Confederate railroads in the American Civil War During the American Civil War , the Confederate States Army depended heavily on railroads to get supplies to its lines . History . The outbreak of war had a depressing effect on the economic fortunes of the Confederate railroad industry . With the cotton crop being hoarded in an attempt to entice European intervention , railroads were bereft of their main source of income . Many were forced to lay off employees , and in particular , let go skilled technicians and engineers . Due to a general sentiment that the war would not last long , initially Confederate rail operators did not seek , nor build , alternative sources of iron for rail construction and repair . Although railroad contracts to port - towns had ceased , due to the combined effects of the Cotton export policy and the Union naval blockade , lucrative government contracts were doled out to rail operators with lines supplying men and arms to the front line of Tennessee and Virginia . A consortium of rail operators had decided upon a universal rate for government contracts ; " a uniform rate of two cents a mile for men and half the regular local rate for munitions , provisions , and material , and also agreed to accept Confederate bonds at par in payment of government transportation . " In addition , the Confederacy suffered from two key railroad deficiencies . The first was the lack of a true rail network ; instead , rail lines usually connected ports and river terminals to points inland . This lack of inter - railway connections caused many railroads to become useless once the Union blockade was in place . A second concern was a break of gauge ; much of the Confederate rail network was in the broad gauge format , but much of North Carolina and Virginia had standard gauge lines . Southern railroads west of the Mississippi were isolated , disconnected , and differed widely in gauge . 1861 . As troop movement began in earnest in May and June 1861 , a crippling problem was discovered ; many rail lines terminated in towns without connecting to continuing lines . Instead , cargo would have to be unloaded , driven across town , and then reloaded . Soldiers , and other passengers , would often have to stay overnight to catch a continuing train the next day . When the Confederate government attempted to rectify this problem , they ran into local opposition . Towns preferred the lack of connection , since it required the hiring of teamsters and populated hotels with guests . Railroad operators , while not opposed to connecting lines , were opposed to the possibility of sharing rolling stock with rival companies . 1862 . As 1862 opened , the Confederacy built a spur off the Orange and Alexandria Railroad at Manassas Junction toward Centreville , Virginia known as the Centreville Military Railroad . It served to supply the Confederate defenses on the Centreville Plateau along the north side of the Bull Run feed into the Occoquan River . As the war waged on attempts were made by railroad operators to acquire railroad supplies abroad , necessitated by the Confederacy ' s small industrial base . The problem of supplies had become increasingly acute , especially with respect to the already small supply of engines and cars . Stressed by overuse , lacking material to make repairs , and the conscription of men who could make them , rail operators were predicting a breaking point as early as 1862 . While railroad operators attempted , throughout the war , to get assistance from the Confederate Congress , the response was either indifferent or hostile . 1863 . It was not until mid - 1863 that the Confederate government initiated an overall policy concerning railroads , and even then it was confined solely to aiding the war effort . With the legislation of impressment the same year , railroads and their rolling stock came under the de facto control of the military . In March 1864 , the Quartermaster General ordered all passenger trains to give governmental trains the right of way . By mid - 1864 , all passenger service in the Confederacy had come to a standstill . Transport of goods for civilian use was also affected , exacerbating shortages brought on by wartime devastation , rampant speculation and hoarding , and the Confederacy ' s impressment policy . 1864 . In the last year before the end of the war , the Confederate railroad system was always on the verge of collapse . The impressment policy of quartermasters ran the rails ragged . Feeder lines would be scrapped for replacement steel for trunk lines , and the continual use of rolling stock wore them down faster than they could be replaced . Union Use . As the Union armies pushed further into Confederate territory , they came into ownership of former Confederate railway lines , or what was left of them . Confederate troops generally applied a scorched - earth policy towards railroads when they were in retreat . Union troops would often have to rebuild an entire line from scratch for it to be usable . Due to the vagaries of the war , some lines would be rebuilt 6 or 7 times by differing sides , especially in states like Virginia , where fighting was most intense . Expansion . Attempts were made to enlarge the Confederacy ' s rail system by adding or connecting lines . Of the three major rail projects the Confederate congress proposed and funded , only one of them , a connection between Danville , Virginia , and Greensboro , North Carolina , was completed . Ironically , although the Confederate constitution forbade internal improvements to aid commerce , nothing within it said anything about improvements to aid wartime defense .