The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1916-05-11
BATTLESHIP BUILT
FROM MASS Of RAILS
Jackson Tore Up 3. & o. Tracks
Around MartinSburg and Armor-
ed Merimac With Them.

OuSSdp GdhG Z ) lue IalleT Is ABOUT 10
merge It's flood with the brine of the
Atlantic, boatsman sailing in the bay be-
held q strange sight. A great bulky
apparitlon, as it seemed, was moving
out from NorfOrk and the most season
ed of the water men could not for the
life of them tell what it was Its
appearance was that of a mass of
railroad iron built into pyra-
midal heap, with something in the crib
like structure that belched forth smoke
and steam.
AS it came within closer view 1t was
seen that along It's corrugated iron
sides at regular intervals-for it was
entirely cased in rails-there frowned
on the outer world the grim muzzles of
ponderous cannons.
The moving monster had been. until
few months before, the United States
steam frigate Merrimac. Salvaged by
the Confederates from the wreck of the
Gosport hayward, opposite Norfork-
burned by order of United States officers
within week after the firing on Sum-
ter-it had been taken in hand and, by
dint of the labor of skilled mechanics,
plated with railroad iron. and thus made
into one of the most formid bile of de-
stroyers the world had eyer seen.
How the Merrimac defeated the
United States frigate Congress and
Cumberland, with a loss Of 220 men,
that day and how the next day the
strange little cheesebox Monitor sent
the armored Merrimac back to Norfolk
so badly crippled that it was not again
heard of during the Civil war, is history
with which every schoolboy and girl is
familiar. Not so generally known is
the story of how the Merrimac came to
be armored.
Had the railroad iron which plated
the sides of the Merrimac been endowed
with the power of speech 1t wonld have
told of blue crested mountains far from
the tidal waters, the most picturesque
section of the Blue Ridge, the superb
region of the upper Potomac and
Shenandoah, embracing Harper's Ferry
and Martinsburg, where it had lain
peacefully enough.
But "StonewalP' Jackson came along
with his freshly organized. army and
massed his forces along the railroad and
in those towns. For period of two
months after the firing on Sumter he
held that part of Virginia, together
with a section of about 50 miles of the
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
Before the middle of June, 1861,
Jackson saw he must evacuate. The
Union troops from the direction of
Washington were pressing down the
railroad on Harper's Ferry, and from
Hagerstown and Cumberland, they had
begun to hem him also
At each end of the 5O-mile section
which dominated lay hostile territory.
The railroad as transportation medium
was of no use to him, as its route was
not in the right direction.
at Martinsburg no less than 10 loco
motives and 1870 freight cars. If the
Baltimore and Ohio had been routed
north and south instead of east and
west he could haye run the engines and
cars into the heart of Dixie, where they
would have plenty of use for them. As
the matter stood it was almost 25 miles
by turnpike across country from
Martinsburg to Winchester, at which
point lay just the railroad needed the
Virginia and Atlantic, passing to Rich
mond and the sea.
In Jackson's army was an officer,
Col. Thomas A. Sharp, who was an ac-
complished civil engineer. Before en-
tering the army he had been a railroad
man in Georgia. His merits had brought
him to the front in the command and
the general had placed him in charge
of the transportation service 1t was
under him, by Jackson's order, that
the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad bridge
that spanned the Potomac at Harper's
Ferry was burned.
After destroying the structure Jack
son men tore up the tracks for many
miles westward, placed the ties in piles,
laid the rails on top and treated the
country folks Whereabouts to the spec
tacle of a series of fine bonfres.
AS the rails became red hot they
would be taken with huge pliers and
wound around the nearest trees until
almost every live trunk that reared its
head along the line sported necktle of
unique pattern.
Hundreds of tons of rails were saved,
however, and heaped up in Martinsburg
to serve other purposes.
jackson had requested Colonel Sharp
to try and evolve plan by which the
rolling stock and rails could be convey
ed over the turnpike to the Winchester
line, which tapped Richmond. Colonel
Sharp thought the matter over, called
to his aid every skilled mechanic in the
army and constructed number of large
wheels and rugged them on the trucks