Studies in American History 
273 
portation problem that the Columbia and Augusta Railroad 
Company tried to build a line farther to the west, but little 
was accomplished/^ This made it necessary for Lee to depend 
on southwest Virginia and the Carolinas for supplies, but the 
Richmond and Danville Railroad was now in such poor condi- 
tion that it was very difficult to get provisions over it/® At 
the close of the war the North Carolina Railroad had only five 
passenger cars on 233 miles of track/® 
The railroads in the Carolinas were really more valuable 
to Johnston than to Sherman. Due to the broken condition 
of communications it was difficult to get the Confederate 
forces united tho finally Hardee, Hood, Hill, Bragg, Hampton, 
and Wheeler were brought together by Johnston.®^ It was 
found that large bodies of troops that came from Hood’s ill- 
starred campaign in Tennessee were without baggage wagons 
and could not operate far from a railroad.®^ In spite of these 
handicaps in March, 1865, troops arriving at Charlotte, N.C., 
were sent to Smithville by railway where they aided Bragg in 
the capture of Smith’s division.®^ 
By March 23, 1865, however, Sherman had reached Golds- 
borough, N.C., and had possession of or was in easy reach of 
Lee’s southern source of supplies.®^ This gradual strangling 
movement from the West and South, together with the ham- 
mering on Lee’s army by Grant, finally forced the surrender 
of the Confederate forces. 
Some of the indirect effects of railroads on the war have 
been mentioned in the earlier part of this article, but too much 
emphasis cannot be laid on the fact that they tied the interests 
of the western agricultural states of the north to those of 
the industrial eastern states. Moreover, the railroad as a 
factor in politics needs to be noticed at this time. Kentucky 
and the southern parts of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois were 
settled largely by people from the southern states. These 
pioneers reached their destination by following the courses of 
the Ohio and its tributaries. Since they came largely from 
Nathaniel W. Stephenson, The Day of the Confederacy (New Haven, 1919, 1920), 
152, 153, Vol. XXX of the Chronicles of America Series, edited by Allen Johnson. 
Rhodes, History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850, IV, 61. 
John C. Schwab, The Confeden-ate States of America (New York, 1901), 274. 
Davis, Short History of the Confederate States of America, 464. 
Johnston, Narrative and Military Operations during the Late War hettveen the 
States, 374. 
Ibid, 378, 379. Johnston estimates the number of prisoners at 15,000. 
McCabe, Life and Campaigns of General Robert E. Lee, 586. 
