Dan Lee softcover
The Mobile & Ohio Railroad was the longest line in the nation when
it was completed in spring of 1861—the final spike driven a few weeks
after Confederate artillery shelled Fort Sumter. Within days, the
M&O was swept up in the Civil War as a prime conveyor of troops and
supplies, a strategic and tactical asset to both Confederate and Union
armies, who fought to control it.
Its northern terminus at Columbus, Kentucky saw some of the earliest
fighting in the war. The southern terminus in Mobile, Alabama was the
scene of some of the last. U. S. Grant, William T. Sherman, Nathan
Bedford Forrest, Newton Knight of the “Free State of Jones” and others
battled over the M&O, the Federals taking it mile-by-mile. This book
chronicles the campaigns and battles for the railroad and the calamity
endured by the civilians who lived along it.
