Continued attacks by Confederate guerrillas destroying Union supply ships on the Cumberland River at Yellow Creek and Harpeth Shoals, as they attempted to supply Nashville, led General U.S. Grant to authorize construction of a safe route from the Tennessee River to Nashville. The result was a 78 mile railroad built by the 12th and 13th U.S. Colored Troops Infantry Regiments. The guerrilla attacks were organized at a meeting in the saloons on the Court Square at Charlotte, and as many as 300 troops were assigned to secure the Court Square there, enabling the railroad to be built to its south without organized attack from Confederate guerrillas. Following the war, present day Dickson was established at Mile Post 42 and was first known as Smeedsville Station.