During the four years of war, Philadelphia railroads played a conspicuous part, constantly transporting a steady stream of men and supplies to the South and returning with wounded Union soldiers and Confederate prisoners. As soon as hostilities commenced, the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad stationed men to guard its bridges and to act as a military corps. To allay suspicion, the men were set to work whitewashing bridges, of which some received six or seven coats, but it was reported that this precaution prevented rust from forming. In April 1861, the line was taken in charge by the Federal government through an agent in Philadelphia, and all equipment under government control, as well as troop trains, was sent out as quickly as possible. An uninterrupted route to Washington was nearly completed by April 25, 1861.169
It was on this railroad line that an armored car was first used. Built by Baldwin Locomotive Works, the tank-like car consisted of a railroad car made of boiler iron. In the interior of the car, cannon were set on a pivot, which enabled them to be fired through portholes. For the protection of the train, this mounted battery was located in front of the locomotive.
The North Central Railroad, which was soon controlled by the Pennsylvania Railroad, sent patrols along the southern border of the state as a safeguard against Rebel raids. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, occupied in carrying coal from the upstate Pennsylvania coalfields down to the river terminals for the navy, was taken over by the government in the summer of 1864 to assure continuous transportation of the vital fuel during strikes by the miners.
All the railroads in and around Philadelphia were generous in their contributions toward the relief of soldiers’ families, military hospitals and orphans’ homes and in their purchases of government bonds.170
In 1861, Philadelphia’s rail connections with the South consisted of the PW & B, the Pennsylvania, the Northern Central and the Cumberland Valley Railroad, which led into central Pennsylvania. The importance of these lines, from a military standpoint, was recognized long before the outbreak of the war, and some were caught in the middle of the conflict on several occasions. Although the burden of responsibility was heavy and constant, the officers of these lines worked nobly to support the Union throughout the war. This patriotic attitude of the railroad officials had already been exhibited in the safe conduct of President-elect Lincoln to Washington from Harrisburg via Philadelphia on the night of February 22, 1861.
Realizing that some of the disloyal element in Maryland might attempt to damage railroad property, President Samuel M. Felton, of the PW & B, organized a select force of about two hundred men to guard the bridges and act, if necessary, as a military body. A train was kept in readiness to concentrate them at any time. Immediately following the transportation of the 6th Massachusetts Regiment and the unarmed Washington Brigade of Philadelphians under General Small into Baltimore, ending in the Baltimore Riot, the mayor and police commissioners of Baltimore ordered the destruction of the railroad bridges. The work was entrusted to a force under the charge of Isaac R. Trimble, formerly a superintendent of the railroad company, later a Confederate general.
As a result, on April 20, a number of bridges were burned. All telegraph wires leading from Baltimore were cut. It required twenty-four days of hard work to repair the damage. In the meantime, troops and supplies were carried from Perryville, where the PW & B, railroad terminated at the Susquehanna River, and via Havre de Grace on the large transport steamer Maryland, the Philadelphia ice boat and other vessels, to Annapolis, Maryland, and then to Washington via the B & O Railroad.
With the occupation of Baltimore by a Federal force under General B.F. Butler and the arrest of the pro-Southern leaders, the Union sentiment of the city again returned and brought peace and stability once again. The only further damage done was in July 1864 by a raiding party known as “Gilmour’s Guerillas,” which partially burned the Gunpowder River Bridge and a few cars.
The PW & B Railroad was destined to become the greatest military transportation hub in history up to that time. This modern rail connection between Philadelphia and Baltimore was created in the 1830s by the consolidation of several connecting railroad companies to link the two cities. An iron bridge proved too expensive to build; consequently, the Susquehanna River terminal was changed to Perryville on the north and Havre de Grace on the south side and would be connected by a ferry. By 1838, the lines had been completed, and utilizing the ferry system offered efficient through service to Baltimore and back to Philadelphia. The terminals at the Broad and Prime Streets Depot in Philadelphia and President’s Street Station in Baltimore linked the cities and also offered connections to the Baltimore & Ohio’s Baltimore–Washington branch and other railroads between Philadelphia and New York City. The PW & B quickly became a strategic link in a network of railroads handling a burgeoning rail service along the Washington-Baltimore-Philadelphia–New York corridor.
This strategic position benefited the cause of the Union during the Civil War. The line was crucial to the war by steadily funneling troops and war materials from the Northeast to the warfronts and the capital. The rail line also played a significant role in the war’s first bloodshed. On April 19, 1861, an angry mob of Southern sympathizers in Baltimore attacked Union troops who were attempting to transfer from the President Street terminal to the Baltimore & Ohio’s Camden Station. In what became known as the Baltimore or Pratt Street Riots, four Massachusetts militiamen and one Philadelphian were killed, and as many as twenty-five citizens were killed by the troops.171
Thomas A. Scott was granted a leave of absence from the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1861 in order to serve the government as assistant secretary of war. He was thirty-seven years old and endowed with great energy, as well as experience. It was his task to facilitate the movement of troops by rail and to establish telegraphic service in the field. At his insistence, the first military telegraph station in America was opened in the office of Governor Curtin at Harrisburg, April 17, 1861, by William Bender Wilson, who later became manager of military telegraphs at Washington.172
Scott was given a commission by President Lincoln as colonel of the District of Columbia Volunteers. Among the young men summoned to Washington to aid him was Frank Thomson, who was not yet twenty years old but was well versed in the line of work assigned to him. Under the orders of Colonel Scott, he organized the Military Telegraphic Corps, the first auxiliary of its kind in the world, from among the dispatchers of the Pennsylvania Railroad. It was the duty of this corps to maintain the important lines used by the armies in the field in serviceable condition.173
The Northern Central Railroad, in which the Pennsylvania Railroad soon afterward acquired a controlling interest, was operated as a separate corporation. Other managers of the different lines were induced to cooperate with Superintendent Enoch Lewis and Division Superintendent Samuel D. Young, of the Pennsylvania System, in maintaining a mounted patrol along the southern border of the state as a safeguard against raids. The members of this patrol made constant use of a telegraph line extending from Chambersburg to Bedford, keeping the railroad officials at Harrisburg and, through them, the War Department fully informed of movements by the enemy. It was due to the energy of the Northern Central officials that the five companies of militia from the interior of Pennsylvania, known now as the “First Defenders,” were promptly and safely conveyed to Washington on April 18, 1861, being the very first volunteers to arrive after Lincoln called for troops for the defense of the capital.174
Until the start of the Civil War, the railroad had never been a factor in military campaigns. The constant destruction and rebuilding of tracks and bridges by the enemy in the earlier part of the war made it essential to use experts familiar with the work of rebuilding. In April 1862, the secretary of war called on Herman Haupt of Philadelphia, an engineer and graduate of West Point who had previously occupied the position of the Pennsylvania Railroad’s first general superintendent. He was appointed chief of construction and transportation, with the rank of colonel. In recognition of invaluable services rendered the government, Colonel Haupt was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in September 1862. General Haupt and his subordinates performed heroic service in many times of need and danger.175
Prominent among the railroad men who served in this branch of the army were W.W. Wright, of the Pennsylvania Railroad staff, who became General Sherman’s chief of construction on the campaign through Georgia and the Carolinas; General Adna Anderson; and E.C. Smeed. It was with the cooperation of such practical engineers that, under the active personal supervision of Colonel Thomas A. Scott, Colonel D.C. McCallum, successor to General Haupt, was able to transport the 11th and 12th Corps of the Army of the Potomac in September 1863 after the Battle of Gettysburg. He moved this force of twenty-two thousand men, with all of their equipment and supplies, to the support of Grant and Sherman’s armies of the Western Theater from their base at Catlett’s Station, Virginia, to Georgia and Tennessee, over a distance of nearly 1,200 miles in eight days.176
William J. Palmer, private secretary in 1861 to President John Edgar Thompson of the Pennsylvania Railroad, resigned to take command of the famous “Anderson Troop” of cavalry. In 1862, he recruited this force to a full regiment and took command of the 15th Pennsylvania Cavalry, which he continued to lead to the end of the war.177
A number of high-ranking officers in the Federal army left work with the railroads for service to their country and had outstanding achievements in their military career. One of the most famous Philadelphia railroad men was George Brinton McClellan, of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad Company, a former captain of the regular army who succeeded General Scott as commander of the U.S. Army.178
The patriotism and devotion to the Union of the Philadelphia railroad workers and officials are illustrated in a circular issued to all employees by the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, proposing to them to devote one day’s pay in each month to the purchase of government bonds, with the interest to be reinvested until the close of the war. This request was generally complied with.
The Railroad companies voted large sums of money to the relief of soldiers’ families. The Philadelphia and Reading Railroad performed valuable service throughout the war by the rapid transportation of troops and actively providing coal at its tidewater terminals for naval use. When considerable disruptions occurred among the immigrant miners in the coal regions, and in resistance to drafts, it required the stationing of troops in those sections of the state. Some front-line troops were lost to the front.179
Through at least a portion of the war, the official envelopes of the Pennsylvania Railroad bore the popular insignia of cannon and flags. The subscriptions made at various times by the Pennsylvania Railroad for the help of the Great Central Sanitary Fair and the military hospitals were substantial. The railroad also made donations for homes for orphans of deceased soldiers and sailors.180
The Philadelphia railroad depots during the course of the war consisted of: New York line depots—Kensington Depot and the Walnut Street Wharf; Baltimore and Washington Line Depot—Broad and Prime Streets; Pennsylvania Central Depot—Thirtieth and Market Streets; Philadelphia and Reading Depot—Broad and Callowhill Streets; West Chester and Media Depot—Thirty-first and Market Streets; Philadelphia, Germantown and Norristown Depot—Ninth and Greene Streets; and North Pennsylvania Depot—Third and Thompson Streets.181
The railroads played a significant role in transporting troops, citizens and manufactured goods and war material, as well as the returning veterans, both living and dead, who were welcomed home in a respectful and fitting manner.