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The Montgomery and West Point Railroad (M&WP) was an early 19th century railroad in Alabama and Georgia.
[edit] History
The Montgomery Railroad was chartered January 20, 1832, to build track from Montgomery, Alabama, to the Chattahoochee River at Columbus, Georgia. In 1834, it was rechartered with the route going to West Point, Alabama, instead of Columbus. It wasn't until 1840 when the railroad finally constructed track and even then it only built twelve miles East out of Montgomery. The railroad was sold under foreclosure in 1842 and was then reorganized as the Mongomery and West Point Railroad; the railroad was completed to West Point by April 1851. Three years later the Atlanta and West Point Rail Road was completed connecting Montgomery to east coast markets. The M&WP then built a branch line from Opelika, Alabama to Columbus which began operating in 1856. During the American Civil War the railroad was raided by 3,000 Union cavalry troops in July 1964 under the command of Lovell Rousseau. Staged out of Decatur, Rosseau's force managed to take or burn a large number of supplies at Opelika, and destroy 30 miles of track as well as burning ralroad stations and warehouses at West Point and Montgomery by July 17.[1] The railroad was later merged into the Western Railway of Alabama in 1870.
[edit] References
[edit] Sources
- Robert W. Black, Col., Cavalry raids of the Civil War, Stackpole Military History Series, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA., 2004
