1864 | Photograph
This bridge was destroyed and rebuilt several times. In May 1862 General Irwin McDowell employed hundreds of contraband laborers, who replaced the bridge in nine days. Here, in May 1864, the U.S. Military Railroads, again with large numbers of black freedmen, constructed the bridge in forty hours. Photographs such as this one indicated the complexity, cost, and scale of the bridges across many of the South?s rivers and also conveyed the precarious, and sublime, ways the railroad was thought to defy nature.
1864 | Photograph
No. 1. Steam engines ?Telegraph? and ?O. A. Bull? remained in position amid the ruins of a Confederate roundhouse in Atlanta in 1864. The South possessed some of the most beautiful depots and railroad facilities in the nation in 1861. Sherman?s campaigns sought to dismantle the Confederate railroad system and in so doing deny any claim to modernity and progress. African American workers stand atop the old Georgia Railroad flatcar.
1864 | Photograph
January 4, 1864
In this letter from January 4, 1864, Joshua M. Shaffer, Surgeon of the Board of Enrollment for the First Congressional District of Iowa, writes to Samuel Reed informing him that his name has been successfully stricken from the draft enrollment list in Burlington, Iowa upon receipt of proof that his name is on the enrollment list in Joliet, Illinois.
January 29, 1864 | Letter
An inquiry about re-hiring a blacksmith for the military railroad.
February 18, 1864 | Letter
John Isom designates a black church in Nashville to serve as a copper and tin shop.
February 20, 1864 | Letter
E. Benjamin requests passes for black workers so that they may avoid impressment.
February 27, 1864 | Illustration
This image from the February 27, 1864 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts a Union hospital train crossing a railway bridge on its run from Chattanooga to Nashville, Tennessee during the American Civil War. See Woman's Work in the Civil War on this site for the recollections of a hospital train nurse.
February 27, 1864 | Illustration
This image from the February 27, 1864 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts the interior of a Union hospital car during the American Civil War. See Woman's Work in the Civil War on this site for the recollections of a hospital train nurse.
March 14, 1864 | Letter
McCallum is presented with two female volunteers and asked to provide transportation if their services are needed.
May 21, 1864 | Illustration
This image from the May 21, 1864 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts Union soldiers from the First Brigade, Third Division of the Twenty-third Army Corps destroying the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad during the American Civil War.
July 2, 1864 | Illustration
This image from the July 2, 1864 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts Union soldiers under the command of General William T. Sherman destroying a railroad bridge at Resaca, Georgia during the American Civil War.
July 2, 1864 | Illustration
This image from the July 2, 1864 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts Union soldiers under the command of General William T. Sherman near a railroad depot at Resaca, Georgia during the American Civil War.
July 2, 1864 | Illustration
This image from the July 2, 1864 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts Union soldiers under the command of General William T. Sherman near a railroad depot at Adairsville, Georgia during the American Civil War.
July 2, 1864 | Illustration
This image from the July 2, 1864 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts a railroad tracks and telegraph wires at Kingston, Georgia.
July 9, 1864 | Illustration
This image from the July 9, 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts Union soldiers under the command of General William T. Sherman at "Big Shany Station" near Kennesaw, Georgia.
July 9, 1864 | Illustration
This image from the July 9, 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts Union soldiers under the command of General William T. Sherman constructing a telegraph line along railroad tracks in Georgia.
July 12, 1864 | Letter
A report about the state of the railroads around Nashville in the wake of ongoing guerilla destruction.
July 25, 1864 | Photograph
September 13, 1864 | Letter
J. M. Nash requests a guard to ensure that the African American engineer at the Lavergne station is not harassed or his work interfered with.