BGuthrie Photos: MD -- Baltimore -- B&O Railroad Museum -- Exhibition Gallery -- Civil War 1863

MD -- Baltimore -- B&O Railroad Museum -- Exhibition Gallery -- Civil War 1863:

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Description of Pictures: The Annex Gallery: An exhibition space that will change annually to correspond with a war year (i.e. 2011 will focus on 1861). The exhibits feature significant artifacts from the Smithsonian’s collection, the museum’s collection, and the collections of other institutions and private collectors in the region. Many of these artifacts are on public exhibit for the first time.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. BORRXC_140309_004.JPG: The War Came by Train Celebrating the 150th Anniversary of the Civil War
2. BORRXC_140309_007.JPG: The War Came By Train: US & MD Maps, 1861 The United States in 1861 Number of states: 34 Population: 31,444,000 27,940,000 Free and 3,500,000 Slave * Largest City: New York Population 815,000 Number of railroads: 355 Total rail miles: 30,600 * Figures rounded from 1860 Census The State of Maryland in 1861 Number of Counties: 21 Population: 687,000 84,000 Free Black, 87,000 Slave * Largest City: Baltimore Population: 212,000 Number of railroads: 8 Total rail miles: 800 Baltimore & Ohio rail miles: 514 * Figures rounded from 1860 Census
3. BORRXC_140309_011.JPG: The United States in 1861 Number of states: 34 Population: 31,444,000 27,940,000 Free and 3,500,000 Slave * Largest City: New York Population 815,000 Number of railroads: 355 Total rail miles: 30,600 * Figures rounded from 1860 Census
4. BORRXC_140309_017.JPG: The State of Maryland in 1861 Number of Counties: 21 Population: 687,000 84,000 Free Black, 87,000 Slave * Largest City: Baltimore Population: 212,000 Number of railroads: 8 Total rail miles: 800 Baltimore & Ohio rail miles: 514 * Figures rounded from 1860 Census
5. BORRXC_140309_018.JPG: The War Came By Train: Railroading in the 1860s The American Civil War broke out slightly more than 30 years after the B&O Railroad laid tracks for the first long distance railroad in the Western Hemisphere on this site. By 1861 railroad technology had gained the momentum and maturity to become a strategic military asset for the opposing forces North and South. While a few troops from Eastern states were taken off to battlefields during the Mexican War 1846-1848, the real test of the railroad as a strategic transportation technology would come with the opening guns of the American Civil War. Surviving artifacts and objects from railroading in the Civil War are an extreme rarity. In this exhibition are presented a selection of objects of every day use that played an important role in the war effort.
6. BORRXC_140309_021.JPG: The War Came By Train: Railroading in the 1860s The American Civil War broke out slightly more than 30 years after the B&O Railroad laid tracks for the first long distance railroad in the Western Hemisphere on this site. By 1861 railroad technology had gained the momentum and maturity to become a strategic military asset for the opposing forces North and South. While a few troops from Eastern states were taken off to battlefields during the Mexican War 1846-1848, the real test of the railroad as a strategic transportation technology would come with the opening guns of the American Civil War. Surviving artifacts and objects from railroading in the Civil War are an extreme rarity. In this exhibition are presented a selection of objects of every day use that played an important role in the war effort.
7. BORRXC_140309_025.JPG: Carpet Bag Embroidered Carpet, Leather, and Steel, c 1860-1865 A popular method of carrying personal items during the 1800s, the Carpet Bag was literally made from patterned rug material. This bag has the remains of two labels on its leather base. Express Grand Haven, can be identified on one label. The other states: Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Baggage Room Arrived 10:00 am train Washington April 4 1865 This carpet bag is known to have arrived in Washington DC on the day that President Abraham Lincoln walked into Richmond, Virginia, following its capture the previous day. Eleven days later at 7:22am the President died of an assassin's bullet.
8. BORRXC_140309_032.JPG: Ticket Cabinet Yellow pine, iron hinges, c 1862: This ticket cabinet hung in the B&O Railroad Hotel and Station during the Civil War. The station and hotel were built by the railroad in 1848 and witnessed the attack and burning of the B&O's shops (across the tracks) by Confederate General "Stonewall" Jackson in 1861. There are 128 ticket slots each with a small destination label. The label on the inside of the door reads in part "Office of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Baltimore, April 5th 1862. Regulations for the Government and Local Agents in the Selling of Tickets."
9. BORRXC_140309_035.JPG: Keys and Plaque Iron, brass, wood and paper, c 1857 The keys to the vault in the Treasurer's Office of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad at Camden Station, Baltimore. Constructed in 1856-57, Camden Station was the B&O Railroad Company's largest passenger and freight station. During the Civil War the station served as the offices for the President and other administrative officials of the company. These keys were saved when a small original wing of the station containing the company's vault was razed in 1896.
10. BORRXC_140309_046.JPG: Railroad Spikes Iron, c 1859 and Iron, c 2005 Recovered from the Greenspring Branch of the Western Maryland Railroad in Baltimore County, Maryland, this Civil War iron railroad spike is compared to its larger and heavier modern ancestor. The general design of railroad spikes has not changed in nearly 160 years. The Greenspring Branch of the Western Maryland Railroad carried more than 30,000 killed and wounded Union and Confederate soldiers to hospitals and cemeteries in Baltimore following the Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863. The body of Confederate General Lewis A. Armistead, mortally wounded leading his brigade in "Pickett's Charge," was carried across this line for burial in St. Paul's Cemetery in Baltimore.
11. BORRXC_140309_052.JPG: Time and Account Book Paper, c 1862-1863 This small pocket notebook belonged to John M. Harmon, supervisor of the Sixth Division, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. In it Harmon records daily track maintenance, wages paid to laborers, damaged locomotives and cars and events such as "... the trestle work over the Opequon Bridge was burnt on 26th May 1862." John M. Harmon lived in Martinsburg, Virginia. He went to work for the company in 1837 and helped build the railway from Harper's Ferry to Wheeling, Virginia.
12. BORRXC_140309_055.JPG: Track Iron and steel, 1858 and 1980 Cross section examples of Civil War period iron railroad track (left) and modern day steel track (right). The Civil War example was taken from section of trail excavated east of Harper's Ferry. It is one of several types of iron rail in use by the B&O Railroad. This type was known as "Pear Rail" because of its cross section shape. Note the wear on the outside edge from the flanged wheels on locomotives and railroad cars. Modern day rail is manufactured larger to accommodate much heavier locomotives and cars.
13. BORRXC_140309_061.JPG: Conductor's Badge Silver, 1858-60 From the earliest days of railroading the conductor held the highest position of authority on a train. During the Civil War railroad conductors and other train crew members did not wear uniforms but were given badges as a symbol of their authority. This silver conductor's badge was made just prior to the Civil War and is the earliest known example.
14. BORRXC_140309_070.JPG: Car-Coupler Link Iron, c 1830-1893 The Car-Coupler is a metal link that was used as part of a link-and-pin system to connect railroad cars together. This link was excavated along the B&O's main line near Harper's Ferry. The heavy metal link would be held in place as two cars are pushed together. The link slips into a metal tube built into the frame of the individual cars. Once the cars are close enough together a workman would drop a heavy metal pin through a hole in each of the metal tubes, which in turn, passes through the metal link, securing the cars together. This method of linking cars was extremely danger and represented one of the most hazardous operations on the railroad. In 1868 Major Eli Janney, a Confederate veteran, patented the automatic coupler, which along with the automatic air brake, patented a year later by George Westinghouse, represented two of the most important technology advances in railroading. Whilst the introduction of these two components improved railroad safety significantly, it was not until federal regulations were introduced in 1893 that they had widespread use.
15. BORRXC_140309_083.JPG: Civil War Newspapers Paper, ink, 1861-1865 Across the Union and Confederate States both small towns and large cities boasted several newspapers, some published daily, and others weekly. They were the only source of information to a hungry war-torn people. Soldiers in the field relished the delivery of a newspaper to camp even if it was weeks late in arriving. Many fo the larger papers employed correspondents that followed the armies reporting their observations back by telegraph or hand written letter. Just as today advertisements from merchants, importers, railroads, shippers, undertakers and all manner of businesses paid for the publication and distribution of the newspapers.
16. BORRXC_140309_087.JPG: The War Came By Train: Attack & Defense One of the the most dramatic new technologies associated with the railroad during the Civil War was rail-mounted artillery and armored boxcars. May of these advancements were closely related to the state of Maryland and the B&O Railroad. The first train in history designed for a combat operation was on the Annapolis & Elk Ridge Railroad in May of 1861. Following the Pratt Street Riot in Baltimore, The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad built the first armored railcar to protect its construction crews. Following the historic clash between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (Merrimack), naval design and terminology were tranformed [sic] from ship to railcar development. Ironclads could be found on land and water. Long a target of both armies, this provided the railroads with an opportunity for both attack and defense.
17. BORRXC_140309_090.JPG: The War Came By Train: Attack & Defense One of the the most dramatic new technologies associated with the railroad during the Civil War was rail-mounted artillery and armored boxcars. May of these advancements were closely related to the state of Maryland and the B&O Railroad. The first train in history designed for a combat operation was on the Annapolis & Elk Ridge Railroad in May of 1861. Following the Pratt Street Riot in Baltimore, The Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad built the first armored railcar to protect its construction crews. Following the historic clash between the USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (Merrimack), naval design and terminology were tranformed [sic] from ship to railcar development. Ironclads could be found on land and water. Long a target of both armies, this provided the railroads with an opportunity for both attack and defense.
18. BORRXC_140309_093.JPG: John M. Brooke
19. BORRXC_140309_107.JPG: John M. Brooke resigned his commission in the United States Navy to serve the Confederacy. An expert on the development of heavy naval artillery, he designed the Brooke rifled cannon. Brooke was also responsible for raising the sunken USS Merrimack and converting it into the South's first ironclad warship, the CSS Virginia. Both of these achievements would lead to the first armored railcar of the Confederacy.
20. BORRXC_140309_111.JPG: The CSS Virginia
21. BORRXC_140309_115.JPG: General Benjamin F. Butler arranged the first train in military history to carry infantry and artillery for a combat operation. After occupying Annapolis, Maryland, in April 1861, he set about to reopen the Annapolis & Elk Ridge Railroad between that city and the Washington Branch of the B&O Railroad. In order to protect his advancing infantry and drive off the pro-Southern militia men that were destroying the tracks, he took position [sic -- should be "possession"] of a locomotive and several railcars found at the Annapolis depot. Butler arranged the train in the following order. The first flatcar contained a small cannon and a gun crew. A second flatcar carried infantrymen and additional ammunition. Then came the locomotive and tender followed by two passenger cars filled with troops. Next came another flat car arranged as a mobile aid station and another flat car carrying a second cannon.
22. BORRXC_140309_121.JPG: General Benjamin F. Butler
23. BORRXC_140309_124.JPG: During the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, the Confederate Army built an armored cannon car that represented a section of the famous CSS Virginia (Merrimack). It carried a 32-lb. Brooke naval cannon that was served by a gun crew that fought in the famous engagement between the Monitor and the Merrimack. Thus the title "Railroad Merrimack." Sometime later in the war, the Union Army captured the Confederate armored car and renamed it the Land Gunboat. In the photograph above, Union soldiers pose with this formidable piece of railroad equipment.
24. BORRXC_140309_131.JPG: Railroad "Merrimack" Car 1:48 scale model
25. BORRXC_140309_136.JPG: Iron boxcar built at Mount Clare in 1863. During the battle of Antietam, the Union army was running low on ammunition. General McClellan requested an emergency resupply for his long-range cannons. Four iron boxcars like this one were loaded with artillery shells and shipped via the Cumberland Valley Railroad to Hagerstown, Maryland. The tracks were cleared and the special four-car train raced down the line at sixty miles per hour!
26. BORRXC_140309_147.JPG: Acting on the suggestion of Lt. John R. Meigs, B&O President Garrett ordered his Master of Machinery Thatcher Perkins to immediately begin the construction of five armored artillery cars and five armored infantry cars. Work began at the Mount Clare Shops (left) on Sunday, June 28, 1863. In only six days, all five artillery cars had been completed. They consisted of flatcars with plates of iron "T" rails placed at a 45 degree angle to form a protective casemate similar to that of a war ship. At one end was a port hole through which the cannon was fired. Loopholes ran the length of the cars so that infantry assigned to protect the gun crews could fire their weapons. The infantry cars were completed a week later.
27. BORRXC_140309_151.JPG: B&O Railroad Armored Car 1:48 scale model
28. BORRXC_140309_155.JPG: Infantry Car 1:48 scale model
29. BORRXC_140309_166.JPG: "The Philadelphia Fort on Wheels": The first armored railcar was built by the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad. Designed by Rufus A. Wilder and built at the Baldwin Locomotive works in Philadelphia, it was called "The Philadelphia Fort on Wheels" by the local press. The car was covered with half-inch boilerplate to make it immune to rifle fire. At one end, a 9-lb. Howitzer was mounted on an adjustable carriage that allowed it to fire in three directions. The rest of the car was lined with 50 loopholes for infantrymen to fire their muskets through.
30. BORRXC_140309_172.JPG: Only known photograph of "The Philadelphia Fort on Wheels" actually guarding the repair crew on the PW&B Railroad.
31. BORRXC_140309_176.JPG: During the siege of Petersburg in 1864, the Union Army mounted one of its largest weapons on a flatcar as seen in the image above. This 13-inch mortar weighed 17,000 pounds and could fire a 200-pound shell nearly two miles. Known as the "Dictator", its destructive power and fear factor were unequaled.
32. BORRXC_140309_182.JPG: Mortar Car 1:32 scale model
33. BORRXC_140309_188.JPG: John Rodgers Meigs
34. BORRXC_140309_190.JPG: John Meigs was the son of General Montgomery Meigs, the Quartermaster of the Union Army and named for his uncle, Captain John Rogers [actually, "Rodgers"] of the United States Navy. A graduate of the United States Military Academy Class of 1863, he was assigned as engineering officer to the Defenses of Baltimore. During the Gettysburg Campaign he suggested to the Department Commander of Maryland, General Robert C. Schenck, that the B&O Railroad build specially designed armored cars to be used to defend the railroad from attack by the Confederate Army. Imbued with the fact that his uncle commanded one of the revolutionary new ironclad warships, he named his "monitor cars" the same way the Navy christened its vessels. In this case, he used the Union victories of Port Royal, Antietam and the very recent Gettysburg and Vicksburg. On July 6, 1863, Meigs put his cannon cars into action for the first time by supplying fire support for the attack that forced Confederate infantry off Maryland Heights and opened the way for the reoccupation of Harpers Ferry. He was later transferred to Sheridan's Army in the Shenandoah Valley and fought with distinction until his death on October 3, 1864 near Harrisonburg, Virginia. His "monitor cars" remained in service until the end of the war. John Rodgers Meigs From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia John Rodgers Meigs (February 9, 1842 – October 3, 1864) was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. He was the son of Brigadier General Montgomery C. Meigs, the Quartermaster General of the United States Army. He participated in the First Battle of Bull Run, and later testified in the court-martial trial of an officer involved in the retreat from the battle. He attended the United States Military Academy, where he was an acting assistant professor of mathematics and graduated first in his class in June 1863. He was lauded by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton for strengthening the defenses of Baltimore, Maryland; was an engineer and acting aide-de-camp on the staff of Brigadier General (Volunteers) William W. Averell; was Chief Engineer of the Shenandoah Valley for the Department of West Virginia; and was Chief Engineer of the Middle Military Division and aide-de-camp to General Phillip Sheridan. The circumstances under which Meigs died led to the burning of Dayton, Virginia, in retaliation. His funeral was a public event attended by President Abraham Lincoln, Stanton, and numerous government dignitaries. A book of Meigs' letters were published in 2006 under the title A Civil War Soldier of Christ and Country: The Selected Correspondence of John Rodgers Meigs, 1859-64.
35. BORRXC_140309_194.JPG: The War Came By Train: Jones-Imboden Raid: In 1863, General Robert E. Lee approved the plans for largest operation against the B&O Railroad of the Civil War. Known as the Jones-Imboden Raid, it was specially designed to destroy the B&O between Oakland, Maryland, and Parkersburg, West Virginia, a distance of 162 rail miles that included numerous bridges, tunnels, and train stations. The leader of this expedition was General William E. "Grumble" Jones. The two-pronged attack began on April 20. Jones' number one objective was the bridges at Rowlesburg. His attack force consisted of 2,500 mounted troops and a mule train carrying explosives to destroy the bridges. Defending Rowlesburg were 250 men of the Sixth West Virginia Infantry commanded by Major John Showalter and about 100 civilian volunteers who were residents of the town. Despite the advantage in numbers, Jones was unable to capture the town due to a lack of artillery. He then moved west towards Morgantown, destroying the railroad along the way. At the same time Jones moved against Rowlesburg, General Imboden led the 3,300 men of his Northwest Brigade out of the Shenandoah Valley via the Staunton-Parkersburg Turnpike and captured Beverly, West Virginia, on April 24. Jones' appearance at Morgantown caused a large number of Union troops to be transferred from Harpers Ferry in order the defend the important rail center at Grafton. Jones' next attack came north of Grafton at Fairmont, West Virginia, on April 29, where he destroyed the Fairmont Bridge over the Monongahela River. It consisted of three 205-foot spans and was the largest iron bridge on the main line at the time. The commands of Jones and Imboden were united on May 2 near Weston. Before returning to the Shenandoah Valley, Jones attacked and destroyed the bridges and tunnels on the line that ran from Grafton to Parkersburg on the Ohio River. The raid ended in spectacular fashion when Jones attacked the oil field at Burning Springs near Parkersburg. Close to one hundred steam-operated oil wells and all means of storage and transportation along with 20,000 barrels of oil were destroyed in a series of fiery explosions. As a result of the raid, 26 bridges were damaged or destroyed as well as miles of track, locomotives and rolling stock. That service was severely disrupted cannot be denied, but by this stage of the war, the B&O had perfected the art of reconstruction and the damage to the main line was repaired before the raiders had returned to their starting points.
36. BORRXC_140309_197.JPG: The Fairmont Bridge
37. BORRXC_140309_201.JPG: The War Came By Train: Cavaliers: Within months of the opening guns of the Civil War, small bands of Confederate cavalrymen organized themselves into swift, efficient and nimble units who were able to annoy and frustrate the Union Army with great success. These Partisan Rangers, as they were called, performed sudden dashes on the rear and flanks of the Union armies, night attacks on trains and railroad lines and successfully kept Union outposts and railroad guards continually on the alert. They constantly disrupted telegraph communications, tore up railroad tracks and captured supplies from army wagons and trains delivering substantial tactical advantages to their commanders as well as much needed sustenance to the Confederate Army. Far from being guerrillas or bushwackers, these bands of cavaliers were populated by some of the South's leading families. The names of John S. Mosby, John McNeill and Harry Gilmor would draw fame in the South and orders for capture of death at any cost from the North. Between these three commanders and their Partisan Rangers, more raids and destruction were levied on the B&O Railroad than by any other Union [presumably they meant "Confederate"] force. Born to a prominent family in Snow Hill, Maryland in 1841 Purnell left Princeton University in his senior year to join the Confederate Cavalry. An accomplished cavalryman he enlisted as a private in Davis's Battalion, Maryland Cavalry also serving in the 1st Maryland Cavalry [CSA] before being promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in Harry Gilmor's Battalion of Partisan Rangers it was organized in September 1863. While in Gilmor's command, Purnell performed operations against the B&O Railroad and the Union Army in Western Maryland and West Virginia. In June 1864, while engaged in an attempt to stop the Union Army advance deep into the Shenandoah Valley, 2nd Lieutenant Purnell was captured along with mroe than 1,000 other Confederate soldiers and officers. He was sent to Johnson's Island Prison in Ohio where he remained for the duration of the War. After Lee's surrender, Purnell refused to sign the Oath of Allegiance to the United States and, thus, did not obtain his release until late June 1865. Returning home he obtained a degree in law at the University of Virginia and practiced on Maryland's Eastern Shore until his death of kidney disease at age 58.
38. BORRXC_140309_206.JPG: Colt Model 1851 .36 Caliber Revolver Iron, brass and walnut, c. 1857 Colt revolver carried by 2nd Lieutenant George Washington Purnell, CSA
39. BORRXC_140309_208.JPG: Southern Cross of Honor Bronze, c 1898 Presented to George Washington Purnell by the United Daughters of the Confederacy. These medals were given to Confederate veterans who had provided "loyal, honorable service to the South and given in recognition of this devotion."
40. BORRXC_140309_214.JPG: Purnell wrote to his sister from prison commenting on Lincoln's assassination: Johnson's Island April 16, 1865 My Dear J. Your very kind letter was received this morning. We received yesterday the news of the assassination of President Lincoln. I am a soldier but no[t] an assassin nor have I any sympathy for an assassin, and I feel certain the act was not authorized by the Confed. Gov... Your affect. cousin, G.W. Purnell
41. BORRXC_140309_218.JPG: The War Came By Train: William Prescott Smith: Next to John Work Garrett, the second most important person to work for the B&O Railroad during the Civil War was William Prescott Smith. Smith began his employment with the railroad in 1850 as assistant to the Master of Transportation. In 1859, he was sent to Harpers Ferry to coordinate the movement of troops by regular and special trains during the crisis known as John Brown's Raid. It was Smith who received the first notice of Brown's attack and the mortal wounding of B&O employee Heyward Shepard. The following year he was promoted to Master of Transportation. During the Civil War, Smith was associated with every major troop movement that involved the B&O Railroad. In 1863, he traveled with President Garrett to Washington, to help plan and then manage the transfer of two army corps from Virginia to Tennessee. In the Fall of that year, he personally made the arrangements for President Lincoln to travel from Washington to Gettysburg where he delivered his now famous "Gettysburg Address." During the battle of Monocacy in 1864, Smith supervised the unloading of Union soldiers at Locust Point and their rapid delivery by train to the battlefront near Frederick, Maryland. During the following winter, the Twenty-third Army Corps was transferred from Tennessee to the Army of the Potomac in Virginia. Twenty thousand men passed along the main line of the B&O during the frigid months of January and February 1865. Smith and the B&O received high praise from the Army's Chief of Rail and River Transportation for their tireless efforts to move the men as quickly and safely as possible. This was followed by an offer from the head of the United States Military Railroad for Smith to be appointed General Superintendent of Government Railroad in Mississippi with a salary of $4,500 per year. This was ten times what a private in the Union Army made at that time. Smith declined to remain with the Baltimore & Ohio. In 1865, Smith resigned his position with the B&O having received an appointment from President Andrew Johnson as a commissioner to inspect the Transcontinental Railroad. In 1868, he resigned his commission to become the general manager of the New York & Washington Airline Railroad. On September 1, 1872, the board of directors voted unanimously to recall him to his old position with the B&O. Shortly after assuming the duties of Master of Transportation, Smith fell ill and died on October 1, 1872. He is buried in Baltimore's famous Greenmount Cemetery. In 1876, a statue of his likeness with briefcase in hand was placed over his grave. It is unlikely than any finer team of railroad men ever existed than John Work Garrett and William Prescott Smith.
42. BORRXC_140309_222.JPG: West Virginia entered the Union on June 20, 1863 It consisted of 50 counties and contained approximately 75% of the B&O's track miles and equipment.
43. BORRXC_140309_225.JPG: Long before the Civil War, there were two Virginias. Those who lived in the Tidewater and Piedmont regions controlled the state's government and supported slavery and secession. Those who lived west of the Allegheny Mountains worked with free labor in the mining and lumber businesses and utilized the B&O Railroad to trade with the North and West. They, for the most part, were loyal to the Union. Once Virginia passed an Ordinance of Secession, these people immediately began to work towards the creation of a new state. A major hurdle in establishing statehood was an article in the Constitution that required the state government and not Congress to approve the creation of a new state from territory within its borders. This, obviously, the Pro-Confederate government in Richmond would never do. Their solution was to declare the Richmond government null and void and appoint a new governor who would support the Union and approve the western counties' application for statehood. On June 19, 1861, at a convention held in Wheeling, Francis Harrison Pierpont of Monongalia County was elected the Loyal Governor of Virginia and established a new state capital in the federal occupied city of Alexandria, Virginia. The application for statehood took two years to complete. Finally, on January 31, 1862, President signed the bill admitting the state of West Virginia into the Union on June 20, 1863. On May 28, Arthur Ingraham Boreman of Wood County was elected the first Governor of the new state of West Virginia. He served until 1868. The following year he was elected to the US Senate. Boreman died in Parkersburg on April 19, 1896.
44. BORRXC_140309_227.JPG: Camden Station
45. BORRXC_140309_230.JPG: 35 Star United States Flag, Camden Stati8on This large Union flag measuring 11' x 7' was raised over the B&O Railroad's Camden Station in Baltimore after July 4, 1863 when Congress authorized the addition of one new star to the field commemorating the addition of West Virginia as the nation's 35th state. This flag would have flown over the B&O Railroad's principal depot when President Abraham Lincoln traveled to the station on three separate occasions after the adoption of this flag, including his funeral train on April 21, 1865. The unfurled flag (see photograph) reveals a decorative pattern in the blue field with the stars arranged in concentric circles and one in each corner along with the authorized 13 red and white stripes. This flag was replaced after Nevada became the nation's 36th state on July 4, 1865.
46. BORRXC_140309_236.JPG: Grafton, West Virginia This rare and highly detailed photograph shows a side view of the B&O station and hotel at Grafton. Located 280 miles west of Baltimore, it was the point at which the Northwestern Virginia Railroad met the main line of the B&O. Poised in front of the station are four locomotives with their engineers proudly standing by their cabs.
47. BORRXC_140309_241.JPG: The Great Seal of West Virginia Adopted by the legislature in 1863, the obverse and reverse were designed by artist Joseph H. Diss Debar. Depicted on the obverse or front of the seal is a boulder inscribed June 20, 1863, the date West Virginia became a state. In front of the boulder lie two crossed rifles and a liberty cap reflecting on the state's fight for liberty. The two men on either side of the boulder represent agriculture and industry. On the left stands a farmer with an ax and plow before a cornstalk. On the other side stands a miner with a pickax, and behind him an anvil and sledge hammer. The outer ring contains the text "State of West Virginia" and the state's motto "Montani Semper Liberi," the Latin phrase for "Mountaineers are Always Free." The reverse of back of the seal is encircled by a wreath of laurel and oak leaves. A wooded mountain is on the left and a slope with a log farmhouse on the right. On the side of the mountain is a representation of the B&O Railroad's Tray Run Viaduct, an engineering feat of its day, with a train passing over the viaduct. A factory, fronted by a river with boats, a derrick and a shed, and a meadow with sheep and cattle grazing indicate the leading characteristics and products of the state. The sun emerges from the clouds and the rays of the sun contain the Latin phrase "Libertas E Fidelitate", which means "Freedom and Loyalty." The reverse of the seal is the official seal of the Governor of West Virginia.
48. BORRXC_140309_246.JPG: Book, Loyal West Virginia: Published in 1895, this book contains a history of the Civil War in West Virginia and its pathway to statehood as well as the service record of each of the state's batteries and regiments.
49. BORRXC_140309_256.JPG: The Battle of Philippi: The Battle of Philippi took place on June 3, 1861. It was the first Union victory of the war. With only a dozen total casualties, it would not qualify as a good size skirmish as the war grew more brutal. However, the time and place were critical. It led to a series of defeats for the Southern forces that secured the B&O Railroad and the future state of West Virginia for the Union. Although not present, General George B McClellan was given credit for the victory as overall commander. It was his first step on the road to becoming commander of the Army of the Potomac.
50. BORRXC_140309_257.JPG: Benjamin F. Kelley: One of the first heroes for the Union in West Virginia was Benjamin Franklin Kelley. Before the war, Kelley was an officer in the Virginia State Militia and a freight agent for the B&O Railroad. He was appointed Colonel of the First Virginia (Union) Infantry in May of 1861. It was Kelley who planned the battle of Philippi and led the flank attack. Near the end of the fighting he was severely wounded in the right breast. Upon his recovery he was promoted to brigadier general and given command of the Railroad Division. He spent the entire war guarding the B&O Railroad between Cumberland, Maryland and the Ohio River. In August of 1864, he was awarded the rank of brevet major general. Kelley died a this home in Oakland, Maryland on July 16, 1891, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
51. BORRXC_140309_266.JPG: Over the Rails to the Battle Front: In the early Fall of 1863 some 20,000 Union soldiers of the Army of the Potomac were brilliantly transported more than 1,200 miles over 8 different railroads in only 9 days. This was the largest movement of troops and war material that the World had ever witnessed. One of the most important campaigns of the War was raging in the West in and around Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the Confederate high command was desperately trying to prevent Union forces from taking the critical City of Atlanta, Georgia. Union General William S. Rosecrans and his Army of the Cumberland were pitted against Confederate General Braxton Bragg and his Army of Tennessee. Confederate reinforcements, brought across the ailing southern railroads, tipped the balance of power against Union forces, causing a critical defeat for the North at Chickamauga, Georgia. Once this news reached Washington DC, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton called an emergency meeting on September 23, 1863, with President Lincoln, General in Chief Henry Halleck, Secretary of State William H. Seward and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase. In a bold and, heretofore, never attempted move Stanton announced his intention to transfer some 20,000 troops and equipment of the Army of the Potomac from Virginia to the battlefield near Chattanooga, Tennessee, by railroad in a matter of days. In the middle of the night Stanton summoned the top executives of his largest railroads in Washington. Around Noon on September 24, President John Work Garrett and Master of Transportation William Prescott Smith of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Vice President Thomas Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad, Samuel Felton, President of the Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad, and Colonel Daniel McCallum, Chief of the US Military Railroad, were in Stanton's office working on the plan. The troops selected for transfer were the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps of the Army of the Potomac along with their artillery battalions, horses, and equipment. Major General Joseph Hooker would have command of the movement, but the railroad officials would maintain complete control of the trains and their railroads. On September 25, 1863, troops in Virginia began boarding the staged trains and made their way to Washington via the US Military Railroad system. From Washington, DC, the B&O took the troops to Benwood near Wheeling, West Virginia, where they traversed the Ohio River on a pontoon bridge made of barges. The Central Ohio Railroad awaited their arrival and transported them to Jeffersonville, Indiana, where they, once again, crossed the Ohio River to Louisville, Kentucky. From Louisville they made their way to Nashville, Tennessee via the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. Locomotives from the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad then pulled the trains on to Bridgeport, Alabama. The lead elements arrived on September 30, just 5 days after their departure from Virginia. From Bridgeport, the troops marched to Tennessee and participated int he battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge which resulted in the defeat of General Bragg and the lifting of the siege of Chattanooga.
Wikipedia Description: B&O Railroad Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The B&O Railroad Museum is a museum exhibiting historic railroad equipment in Baltimore, Maryland, originally named the Baltimore & Ohio Transportation Museum when it opened on July 4, 1953. It has been called one of the most significant collections of railroad treasures in the world and has the largest collection of 19th-century locomotives in the U.S. The museum is located in the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad's old Mount Clare Station and adjacent roundhouse, part of the B&O's sprawling Mount Clare Shops site begun in 1829, the oldest railroad manufacturing complex in the United States.

Mount Clare is considered to be a birthplace of American railroading, as the site of the first regular railroad passenger service in the U.S., beginning on May 22, 1830. It was also to this site that the first telegraph message, "What hath God wrought[disambiguation needed]?" was sent on May 24, 1844, from Washington, D.C., using Samuel F. B. Morse's invention.

The museum houses collections of 19th- and 20th-century artifacts related to America's railroads. The collection includes 250 pieces of railroad rolling stock, 15,000 artifacts, 5,000 cubic feet (140 m3) of archival material, four significant 19th-century buildings, including the historic roundhouse, and a mile of track, considered the most historic mile of railroad track in the United States. Train rides are offered on the mile of track on Wednesday through Sunday from April through December and weekends in January. In 2002, the museum had 160,000 visitors annually.

The museum also features an outdoor G-scale layout, an indoor HO scale model, and a wooden model train that children will enjoy climbing on. From Thanksgiving through the New Year, local model railroad groups set up large layouts on the roundhouse floor and in select locations on the grounds of the museum. A museum store offers toys, books, DVDs and other railroad-related items.

The museum and station were designated as a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1961. In 2008, the Museum won three awards in Nickelodeon's Parents' Picks Awards in the categories of: Best Museum for Little Kids, Best Indoor Playspace for Little Kids, and Best Indoor Playspace for Big Kids. Television and film actor Michael Gross is the museum's "celebrity spokesman".

History:

The inaugural horse-drawn B&O train travelled the 13 miles (21 km) of the newly completed track from Mount Clare to Ellicott Mills (now Ellicott City, Maryland), on May 22, 1830, the first regular railroad passenger service in the U.S. The existing Mount Clare station brick structure was constructed in 1851. The adjacent roundhouse designed by Ephraim Francis Baldwin was built in 1884 to service the B&O's passenger cars.

For much of its history, the B&O had been collecting locomotives and other artifacts from its history for public relations purposes. This collection was stored in various places, until the railroad decided to centralize it in a permanent home. The car shop of the Mt. Clare Shops was chosen, and the new museum opened on July 4, 1953.

The museum ended up outliving its parent B&O Railroad, and was kept intact by both the Chessie System and CSX Transportation. In 1990, CSX deeded the property and collection to the newly formed, not-for-profit museum organization. In 1999, the museum became affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution.

In the early morning of February 17, 2003, heavy snow from the Presidents' Day Storm collapsed half of the roof of the museum's roundhouse. Although the structure's central support columns remained standing, the supporting iron struts and ties of the destroyed roofing sections failed under the snow load. The museum suffered heavy damage not only to the roundhouse itself but also to the collection within the roundhouse. Some of the items were damaged beyond repair. Reporting on the devastation the following day, The Baltimore Sun said, "...hours after the collapse, columns of mangled steel stuck out from the roundhouse ... Locomotives and passenger cars in the museum's collection, some dating from the 1830s, could be seen covered with snow and debris." The roundhouse, with a newly repaired roof, reopened to the public on November 13, 2004. Repairs are ongoing to the damaged exhibits.

Within the roundhouse three locomotives (including the Thatcher Perkins) that were damaged by the roof collapse remain on display, albeit behind protective glass. The roof collapse, subsequent fund raising and the restoration allowed the museum to upgrade many of its facilities. In 2005 the museum opened a new service facility west of the roundhouse for restoration of historical equipment and maintenance of active equipment.
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