Railroad Depot and Commissary

Railroad Depot and Commissary. . , Brick Store to Depot , In 1858, the Cahaba, Marion and Greensboro Railroad company laid train tracks down Capitol Street so bales of cotton could be transported from distant plantations to warehouses in Cahaba. From the warehouses, the cotton was loaded onto river boats.

Joseph Babcock's warehouse and cotton sheds were located to your right, on a bluff overlooking the Alabama River. The hole in front of you was a cellar under Babcock's brick store. His family home, kitchen, and garden stood between this store and his warehouse.

In 1860, the Babcock family sold the land between this sign and Capitol Street so a depot for the terminus of the Cahaba, Marion and Greensboro Railroad could be built.

War! , During the Civil War, the Confederate government seized Cahaba’s locomotive and rails to complete a railroad elsewhere. Later they established a military post and a prison for captured Union soldiers at Cahaba. The vacant railroad depot was converted into a commissary where food was dispensed to both guards and prisoners of war.

Cahaba was considered a good location for a prison not only for the ease of transportation of prisoners and supplies on the Alabama River, but also for the ability to obtain food from the adjacent countryside. Until the closing days of the war, Cahaba was far from the battlefront so locally-grown produce was available.