Hi Tom,

Thanks for getting back to me. I sure would love copies of your articles for this project. Are there good sources for Corinth's role in Hood's line of supply?

Thanks for the name of Wintter. He does not have a file in CS Staff Officers unlike other CS engineers do sadly so I guess I will have to check the National Archives and see what he may have in their CS engineers documents. Crute's book on CS staff officers has him as commanding the company of sappers and miners for Gen. Leonidas Polk in 1862 and listed on his staff as an engineer officer - which makes it even weirder that Staff Officers has no file. He is also not mentioned in James Nichols' book on Confederate engineers. What was your source for him?

I am amazed that in late 1864 that any CS railroad line could even be repaired as falling apart as they were and with the lack of rails to repair them. The fall of Atlanta and loss of that rolling mill put a big hurt on any rail rolling capacity and with the CS Navy taking much of what was left for ironclads the railroads were in dire straits. This may be the reason why the repaired line from Corinth into Alabama only went as far as Cherokee.

Hood's line of supply from Georgia and Alabama to Tennessee went like this:

From the depots and arsenals of Georgia (when they could get things to Alabama etc. after Sherman tore apart the railroads of central Georgia anyway - Columbus was an exception) they crossed the Chattahoochee River by boat to Girard where supplies were then placed on trains. Then by rail to Opelika and then on to Montgomery. The gauges for these lines was 4 feet 8 1/2 inches.

At Montgomery the supplies (including those from Alabama) were then put on steamboats to run to Selma (a major arsenal and depot). They were then placed back on trains and run west to Demopolis (a supply depot) - the rail gauges here was 5 feet on this line. They were then placed on boats to cross the Tombigbee River and then back on trains at McDowell's Bluff.

From there the trains ran west into Mississippi to Meridian (another supply depot). Part of this line back to Selma was built during the war as Gen. Bragg sought to complete another east-west railroad in the central Confederacy starting back in 1862. At Meridian, the supplies would then be transferred to the Mobile and Ohio Railroad for the run up to Corinth.

At Corinth, supplies were then placed on the Memphis & Charleston RR to run east into Alabama at the Cherokee rail head. There they would be placed on wagons for the trip to Tuscumbia and the pontoon bridge across the Tennessee River. Once in Tennessee, the supplies would go to Pulaski, where Hood was able to repair the Nashville & Decatur RR as far north as Franklin. From Franklin onward is was back in the wagons again over the crumbling Tennessee road system.

This is not a supply line - it was a joke! It is the epitome of showing how the Confederacy was pretty self-sufficient in making military supplies and growing food but getting these things to where they were needed was the major issue of the entire war. I am finding bulging depots in Alabama and Mississippi (not only from your account Tom but also an essay on Grierson's M & O raid of December 1864 and Frank Vandiver's essay on Hood's logistics). But up in Tennessee I am finding lack of food and shoes while ammunition seemed plentiful (although its re-supply was in doubt). There was a big reason why armies of the musket era did not do winter campaigns typically - lack of foraging from the countryside. The sheer amount of manpower needed to load and offload and reload supplies along this line was tremendous and the time wasted even more so. Add to this the strain on the railroads, already under great stress, and wagons and mules/horses to pull them (and the quality of these animals fell way down after the securing of Chattanooga in late November 1863 cutting off Tennessee and Kentucky for these animals) and we have massive problems getting the stuff to Hood's troops where it was needed.

If Hood was getting anything from the Mobile Depot it could come to him by rail (Mobile & Ohio) or steamboats to Selma and McDowell's Bluff for transfer to trains.

I see the depots in Alabama and Mississippi able to function properly by gathering lots of supplies from their local and regional sources - which is exactly how the CS supply system was designed. Small depots funnel into larger depots and those depots into the major depots like Mobile, Atlanta, etc.

What I would like to find out with regards to Mississippi railroads is this:

Were there switch off tracks built to join the Mobile & Ohio to the Memphis & Charleston RR at Corinth and to the line from Alabama at Meridian? This would solve the offload from one line and reload to another problem and the gauges for these lines were all 5 feet so that was not an issue. But knowing what I know of Southern railroad companies and their petty jealousies I am doubtful that these side tracks were done. Do you know of this happening at Corinth for example?

Looking forward to what you have for this and your visit in April.

Greg Biggs