Confederate Railroad Maps

Confederate Railroad Maps

Black's Maps

Most of the railroads have a "Black's Map Number." These identify the railroad on the appropriate map from Black's Railroads of the Confederacy. To view Black's maps, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer (get a free copy here). (If you have Reader on your machine and the map will not open in your browser, right-click on the link below and Save Target As. After it is saved to your machine, it should open.)

(From THE RAILROADS OF THE CONFEDERACY by Robert C. Black, III. Copyright (c) 1952 by the University of North Carolina Press; renewed 1980 by Robert C. Black, III. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved. www.uncpress.org)

Eastern Railroads map

Western Railroads Map

Numerical Key to Railroad Numbers

Atlas to Accompany the Official Records

City and Area Maps of Confederate Railroads

Web Maps

There are other maps that you can see on line. Each of these maps has omissions and may have non-operating railroads mapped as though they were operating.

Louisiana Railroads 1863

Virginia Railroads 1859 (Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia)

West Point Confederate Railroad Map (www.Military.com) I've added many smaller roads that are not on the West Point version.

Library of Congress Maps

Alabama & Tennessee Rivers Railroad, 1867 (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographic Division, #316)

Eastern US Railroads, 1865 (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographic Division, #476)

Florida Railroad, 1860 (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographic Division, #407)

Louisiana and Eastern Texas, 1863 (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographic Division, #227)

Memphis Railroads Connections Tom Parker (www.memphisrails.com) has taken a Library of Congress map made at the order of General Sherman and indicates on it the connections the Confederacy made to connect the three Memphis railroads. The Memphis & Ohio RR come in from the upper right and goes to the river front. The Memphis & Charleston RR comes in from the middle right and ends in the middle of the map. The Mississippi & Tennessee RR comes in from the bottom and ends where the road appears to turn due north. The red dashed lines are the Confederate additions to connect the three roads.

Richmond Area Railroads 1856 (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographic Division, #309). Shows the proposed (and never built) link from the Hungary Branch coal pits to the Richmond & York River Railroad's terminal at West Point. Also shows the Tuckahoe & James River Railroad. It incorrectly shows the Chesterfield Railroad (on the south side of the James River) -- a road that had ceased operation in 1852 and had its rail removed.

Richmond & Petersburg Railroad (Library of Congress, from the Library of Virginia.) Shows the road from just south of Richmond to Petersburg. The annotation on the map itself says: "To Brig. Gen. A. Terry, with Col. Serrell's complements, May 24th, 1864." The white paper attached to the map says: "Found among papers in the army field desk of Bvt. Maj. Gen. Alvin Coe Voris, who commanded the Union force in the Chester Station fight, May 10th, 1864. Presented by Alvia V. Baird of Delaplane, Virginia, April 10th 1937."

Richmond, Fredericksburg & Potomac Railroad, 1863 This is a Union map of the section from Fredericksburg to Acquia Wharf. The iron was Union, but the route and road bed were pre-war. The Confederacy removed the iron from this section at least once.

Southern Railroads, 1864 (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographic Division, #141)

Virginia & Tennessee Railroad 1856 (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographic Division, #400)

Virginia Central Railroad (Western part, from Waynesboro to Covington) about 1860 (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographic Division, #602)

Virginia Railroads, 1869 (Library of Congress, Prints & Photographic Division, #412)

National Archives

Some of these maps are available at Fold3.com

Centreville RR

Sharp Locomotive Haul The area where Capt. Sharp hauled away Baltimore & Ohio RR locomotives and cars

Savannah The railroad from the left is the Central (of Georgia) and the one from the bottom is the Savannah, Albany & Gulf. Note the railroad buildings for both roads.

Charlotte & South Carolina RR This shows the ten miles from Columbia to Killian's Mill, all of which was destroyed by Sherman.

Norfolk & Petersburg RR

Eastern Texas Railroads These roads were considered essential to the defense of Houston.

Southeastern Texas

Orange, Texas The railroad is the Texas & New Orleans RR

Orange County Tx.

Tennessee & Alabama RR 22 miles from Columbia to Franklin

Brashear, La. The New Orleans, Opelousas & Great Western RR was graded 45 miles out of Berwick, but no iron is known to have been laid. North is to the right on this map.

Galveston, Tx. The Galveston, Houston & Henderson RR enters the city from the upper left and continues out to the various batteries. The date is probably early 1864.

Western Tennessee & Kentucky

Other Maps

Alabama & Mississippi Rivers RR at Demopolis A copy of the 1863 Confederate map found in the Demopolis, Ala. Library and provided by Richard McCardle.

Central (of Georgia) RR, Eatonton Branch This map of the movements of Sherman's troops through Putnam County, Ga. in November 1864 was created in 1961 by Katherine Walters from an earlier, lost, map. The track runs from Eatonton south through Dennis and south to the bottom of the map.

Lynchburg Railroads, Detail An 1860 map of the railroad lines and buildings in Lynchburg.

Mobile RRs and Defenses From the top is the Mobile & Ohio RR; from the left is the Mobile & Spring Hill RR. (from UNC Chapel Hill, Gilmer Papers)

Petersburg RRs, East Side of City From the right side is the City Point Branch of the South Side RR; from the lower left is the Petersburg RR. (from UNC Chapel Hill, Gilmer Papers)

Weldon RRs and Defenses From the lower left is the Raleigh & Gaston RR; from the lower right is the Wilmington & Weldon RR; going up, over the Roanoke River, is the Seaboard & Roanoke RR. (from UNC Chapel Hill, Gilmer Papers)