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Chattanooga's Railroads
Strategically Important
Battles were fought in and around Chattanooga primarily for control of the railroad network. By 1861, the city had become one of the South's most important rail hubs. The lines that crossed here connected the Atlantic Ocean to the Tennessee River and Middle Tennessee and the Mississippi River to East Tennessee and Virginia. To support these railroads, Chattanooga entrepreneur Robert Cravens built the East Tennessee Iron Manufacturing Company two blocks south of here to make "chilled railroad car wheels of the very best quality and freight cars of any description."
Confederate forces controlled the city's vital railroads until November 1863, when the Union army occupied Chattanooga. The Federals renovated and expanded the network of tracks and sidings south of town in this area. From here, General William T. Sherman gathered the supplies for his summer 1864 drive to capture Atlanta.
The most famous incident concerning the rail network was the April 1862 raid led by James J. Andrews to destroy the line between Atlanta and Chattanooga. At Big Shanty (present-day Kennesaw), Georgia, the men stole The General, a Western and Atlantic locomotive, and raced north along the single-track line to destroy bridges and cut telegraph wires. Western and Atlantic employees pursued them with two locomotives, Yonah and Texas, disrupting the raiders' work and causing them to abandon The General near Ringgold, Georgia. Four of Andrews's Raiders, who were among the first to receive Medals of Honor, are buried at the Chattanooga National Cemetery. The State of Ohio added a memorial to the cemetery to honor the raiders in 1890. |