Confederate railroads in the American Civil War

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During the American Civil War, the Confederate States Army depended heavily on railroads to get supplies to its lines. In addition to existing railroads, which had been built mainly for economic purposes, some important connections were built.

The Piedmont Railroad connected the south end of the Richmond and Danville Railroad at Danville, Virginia, to the North Carolina Railroad at Greensboro, North Carolina. This line, opened in late 1863, proved important in August 1864 when the Petersburg Railroad, formerly the only connection to Richmond, other than going through Tennessee, was blocked.

After Pensacola, Florida, was evacuated in early 1862, the Alabama and Florida Railroad was seized and removed, being partly replaced by the Mobile and Great Northern Railroad towards Mobile, Alabama (completed November 1861).

During the war, sections of the Northeast and Southwest Railroad and Alabama and Mississippi Rivers Railroad were built, opening in December 1862. This left two gaps in the east-west line between Montgomery, Alabama, and Meridian, Mississippi, both handled by steamboats (on the Alabama and Tombigbee Rivers).

Prior to the war, the network of railroads in peninsular Florida had no connection to the rest of the South. The Confederate government built a connection between the Atlantic and Gulf Railroad at Dupont, Georgia, and the Pensacola and Georgia Railroad at Live Oak, Florida, but it came too late to have much of an impact.

The Union army built a section of the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad, connecting Nashville, Tennessee, west to the Tennessee River, for use as an alternate route to that river and its low water.