Battle For The Rails

On May 10th 1862, McClellan’s Army of the Potomac landed at White House Landing, where the Richmond and York River Railroad crossed the Pamunkey River about 20 miles east of Richmond. Meeting no resistance from the Confederate Army, McClellan established headquarters there and quickly put the railroad to use, sending 6 engines and 20 railcars from Baltimore so his army could move troops, supplies, and heavy artillery toward the front as it advanced on the Confederate capital. At the Battle of Savage’s Station, the two armies fought directly along the railroad. Robert E. Lee, newly appointed general of the Army of Northern Virginia, feared that McClellan planned an artillery attack from behind the safety of the Union depot at Savage’s Station and ordered General John Magruder to attack. Lee also used the railroad by having a 32-pounder naval gun mounted on a railcar and protected with iron plating to support Magruder’s offensive. Neither army gained a tactical advantage in the battle, and McClellan abandoned the railroad and continued his retreat toward the James River. During the retreat, Union troops tried to destroy the bridge over the Chickahominy by setting fire to a railcar and engine loaded with munitions and sending them down the tracks. Although the bridge was damaged, the Confederate Army salvaged much of what the Union forces left behind. These actions were among the first uses of railways in warfare in the United States.

Virginia · United States