contiguous rail route from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River. The Memphis and Charleston Railroad was unique in many ways: , . It was the first railroad to offer sleeper cars. , . It was the only railroad to run east-west in what was to become the Confederacy. , . It made more money from its passenger service than from its freight service. , . It was constructed as a long-haul route with direct routes to the east coast and the northeast. It was not a local branch railroad that only served a small area., Scottsboro Depot Museum, (captions) , A 4-4-0 wood-burning locomotive of the type used on the early M&C Railroad. This wheel configuration accommodated the sharp bends in the early tracks., Detail from "New Map of Kentucky and Tennessee" Source: Library of Congress, Geography and Map Division, This is a ticket issued for the Memphis and Charleston Railroad on January 15, 1862. . This historical marker was erected by Tennessee Wars Commission. It is in Collierville in Shelby County Tennessee