Railroads are not nearly as popular in the United States as they are in European countries. Prior to the American Civil War, railroads were a fairly new, and untried, invention. Compared to carriages and the other modes of transportation at the time, the railroad was far superior. Due to this superiority, they were used to transport soldiers, food, and supplies. A systemic railroad began to spread all across the nation, and both sides of the war used them to their advantage. The railroad construction started as soon as possible. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was founded in 1828 and its first section of rails was open in 1830. At its peak, The B&O Railroad spread from the east coast all the way to the Illinois, and was over 5,550 miles long! In 1831, the state of Maryland granted the B&O Railroad and charter to begin construction of a line connecting Maryland to Washington D.C. The south, which was mostly a society built on agriculture, was at a huge disadvantage when it came to railroads. Two-thirds of all the railroads in the nation at the time were in the north. The southern states couldn’t transport anything as easy as the north, and their income mostly relied on the exportation of their crops. Without this source of income, the Confederacy’s economy was crippled. Arguably, railroads were the reason for the South’s eventual defeat. By 1861, “22,000 miles of track had been laid in the Northern states and 9,500 miles in the South.” In the south, there were cities that
The Northern and Southern sections of the US had various economical differences which led to the Civil War. During that time period, the Northern part of the country’s economy was heavily based on industrial practices, in comparison to the Southern economy which was founded on agricultural practices. In the map of Railroads in 1860, railroads were heavily located in the Northern part of the US compared to the South because the Northern economy demands the need for railroads in order to transport the
A holy union between a man and a woman, a union only broken by the death of one of the parties, is a marriage, and is considered one of the most important pacts that a man or woman can enter into. Marriage is a union of two willing parties that are joined together forever as one. The man and the woman have created a family by their marriage. Similarly, the union between the 13 colonies created The United States of America. Each of the colonies deliberately joined together into a single nation. This unit, like that of the family, was intended to be permanent. In chapter one of Declaration Statesmanship, the similarities of these two unions are laid out. Both unions are meant to be permanent, both join separate parties into a whole, and both are brought together by deliberate acts and declarations of unity. Though there are ups and downs in both a marriage and a united nation, they are never meant to be broken by divorce or succession.
We use the railroads for many things now days. In the civil war, railway systems were one way a force could gain the benefits of inside argumentation,, and as generals pursued this strategy the Civil war became “the first great railroad war” in Mississippi. The Mississippi railroads made it easier for things to transport in and out of Mississippi. The status of inside lines can be achieved by a violence having a central location relation to the enemy or by a force having superior lateral communication relative to the enemy. It is the importance of railroads and the interior lines that they promised that catapulted the otherwise modest town of Corinth, Mississippi into the center stage of the Civil state of War. At the meter of the Civil War, Corinth was still a young town. Corinth stands as a multi-faceted demonstration of how railroads influenced procedure and scheme in the Civil War. It had already brought together the two great armies that clashed at Shiloh. In bend the Confederates and Federals had defended and attacked it, struggling for its ascendency. The Mississippi railways made it easier, traveling wise. During the years 1880-1899 ,Civil War days in Corinth, the railroads were way more significant and important to Corinth’s people. Back in those type of days, there was hardly any transportation for people. So they took highly advantage of the railroads. However, from the years 1900-1950, Industrial Corinth, the railroads were still important but not as highly as the years 1880-1899 being more things were getting invented as in cars and trucks, mainly for transporting goods. Now in the years 1950-2015, Modern day Corinth, the railroad importance went down. In these days we have things like big 18 wheelers and over seas transportation. There was more transportation now and the 18 wheelers deliver more faster. Over the years, we’ve created things
To start, I will explain the purpose of the Transcontinental railroad. In Source #1”Full Steam Ahead The Transcontinental Railroad”, it says “People had been asking for coast-to-coast rail travel for decades. Since the invention of the locomotive in 1825, companies had built many rail lines. These railroads connected eastern cities and seaports,splashing travel times and helping these areas grow. Crossing the country, however was much more difficult. People and trade goods traveled by horse, stagecoach, or wagon train. The trip took months. Not many made the journey.” So the government during the time thought that building a railroad, would help businesses “ sprout up like corn.” According to Source #1 it also says “ Two companies immediately got to work. Railroads already existed that stretched from the East of Omaha, Nebraska. Now, the Union Pacific Railroad began extending the tracks from Omaha out to the West. The Central Pacific Railroad began in Sacramento,California and laid tracks out East. Eventually, the two companies would meet in Promontory, Utah. So, basically the purpose of the railroad was to get people and goods from coast-to-coast.
Fifteen thousand men. One thousand- two hundred dead. Twenty thousand pounds of bones. One thousand, seven hundred and fifty- six miles of railways. The creation of the transcontinental railroad began in 1863. It originated in the northern states and made its way to the west. Nobody knew that one day this new technology would lead to the future that we live today. During the time that the railroad was in the process of being created, many things were escalating in the US, all for the best. The Transcontinental Railroad transformed the United States more economically by creating new opportunities, improving transportation, and boosting imports and exports.
One of the biggest needs for soldiers during the ruthless Civil War was weaponry. Both Union and Confederate soldiers needed large amounts of firearms, knives, and swords. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad transported both the materials to create these weapons (copper, steel, etc.) and the finished weapons themselves. Weapons were also considered when it came to guerilla warfare. Armed civilians or uncertified men who wanted to exchange blows in war would scour the earth for anything that brought pain. They used military style tactics
In the time just before the Civil War, the United States was one of the most successful nations in the world. The United States had become the world’s leading cotton producing country and had developed industry, which would in the future, surpass that of Great Britain. Also, the United States possessed an advanced railroad and transportation system. However, despite its successes, the United States was becoming increasingly divided. The North and the South had many distinct differences in terms of their social, cultural, and economic characteristics that brought about sectionalism and, eventually, the Civil War.
The Civil war was the most momentous and crucial period of time in the history of America. Not only did this war bring an end to slavery but also paved way for numerous social and political changes. The country had already been torn by the negative trend in race relations and the numerous cases of slave uprisings were taking their toll on the country 's political and social structure. The country was predominately divided up into 3 sections, the North, the South, and the West. Each of these groups had different fundamental interests. The North wanted economies depending on farming, factories and milltowns, while the West relied on expansion and development of land for farming and new towns. The South mainly relied on agriculture like
The second reason why the South lost the war was because the North’s abundance of railroads and factories, and the South’s lack of it. Factories allow quicker and more efficient ways to create more weapons or ammunition. Railroads allow transporting ammunition and men much quicker and easier. For example, walking 1,000 miles for an army might take months, but on a train, all it’ll take is at most a week. Not to mention the the men will use up less supplies and
In the North, shipping made lots of money, Shipping exports helped make trade with other countries. The south also didn’t have any trains. Trains helped transport manpower and ammunition to army camps in the north for the upcoming war. These trains were Abraham Lincoln's plan to defeat the confederate army.
Having farms to grow food is important because the North and South had to feed their soldiers. Since the North had farms they could grow food to feed their soldiers, this led to the North having strong soldiers in addition to their large army. Therefore, the south would have weak soldiers and small numbers. The North also had an advantage in railroads. Even though the South had some railroads the North had an astounding amount. Not only did the North have more tracks, but also they were interconnected. This meant that it was easy to go to many different places; however, in the South you might hit a dead-end. Railroads also meant that the north could transport supplies like weapons, food, or clothing quickly and easily. The North had a major advantage over the South. The South could not compete with the North’s
And it was there that railroads began to have a significant impact on the development and expansion of American society.
The invention of railroads was an important development that aided in the industrial revolution. It aided greatly in the industrialization of nations, with its ease of transportation. To this day, we still use the railroads as a method of transit and as a mode of transportation for goods and supplies. In addition to that, it also had significant impacts to wars. In the Civil War, railroads played a direct and an important role in the outcome of the war. The railroads allowed for a faster and easier method of transportation of supplies and troops, than any other types of transportation. Another way it had an impact was by helping both sides of the war with logistical support. Lastly, it had a significant effect on the war by serving as a mean
During the Civil War, the North acquired 20,000 miles of railway track that was used to ship supplies and transport troops easier and quicker. The Union leader, Abraham Lincoln, put the railroad under government control, in order to use it for war tactics. The government was able to pay for the railroads by providing federal land to the companies who built
The South was viewed by many in the United States and elsewhere as a robust, self-sufficient economy (Surdam, 2001, p. 1). It produced much of the world's supply of cotton and Texans bragged that their cattle could feed the world. What the South lacked in manufacturing was compensated for by the immense wealth produced from raw cotton, cattle, and corn exports. Obviously, the predictions that the South could survive a war with the North due to its economic self-sufficiency were wrong. This essay analyzes the possible reasons for the failure of the Confederacy to win the Civil War.