Booknotes: The Nashville and Decatur in the Civil War

New Arrival:
• The Nashville and Decatur in the Civil War: History of an Embattled Railroad by Walter R. Green, Jr. (McFarland, 2022).

Much has been made of the war's wear and tear on Confederate railroads and how the general lack of maintenance due to manpower and resource constraints caused a precipitous decline in efficiency and sharp increase in accidents. However, the Confederacy must have derived at least some benefit from the newness of many of their tracks. It was April 1861 when the last spike of the Mobile & Ohio was driven in at Columbus, Kentucky. "(I)n operation five months before the start of the Civil War and 17 months before the Federals took control of Nashville and the railroad," the Nashville & Decatur was similarly new.

Though not as prominently featured in the annals of the western war as the Memphis & Charleston, Western & Atlantic, Louisville & Nashville, and aforementioned Mobile & Ohio, the Nashville & Decatur Railroad nevertheless proved to be an important logistical cog in the lengthy struggles over control of Middle Tennessee and the ability of Union forces to sustain or further their conquest of the Confederate heartland. "Running through Central Tennessee to Alabama, the highly contested line passed through Confederate-held territory, where rebels and their sympathizers continually sabotaged bridges, trestles and track."

Walter Green's The Nashville and Decatur in the Civil War: History of an Embattled Railroad is the "first full-length work on the N&D Railroad." The study "emphasizes (the N&D's) importance in the Western Theater and brings to light the four key men who kept it open for the duration of the war. Significant military activities in the region are described, along with the contraband camp, military complex and other features surrounding the railroad's only tunnel." Bridges, trestles, and fortifications associated with the railroad are another major feature, that focus perhaps being derived from Green's professional background in structural and civil engineering. The author also includes information about railroad operation before and after the war.