Military history professor Christopher Gabel discusses the importance of railroads and Steam Powered locomotives to the union and confederate armies and explains how railroads made the scale of the civil war possible and describes how and why the confederacys powerful Railroad System broke down as the war progressed. The Kansas City Public Library hosted this hourlong event. Thank you very much for the kind introduction and for being here. Folks, you know when we look back at the onset of the american civil war, we view it through the lens of the war, itself. That shapes what were looking at. If you view the onset of the civil war a little more objectively instead of being all seeing all of the differences between north and south, youll tend to spot all the similarities. Think about it. The two sides in this conflict. It was a war of brother against brother and in some cases literally so. The two sides shared a common language. They had similar cultures and religions. They shared a ver
Advantage for the north, maybe that statistic is not really important either. Its whether or not the railroads actually were that significant in the conduct and outcome of the civil war. And if the answer to that question is no, we can save a lot of time here tonight. Ok. Well, this is the game changer right here. Water turns to steam and expands 1600 well so what . People have known this for thousands of years. Ok . Well, in the 1820s somebody figured out how to take that expansion and turn it into forward motion. You collect excuse me you collect the steam. You send it down to a piston. The piston drives the rod back and forth. The wheels go around and around and it goes forward. All right. So what . Well, here is the so what. With a Steam Powered locomotive pulling a train, you can carry more cargo farther on the same amount of fuel than you can by muscle power. A sixmule wagon carrying 1 1 2 tons of cargo can go roughly 333 miles on one ton of mule fuel. So you multiply 1. 5 tons t
War it self. That shapes what we are looking at. If you view the onset of civil instead oftively, seeing all of the differences between north and south, you tend to spot the similarities. Think about it. , a two sides in the conflict war of rather against brother in some cases, literally so. The two sides shared a common language. They had similar cultures and religion. They shared a similar political philosophy. The north and south employed virtually the same weapons, used the same tactics, their top commanders graduated from the same military academy. Union put an army in this war, the confederacy put an army as well. Large, bute been as an army is there nonetheless. In other words, this is a surprisingly symmetrical war. In fact, it is hard to think of a more symmetrical war. Data such as these, which you have all seen . You have seen figures like this showing the resources of the north and the south in everything except cotton. Well, folks, i put it to you. If these statistics were