The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1914-04-15
THE WAR DAY BY DAY
Fifty Years Ago.
April Is 1S6-An Cars and Engines Arriving Nashville from the North
Were Being Seized by the Military Authorities Under
Sherman for Use Supplying Shsrnans Army Its Advance
Atlanta.
written expressly for The Herald,

, constituted in themselves a severe tax oa
the railroad.
Under Gen. Sherman's orders no citizen
Wis allowed to travel on the railroads a:
all. except on permit Of the commander
Ct Ole Of the three armies named. EX-
press companies We're allowed one ar 4
day to carry parcels for the soldiers
at the front. and one car was allowed tn
carry suffers goods and officers stores
Horses. cattle and livestock could roI
be shipped by railroad Returning trains
could carry private freight Il il did 10.
interfere with the military business u
the road All military posts within
thirty-'6ve miles Of Nashville. Stew
son. and Bridgeport. Ala: CEarra-ooEa
Huntsville Ala, and Loudon. Tenn, must
haul their stores by wagons.
Gen Sherman in his Memoirs SAYS h.s
order raised howl and that PresiGe--
Lincoln wrote him regarding IL asz--S
II il could not be changed
To this appeal Gen. Sherman SAYS =
replied that great Campaigr was ~
pending. on which the fate f the nation
hung. that the railroads could not Tro-
vide for the needs Of the Teop,-. and OF
the army. too: that ''Ore ~ the. other
must quit and the army could not quit
until it had conquered the Confederate
army under Gen Joseph 2. Johnston.
Moving I.:;on Tons n Day.
The effect Of this order va, to halt
the private business Of the public with
railroads south of Nashville until Gen.
sherman could accumulate some thou
sands of tons OF 5; yes at and near
Chattanooga.
Gen. sherman estiu,ated that he must
move l,3Oo tons a day Of food and FORAGE
To supply the army IT lU"onp men h. pro-
posed to march with. and the $50
animals that would accompany it
This meant the use of 80 cars !. d..
each carrying ten tons. on receii-S
report from his master ~ traDS0O-:a;-c-
that leo locomotives and Ice ra-S We
needed. and there were only sixty .C,S---
tiveS and about So cars 81 hand So
nan had ordered the seizure q re -
quired rolling stock
Railroad men were nv .vrc u r,.--S
the stOppaGe O. rollins stock - NS<--
Vile Pr, SIdent Gutnris. - he L,a-zSyr-.s
and Nashville road. forthwith v77,5s Gs3.
sherman. protesting tina; L his cs~s
were held he would not have enough To
forward the necessary stores from Louis
Vile to Nashville.
Gen. Sherman replied that Mr. Guthrie
might seize what he needed from other
roads Gen. Robert Allen. United States
quartrrmaSter at Louisville. had the re-
GuIred military authority TO do this. \ =
ing with Mr.. Guthrie he put a az ferry
i'll commission on the Ohio River by
y hich be transferred trains from JrTe=-
sonviIle. on the Indiana shore. L. Louis
willie.
In short time We had cars and To-
"0motives from almost every road in the
North, writes Gen. Sherman in his
Memoirs. Months afterward was
amused to see, away down in Georgia,
cars marked Pittsburgh and Fort Wayne
Delaware and Lackawana. Baltimore
and Ohio and indeed with the names Of
almost every railroad north Of the Ohio
River. How the railroad companies ever
Recovered their property or settled their
transportation accounts, l have never
Beard; but to this fact as much as to any
other single fact. 1 attribute the perfect
success which afterward attended our
} Tomorrow; The Army of the Poto-
mae Studies Grant.
Copyright leI3l