Railroads in the Civil War: The Impact of Management on Victory and Defeat

Conflicting Worlds: New Dimensions of the American Civil War

by John Elwood Clark

Despite popular depictions in film and print, soldiers in the American Civil War did not always travel by horse, wagon, or foot. Advances in railroad systems in the decade before the war allowed the movement of large numbers of troops via railway even though railroads had not yet matured into a truly integrated transportation system. Gaps between lines, incompatible track gauges, and other vexing impediments remained in both the North and South. As John E. Clark Jr. explains in this compelling study, the skill with which Union and Confederate war leaders dealt with those problems and utilized the rail system to its fullest wartime potential reflects each side's overall war management ability as an essential ingredient for ultimate victory. After providing an excellent overview of Union and Confederate railway capabilities and effectiveness at decision-making, Clark details two specific rail movements as case studies in logistical management. Using exciting stories found in diaries and letters as well as official records and telegrams, Clark explains how the Union wisely and confidently organized and directed the massive undertaking and how the Confederacy, having failed to properly mobilize its rail system at war, did not. Certain to spark debate among Civil War enthusiasts and among business readers, RAILROADS IN THE CIVIL WAR demonstrates why railroads qualified as the first modern management systems in America.

Genres: History, Civil War, Military History, Railways

296 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2001

Reviews

[Evan Þ. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This apparently started being written as Clark's history thesis: a detailed look at the Union and Confederate rail movements of multiple regiments from Virginia to Chattanooga during the Civil War. Clark then turned it into a book by adding a few chapters on government interactions with railroad management in the Civil War, contrasting Union and Confederate positions.

I'm not saying Clark got anything wrong. But, after reading Turner's larger-scale "Victory Rode the Rails" back in December, none of the facts he cites in his chapters on the larger portrayal is new to me. Aside from some details on the two specific troop movements, I didn't learn anything from this book. But, that's on me, not Clark. What is on him is that this junction - an abrupt switch from broad-scale survey to minute details - gives the book a rather odd feel.

That said, I can't be sorry I read this book, because Clark draws some interesting conclusions. On top of the points of Confederate mismanagement I've read before, he blames them specifically for not organizing the cargo offered in blockade runners. But even with all their faults there, he specifically says that if Longstreet's corps had gotten to Chattanooga earlier, the South could have won the war. Specifically, they could've pushed the Union out of Chattanooga altogether, which means Sherman probably wouldn't have captured Atlanta before the 1864 election, which means Lincoln would've lost and the Union would've made a peace of exhaustion. I'm not fully believing it, but it's a very interesting argument.

[Stephen Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

In many respects just another retelling of the movement of troops from Virginia to Tennessee. It does have a good recounting of varied management styles and development of railroads in the US.