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Several accounts of Jackson's locomotive haul start
with Jackson realizing how valuable these Baltimore & Ohio RR
locomotives can be for the South and dreaming up the method of
hauling the locomotives to the Manassas Gap RR. He is then credited
with getting together the team to do the job. Historian Edward
Hungerford's centennial history of the B&O RR is a classic
example of this story:
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"Slowly a great idea formulated itself within his
mind. If only some of the best of the locomotives could be
moved down upon those Southern railways. ... Over the
turnpike; as he had done with the little Harpers Ferry
engines, from Winchester to Strasburg. True it was that
the distance from Martinsburg through Winchester to
Strasburg (thirty-eight miles) was considerably longer,
but the highway was good and the thing was possible. At
any rate, one bright morning in July, he arranged to take
the first of the engines out over the turnpike. A picked
group of about thirty-five men, including six machinists,
ten teamsters and about a dozen laborers, had been told of
the task. They were placed under the immediate charge of
Hugh Longust, an experienced and veteran railroader from
Richmond. Longhust reported in turn to Colonel Thomas R.
Sharp, at that time ranked as captain and also as acting
quartermaster-general in the Confederate Army."
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| Hungerford's story has several faults
that should be identified before progressing. There is no evidence
that any earlier operation had moved "little Harpers Ferry
engines" (see Jackson and the Earlier Locomotive Haul).
The first locomotives hauled over the roads appear to be the two
from Leesburg to the Manassas Gap RR. The men moving the locomotives
had been hired in Richmond by Sharp and Longest (Diary of Thomas R. Sharp 1861).
Sharp was not an officer in the Confederate Army until October 15,
1861 (Diary of Thomas R. Sharp 1861),
he never rose above the rank of Captain and he was an assistant
quartermaster. Hungerford provides no footnotes or
bibliography and appears to base his entire account of the events on
the article by Ernest Shriber, Stealing Railroad Engines {here}. |
| The problem with the whole story of
Jackson dreaming up the hauling of the locomotives is that there is
nothing in writing to indicate this is the genesis of the operation.
The first mention I have found of this plan is in the orders from
the Quartermaster General to civilian Thomas Sharp to move the
locomotives, along with the QM General's idea as to the size of
force necessary to do the work (NA,
QM 6-18B-61). No document mentions Jackson
having any hand in the operation. Additionally, when the movement
was started, cars and machinery were moved south for weeks before a
B&O RR locomotive was moved --strange, if the whole operation
had been thought up to remove locomotives. Also, the first
locomotives were captured one month before Sharp was given the job,
a serious waste of time when the enemy is so close. Additionally,
Sharp says that the task had been given to him by the Quartermaster
General and that the QM General was considered his Commanding
Officer, not Jackson (NA,
RRB 12-31A-62). |
| So where did the idea originate to haul
the locomotives this way? With no written evidence, I believe that the
President, Secretary of War or Quartermaster General had been in
agreement with General Lee that the Alexander, Loudoun &
Hampshire RR locomotives should be saved (OR Series 1, Vol. 2, Page 866,
OR Series 1, Vol. 2, Page 858).
Since these locomotives had been run to the western terminus of that
line, Leesburg, Lee was probably trying to find a way to get them
South. The presidents and/or superintendents of the Virginia Central
RR and the Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac RR were probably
consulted and one of them came up with the idea that was used. The
idea was not completely radical -- I have seen advertisements in New
Orleans newspapers in 1861 that show 4 horses abreast in an ad for a
heavy lift moving company. |
| Why was Thomas Sharp given the job of
hauling the rolling stock? Reading his biography (Biography of Thomas R. Sharp)
shows he must have been well known to the railroad management
community in Richmond, having held jobs on all of the Richmond
railroads in the last ten years. Whoever suggested the ideal of
hauling the rolling stock almost certainly knew Sharp, probably knew
that he was available and suggested him as the best man available
for the job. |
| A variation of the Jackson story is that
Sharp thought it up and sold the idea to the War Department. There
is nothing in writing to indicate this. Sharp did not travel to the
Valley area until after he was given the assignment. Also, the
Quartermaster General sent Sharp a letter telling him how many oxen
would be needed to pull the locomotives (NA,
QM 6-18-61), indicating that Sharp had not known how many would
be required and that the QM General consulted with someone else and
got this information. |
| Byron Farwell, in "Stonewall: A
Biography of General T. J. Jackson," published in 1993, agrees
that Jackson did not originate the idea and that Sharp was sent from
Richmond to take over the project (without saying whose idea the
project was). |
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