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  • | Illustration

    The Men of the Eighth Massachusetts Regiment Repairing the Bridges on the Railroad from Annapolis to Washington

    This image from the May 11, 1861 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts members of the Eigth Massachusetts Regiment repairing bridges on the railroad from Annapolis, Maryland to Washington, D.C.

  • | Illustration

    Rhode Island Artillery Landing

    This image from the May 18, 1861 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts Rhode Island artillery being unloaded from the steamship "Bienville" at the Washington, D.C. arsenal.

  • | Illustration

    The "Lady Davis," Two Guns, Captain Enger, Ship of War of the Southern Confederacy

    This image from the May 18, 1861 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts the "Lady Davis" steamship, a warship of the Confederate States of America.

  • | Illustration

    Destruction of the Railroad Bridge Over the Potomac

    This image from the July 6, 1861 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts the destruction of the Potomac railroad bridge near Harper's Ferry by Confederate troops.

  • | Illustration

    Harper's Ferry, as Evacuated by the Confederate Troops

    This image from the July 6, 1861 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts Harper's Ferry after its evacuation by Confederate troops.

  • | Letter

    Letter from John McConihe to John Kellogg, July 12, 1861

    In his July 12, 1861 letter, John McConihe writes to his business partner, John Kellogg, lamenting his financial losses in his Denver speculation scheme and from the government's failure to pay him what he is owed. McConihe asks for Kellogg's patience in awaiting repayment and reports that he has joined the army as a captain to support himself.

  • Letter from Anna R. Benedict to Samuel B. Reed, September 22, 1861

    In this letter from September 22, 1861, Anna R. Benedict writes to her brother, Samuel Reed, discussing the drop in prices for farm products as a result of the "national troubles." She states that it "scarce seems possible that this war can last very long." She notes that her family has been practicing the "strictest economy," but still needs to hire help to accomplish all that is necessary on the farm. She expresses surprise at Reed's claim that he has been doing all the farm work himself, but advises him not to sell pieces of his farmland until after the "present panics have passed over."

  • | Illustration

    Terrible Railway Accident on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad

    This image from the October 12, 1861 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts a railway accident on the Ohio and Mississippi railroad.

  • | Letter

    Letter from Samuel B. Reed to Wife and Child, October 13, 1861

    In this letter from October 13, 1861, Samuel Reed writes to his wife and daughter while they are traveling to visit relatives in Rock Island, Illinois. He states that there has been no "excitement politically or financially" at home aside from a proclamation by a Captain Danforth of the "we have laid down the lanset and taken up the sword kind."

  • | Photograph

    Eastern view of round house and depot, Orange & Alexandria Railroad

  • | Illustration

    "Repairing Railroad, etc"

    The U.S. Military Railroads rebuilt the South?s railroads in the closing months of the war. African American railroad workers cut timber, broke rock, and hauled gravel for the grading. Their experience on the railroads as trackmen and laborers, as well as firemen and brakemen, continued after the war. In 1880 over 50 percent of all railroad workers in Virginia were black; in Pennsylvania, by contrast, railroad workers were almost uniformly white.

  • | Photograph

    'The ruse of the whistles - the guarded track, Corinth, Mississippi, 1862'

  • | Photograph

    African American Laborers on the U.S. Military Railroad in Northern Virginia, c. 1862 or 1863

    From the beginning of the Civil War, African Americans worked on the railroads, transferring their labor to the Union cause.

  • | Illustration

    Alfred R. Waud, "A Guerrilla", 1862

    When guerrillas attacked Union forces, the northern public was outraged. Confederate guerrillas and partisan rangers attacked the railroad and telegraph systems, opening up the war to civilians and exposing the remorseless nature of the national conflict. Their activities played a central role in the war.

  • | Photograph

    Contrabands at Cumberland Landing, Virginia, May 1862

    In the Peninsular Campaign, Federal forces encountered thousands former slaves who sought freedom and work in the Union army camps. Even if slaves fled slavery, their status was unclear in the first year of the war. In July 1862 Congress declared such refugees from slavery ?forever and henceforth free.?

  • | Photograph

    Harper's Ferry and The Maryland Heights

    Harper's Ferry, an important railroad terminus at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, changed hands eight times during the Civil War. In this photograph, the landscape and the significance of the river valleys are particularly obvious.

  • | Illustration

    Keywords appearing in all Union officers? correspondence in the 1862 Peninsular Campaign

    Keywords appearing in all Union officers? correspondence in the 1862 Peninsular Campaign; the larger the word, the more often it appeared in their writings. Compiled from U.S. War Department, The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Gettysburg, Pa.: National Historical Society, c. 1971?1972), Vol. 11 (Part III), 1?384. (Voyeur Tools [copyright 2009] Steffan Sinclair and Geoffrey Rockwell, v. 1.0; graph by Trevor Munoz and the author [September 2009]. This image was generated using Wordle, under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.)

  • | Photograph

    Railroad construction workers hammer track as a third watches

    African American laborers, free and contraband, worked for the Union Army to build and repair rail lines across the South. Note the bent and broken rails scattered in the background, signs of earlier destruction.

  • | Photograph

    Savage?s Station, headquarters of General George B. McClellan, June 27, 1862

    McClellan used the Richmond & York River Railroad to position his massive Army of the Potomac just a few miles from Richmond.

  • | Photograph

    Ruins at Manassas Junction, March 1862

    Numerous railroad hubs in the Confederacy became sites of repeated fighting, both large- and small-scale. Here, the ruins were the work of the Confederate Army as it abandoned its forward position in northern Virginia to protect Richmond.