The American Civil War is considered by many to be the first modern, technologial conflict. It is here that numerous innovations and ways of conducting battle were used, many which were used in following global wars and some of which are still relevant today. It was the first war in which railroads played an important part. Both the North and the South had rail lines and some systems operated between the border states prior to the war.

Railroads were used most often for the rapid deployment of goods and troops from one area of battle to the other. Some were actually used as mobile artillery lines with large guns or mortars on flat cars. These were more effective that one would originally think, though as often as not, these large guns were pretty well fixed so were unable to be even more effective. The mortars, however, were more mobile than the guns and in several cases played important parts in the outcome of battle.

As important as having the railroads were to each side, equally important was the ability to either destroy or rapidly repair the infrastructure. Often times bridges were destroyed, rails and roadbed  torn up or damaged, so having the ability to quickly bring these destroyed areas back into service was very important. Both sides had able civil engineers who were able to develop quick and effective means of restoring bridges and rails back to operating condition.

In this book in the Elite series, author Robert R. Hodges Jr covers all of these aspects of the railroads at war from the development of rail guns to instances of moving troops into and out of battle as well as what it took to wreck, repair and run the railroads during the war. There is also a section on hospital trains, a most important part of the function of the railroads in getting the injured to medical care (such as it was). All of this is superbly illustrated with period photographs and drawings as well as the art work of Peter Dennis.

In all, it is a book that I found particularly fascinating to read and one that I can easily recommend to you.

November 2009

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