Your site is amazing and speaking as one who studies the Confederate supply system, it is an excellent resource to use.

What I was going to add were a couple Tennessee RR leaders that I did not see on the master list of superintendents but I do see them on the list of individual railroads. These were George Fleece of the Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville RR (which runs through the town where I live - Clarksville, TN) and Vernon K. Stevenson of the Nashville & Chattanooga RR. If you wish to add to the Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville RR section, when Clarksville fell on February 18, 1862, the bridge over the Cumberland River was set on fire by retreating Confederates but this was put out by US Navy personnel. It was wooden swing bridge (now a steel swing bridge on the same piers). The bridge over the Tennessee River was also a wooden swing bridge.

From your list of places who made locomotives I know a foundry in Nashville made them before the Civil War but stopped as their per unit cost was much higher than those produced in New Jersey et al. I also have a period newspaper notice for one locomotive made in Macon, GA during the war at the foundry there. When I find those I will be happy to let you know about them.

I will also check my RR files and see if I have anything that may be of use to you. The two local Clarksville newspapers of the time also reported a good bit on the MC & L RR and I have some of that stuff that I can send you including an add for trains and their times of departure. I noticed that you used the Richmond newspapers a lot for this. I also have travel passes from the MC & L taken from their file in the Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens & Business which is found at the National Archives. Many of these are signed by William A. Quarles, who worked with the MC & L before the war but was the colonel of the 42nd Tennessee Infantry before becoming a brigadier general. He commanded the post of Clarksville for a time in 1861. These passes came from their file in the Citizens & Business file.

I believe the Clarksville Foundry, aka Whitfield, Bradley & Co. made RR implements for the MC & L. This foundry still exists and I can ask the owner, who I know, if he has any records of this.

In the file of Quimby & Robinson, the large foundry in Memphis, you can find stuff they made for the Memphis & Charleston RR. In have seen these invoices.

The Citizens & Business files can be accessed online via Footnote.Com. This site is well worth its annual cost and each of the Confederate railroads have files therein with loads of documents, invoices and much more that you will find very helpful. The RR companies are in the "business" portion of the file and they are alphabetical.

With regards to track types, in one of the OR volumes (Series 3 I think) are some communications from the head of the US Military RR about rebuilding all of the Nashville & Chattanooga and Nashville & Decatur and such parts of the Memphis & Charleston as needed, to T-rail before the Atlanta Campaign in order to handle the 150 cars per day requirement that Gen. Sherman demanded to supply his armies. I know that some of the N & C had U-rail near the Tennessee River bridge as relic hunters have found ample examples of that along the banks and even in the river itself. I assume that this was the rail that was replaced by the Federal troops. That bridge was not rebuilt until either late 1863 or early 1864.

Also, part of the railroad that ran from Montgomery, AL towards Georgia still used some strap rail on the line. During the Atlanta Campaign a Union cavalry raid under Gen. Lovell Rousseau, tore up this track near Opelika, Alabama and reported the strap iron rails.

Lastly, if you get to north Georgia, there is a small museum in Tunnel Hill, GA where the old and current tunnels are, that has examples of era T-rail plus U-rail and some strap rail as well.

Please email me at Biggsg@charter.net so we can communicate directly.

Thanks again for the excellent site.

Greg Biggs