Johnsonville was a vital part of the Union war machine, a busy, noisy, sprawling complex of wharves, docks, warehouses, and corrals where steamboats crowded the wharf and laborers day after day moved everything from blankets to cattle to rifles from boats onto trains bound for Nashville. In 1864 it was ugly and bare rather than peaceful, with trees leveled to give soldiers in the fortification a clear field of fire in case of attack, rough unpainted new buildings, constant noise from steam whistles, trains, the sawmill, men, and horses, and unbelievable winter mud, yet conditions mattered less than keeping supplies moving to the front. The depot fed, clothed, and armed the Union armies that relentlessly hounded the Confederate Army of Tennessee, pushing them out of Tennessee once and for all, and it supplied Gen. William T. Sherman’s successful Atlanta Campaign and helped fuel Union victory.