TWELVE THOUSAND IN FOR A SIXTY-MILE RAILROAD
The Capture of the Petersburg and Weldon Line in 1864
By Raleigh C. Taylor,
Junior Research Technician,
Petersburg National Military Park
Little boys are told, doubtless with good reason,
that they should not put pennies on the tracks since possibly the
locomotive would be derailed. One way and another, however, it always
costs more than a penny to stop a train, just as it costs a great many
pennies and sometimes a few lives to start one, if we count the
construction of the road.
The Petersburg and Weldon Railroad, one of the
earlier Virginia lines, was relatively inexpensive in construction.
Certainly its 60 miles of right-of-way crossed neither mountain nor
desert, and it appears that the story of its building has left no deep
impress on American history. Not so for its destruction, for the
stoppage of that one line had significant military consequences during a
period which equals the time in which Napoleon moved from exile to
empire and back -- a hundred days.
It was in the summer of 1864, when the nation still
awaited the outcome of Grant's struggle with Lee, begun in May on the
Rapidan River but now shifted, after many battles and unprecedented
losses, 70 miles southward to Petersburg. The Confederates, holding
Petersburg and Richmond, had to draw supplies from farther south. If
Grant could cut the railroads in that direction, Lee would be compelled
to leave his entrenched line around the two cities.
The Petersburg and Weldon thus had become
increasingly important in the campaign. As early as May 7, while Grant
was still in the Wilderness, Federal cavalry from Butler's army had
interrupted traffic. Again in late June raiders crossed it once more,
and this time the infantry reached the rails. The effort cost them 2,000
prisoners and gave to General William Mahone his first victory in the
defense of Petersburg. Nevertheless, the blue-coats remained on the road
or in easy reach of it for some days. With Early rapping at the gates of
Washington, however, there was urgent call for troops and the road was
abandoned once more to the Confederates.
In July and August the wheezy locomotives still were
rolling between Weldon and Petersburg. In mid-August, General Gouverneur
K. Warren, a small man in a large black hat, with a heavy sword and a
long bird nose, the engineer officer who had seen and defended the key
position at Gettysburg, was given his greatest assignment. With a
semi-detached left wing finally consisting of 20,000 infantry, he moved
out to take possession of the railroad. His column advanced swiftly,
bothered more by dust and sunstroke than by the shots from Confederate
pickets. A storm came in early afternoon and with it one of the
divisions moving northward was attacked by the Confederates in the thick
woods. The battle had no particular result except to show that the road
was not to be taken without trouble.
Next day, in continued rains that made the wagon
roads impassable, the Confederates, having realized the seriousness of
Warren's expedition, gathered all available strength to thrust it back.
The red-bearded A. P. Hill, who was to die when Petersburg fell, did his
best to postpone the day. His wiry, high-voiced "toy soldier" General
Mahone pushed his division down through the woods to the west of Warren
and, although the artillery pounded them back from the open ground
beyond, they brought in a heavy "bag" of prisoners, just as they had
done two months before near the same spot.
Two days later the Confederates with a still stronger
force tried once more, this time from the west, but the chief result was
the 350 dead and wounded left in Federal hands. With that failure Lee
decided that the game no longer was worth it, or at least that there was
no use pushing his thinning regiments against well established
lines.
The Federals began a thorough destruction of the rail
line, extending the work southward as more troops arrived, this time
under Hancock, the corps commander of whom Grant said that he never
committed in battle a blunder for which he was responsible. Yet
Hancock's troops, two miles south of Warren's line, were struck and
surrounded by A. P. Hill and Hampton's cavalry. Hill, sick, directed the
attack from a blanket on the field. The Federals were broken and lost
nine cannon. August 25 was a black day for Hancock who expressed the
hope that he might never leave that field. He and Miles (later to
command the army) and Gregg of the cavalry saved what they could from
the wreckage.
The tale of the Weldon was not over quite yet. In
December General Warren was sent out again, on a miserable march through
rain and sleet, to complete the destruction southward. He reached
Emporia, burning the ties and heating and bending the rails from the
Nottoway to the Meherrin. The main event, besides the weather, was the
finding of considerable quantities of applejack in almost every house, a
circumstance which caused delay and straggling and the rise of a rumor
that the country people had killed some of the soldiers. The
consequences was the unauthorized burning of many houses on the return
march.
Thus, before the end of 1864, the Petersburg and
Weldon Railroad was disposed of entirely as a military factor. Forty
miles of it was a complete wreck. Leaving out labor and property loss,
the work had cost the Federal army 9,500 men in killed, wounded and
missing --- more than 200 for every mile of wrecked track. Confederate
losses are estimated at 2,339. It is doubtful whether any other railroad
in the world has been more thoroughly baptized in blood.
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