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  • | Illustration

    Destruction of Cars by General Hood

    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.

  • | Illustration

    Destruction of the East Tennessee and Virginia Railroad

    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.

  • | Illustration

    Earth Works near the Rappahannock Railroad Bridge

    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.

  • | Photograph

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

  • | Book

    Education of Henry Adams

    The Education of Henry Adams is a personal account of the vast changes wrought on civilization over the course of the 19th century; technology, politics, economics, cultural, and intellectual transformations drive Adams' reflections. In the following excerpts, Adams addresses the transportation revolution.

  • | Illustration

    Exchanging Salutations with the Enemy

    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.

  • | Map

    Field of Operations on the Potomac

    This map from the New York Daily Tribune is an example of the methods newspapers used to help Americans visualize the geography of warfare — shaping their perceptions of the war and the landscapes on which it was fought. This map illustrates the position of Union forces along the Potomac just days before many of the troops headed south to begin the Peninsula Campaign.

  • | Photograph

    Fortified Railroad Bridge Across Cumberland River, Nashville, Tennessee, 1864

    Confederate guerrilla forces, often operating as regular cavalry units, attacked Union-controlled railroad lines. They shot into trains, destroyed tracks, took prisoners, killed Union soldiers, and burned bridges. Union commanders responded by developing block houses and fortified bridges to protect the vulnerable lines, equipping trains with special armor, recruiting loyal local citizens to ferret out guerrillas, and dispatching special counterinsurgency cavalry units to track down the Confederate guerrillas.

  • | Photograph

    Fredericksburg from the river. Showing Confederate troops and bridge. (taken at a distance of one mile.)

    Similar in composition to the December 13, 1862 Harper's Weekly image, in this picture the close proximity of armies to one another is evident.

  • | Illustration

    General View of 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. This image was published just weeks after the Battle of Harper's Ferry, during which Confederate troops were victorious.

  • | Photograph

    General William T. Sherman at Fort No. 7, Atlanta, Ga., overlooking Chattanooga Railroad lines, 1864

    Sherman recognized the importance and vulnerability of railroad corridors. In September 1862 Sherman ordered an expedition to ?destroy? the town of Randolph, Tennessee, because guerrillas had fired on Union steamships from the banks of the Mississippi River. In 1864 he adopted similarly hard measures to protect the railroads during his Atlanta Campaign.

  • | 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

    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.

  • | Illustration

    Hospital Train from Chattanooga to Nashville

    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.

  • | Illustration

    How the Rebels Destroy Railroads

    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.

  • | Illustration

    Intersection of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad with the Manassas Gap Railroad

    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.

  • | Illustration

    Keywords appearing in all Union commanders? correspondence in the Atlanta Campaign of 1864

    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.)

  • | 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.)

  • | Illustration

    Keywords appearing in General William T. Sherman?s correspondence in the Atlanta Campaign of 1864

    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.)

  • | Letter

    Letter from A. M. Clapp to Daniel Craig McCallum, March 14, 1864

    McCallum is presented with two female volunteers and asked to provide transportation if their services are needed.