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Louisville & Nashville |
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| The road's charter was granted by
Kentucky in 1850 and Tennessee in 1851. Construction began in 1853 and
the main line was completed in 1859. The Bardstown Branch was completed
in 1860, the Lebanon in 1857, and the Memphis in 1860.
Between the departure of the first Southern states and the start of war, the road carried a tremendous amount of goods south. Chief among them was meat, which supported the Confederate armies for two years. The road tried to remain neutral from the start, but eventually, on July 4,1861, the Governor of Tennessee detained some rolling stock on the southern part of the line as Tennessee's share of the assets of the road. The Kentucky portion was shortly taken over by the Union army. By early summer 1862, the entire line was in Union hands and was a major supporter of Union army operations in central Tennessee and toward Chattanooga and Atlanta. No information is provided in the table below after the Union took control, except for the names of Officers. |
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| Black's Number | 73 (map) | ||||||||||
| Track | 285 miles of 5 foot gauge 60# and 54# T-rail on main line and 52# on branches | ||||||||||
| Locomotives | 38; 38 names | ||||||||||
| Cars | 342 | ||||||||||
| Stations | 82 | ||||||||||
| Officers | Many | ||||||||||
| Bridges | 1861 | ||||||||||
| Annual Reports |
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| Significant Documents | |||||||||||