1862 | Illustration
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.
1862 | Illustration
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.
1864 | Illustration
The partisan war in Loudon County, Virginia, turned especially violent in the fall of 1864. Confederate forces under John S. Mosby captured and killed Union soldiers in retaliation for the burning of civilian homes, and Union general George A. Custer responded by hanging seven of Mosby?s men. Then, on November 6, 1864, Mosby executed several more Union soldiers in response. The fighting took place along the Manassas Gap Railroad line and its bridges.
November 7, 1863 | Illustration
This image from the November 7, 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts the United States' Army of the Cumberland passing through a substantial cut in the mountains while traveling on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad.
October 22, 1864 | Illustration
This image from the October 22, 1864 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts the arrival of fresh recruits by train during the Battle of Peeble's Farm as part of Union General Ulysses S. Grant's Virginia Campaign during the American Civil War.
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 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.
November 7, 1863 | Illustration
This image from the November 7, 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts the burning of the Rappahannock Railway Bridge on October 13, 1863 during the American Civil War.
October 1, 1864 | Illustration
This image from the October 1, 1864 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts the destruction of railway cars by Confederate General John Bell Hood before the evacuation of Atlanta during the American Civil War.
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.
November 7, 1863 | Illustration
This image from the November 7, 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts defensive works built near the Rappahannock Railway Bridge during the American Civil War.
December 13, 1862 | Illustration
Harper's Weekly featured regular illustrations of southern towns and battlefields for Northern audiences following the war. This image of Fredericksburg echoes a photograph by Matthew Brady.
October 4, 1862 | Illustration
Harper's Ferry, an important railroad terminus at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, changed hands eight times during the Civil War. This image was published just weeks after the Battle of Harper's Ferry, during which Confederate troops were victorious.
July 6, 1861 | Illustration
This image from the July 6, 1861 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts Harper's Ferry after its evacuation by Confederate troops.
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.
October 24, 1863 | Illustration
This image from the October 24, 1863 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts Confederate soldiers in the American Civil War destroying a railroad line by burning the ties, then heating the rails and twisting them out of shape.
March 29, 1862 | Illustration
This image from the March 29, 1862 issue of Harper's Weekly depicts a scene of destruction at Manassas Junction in Virginia during the American Civil War.
1864 | Illustration
Keywords appearing in all Union commanders? correspondence in the Atlanta Campaign of 1864; 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. 38 (Parts IV and V), including all Union command correspondence. (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.)
1862 | Illustration
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.)
1864 | Illustration
Keywords appearing in General William T. Sherman?s correspondence in the Atlanta Campaign of 1864; the larger the word, the more often it appeared in his 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. 38 (Parts IV and V), including all of Sherman?s letters in these volumes. (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.)