Railroads and the Civil War Soldiers who used Them

        During the American Civil War, the railroad network played an important role in the transportation of soldiers and supplies to the front lines.1 But what is the impact that access to the rail network had on enabling those who wanted to volunteer in Ohio for the Union cause? Little is written about how access to these local trains assisted with military involvement in any meaningful way. There is much value to be found by delving into the impact of transportation networks and the movement of people.2 The research explored here will do much to help understand rural communities in Ohio and the historic impact of the railways.3 Compiling many of the personal stories of soldiers who served in the military during this period shows their perspective of rail travel.4 Using those stories and comparing local volunteer records with railway maps will paint a picture of of rural involvement that increased with access to railroads. It may also be possible to compare other transportation access ports, such as canals and river ways with the volunteer rates of communities with rail access.5

        This topic builds on previous interest and work completed as part of a Master’s thesis.6 That work focused on military volunteerism and generational participation rates during the Civil War in one specific county of eastern Tennessee. Census research, statistical analysis, and personal narratives of the soldiers are woven together to find the conclusion that soldiers serve because of their personal relationships. A father, brother, or cousin joined the cause and so they too took up their weapons against the rebellious South. Yet this question is eternal; why do soldiers fight in wars? There is no single answer to this question, rather each element discussed plays some part in the makeup of the reasoning behind each individuals desire to serve. It is important to identify specific contributing factors which can change from region to region and analyze them in comparison with each other to establish which may have been a more important factor to different individuals or within specific communities.

        In order to create the “heat map” described above other data sets are useful in creating some sort of foundation. The research will utilize some of the work of other historians such as Jeremy Atack, who has mastered the use of GIS with regard to historic train routes from the period surrounding the American Civil War in the Midwest.7 Ohio will be the primary focus, but comparisons with other States may be necessary as the work moves forward. Atack’s work revolved around how rail road access effected the growing number of established banks. He was able to extrapolate the effects on bank establishment in towns specifically where the rail system had a presence. The research sought in this project will rely on mapping of these train lines as a foundation on which to overlay the volunteer numbers. Research methods to establish volunteers and soldiers from different communities and counties will be challenging and may never be complete and whole.8 Local historical societies and the Ohio History Connection are both treasure troves with regard to these topics. Other resources are unique to specific counties, such as Licking county who’s library has dedicated an entire team to researching and recording every soldier who has ever fought who was from the county.9

        This aspect of military history is not often considered regardless of which war you are analyzing. Yet the strategy of how to bring soldiers into the military is just as important as how to deploy them once they are signed up. Researching Ohio regiments and the soldiers origins is a daunting task, but the comprehensive research of counties being utilized for a comparison; urban to rural, rail connected to isolated, would prove valuable for a number of different topics moving forward.10 I believe newspapers would also be a valuable resource as many papers shared death notices which included biographical information which will be vital.11 Census records will be heavily relied upon for this research as soldiers will need to be traced to their communities at times.

        Geographic Information Systems will be useful as these materials are collected to paint the picture more broadly over the entire state of Ohio and create valuable information from which to draw comparisons. The goal of this research is to establish a connection between transportation access and military participation. Will the connection be plainly visible on the map created? Will outlying data bring more questions to light about what motivated Ohio soldiers during the Civil War? The answers to these questions and many others lies beyond a mountain of research and discovery.

1         Edwin A. Pratt, The Rise of Rail-Power in War and Conquest, 1833-1914 (London, P.S. King & Son, LTD., Orchard House Westminster, 1915) 14.

2         Eva Swantner, “Military Railroads during the Civil War,” The Military Engineer 21, no. 120 (1929): 518– 26, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44576649.

3        R.R. Russel, “A Revaluation of the Period Before the Civil War,” The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Dec., 1928): 341-354, https://www.jstor.org/stable/1892434.

4        The National Tribune Scrap Book; Stories of the Camp, March, Battle, Hospital and Prison Told by Comrades, Washington, D.C., The National tribune, 1909, http://archive.org/details/ nationaltribunes00wash.

5        Charles Henry Ambler, A History of Transportation in the Ohio Valley, with Special Reference to Its Waterways, Trade, and Commerce from the Earliest Period to the Present Time (Glendale, CA: The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1932), 185-210.

6        Amber Keener, The Prominence of Emotion over Economic, Social, and Educational Factors, as it directly Contributed to the Volunteerism Observed within the Upper Cumberland Plateau Region: Civil War to the World Wars, Liberty University, HIST 601, October 2018.

7        Jeremy Atack, Matthew Jaremski, and Peter L. Rousseau, “American Banking and the Transportation Revolution before the Civil War,” The Journal of Economic History 74, no. 4 (2014): 943–86, http://www.jstor.org/ stable/24550690.

8        Ohio, Official Roster of the Soldiers of the State of Ohio in the War of the Rebellion, 1861-1866, (Akron, OH): Werner Co., 1895.

9        Veterans Project, “Licking County Veteran History,” https://www.lickingcountylibrary.org/services- research/veterans-project/.

10        “Company H, 2nd Ohio Volunteer Cavalry Regiment Muster-out Rolls - Ohio History Connection Selections -.”. https://ohiomemory.org/digital/ collection/p267401coll32/id/23627/.

11        “Hero of Many Battles,” The Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati, Ohio 21 Dec 1912, Page 3.