A journal following the history, design, construction and operation of Bernard Kempinski's O Scale model railroad depicting the U. S. Military Railroad (USMRR) Aquia-Falmouth line in 1863, and other model railroad projects.
©Bernard Kempinski All text and images, except as noted, on this blog are copyrighted by the author and may not be used without permission.
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October 8, 2020

Military Traffic on Northern Railroads

Over the last several years I have been trying to determine how much military traffic was carried by the northern railroads during the civil war. I have found bits of data here and there, but never got a complete picture. I recently found this table in the American Railroad Journal, March 8, 1862 when it was  cited by Thomas Weber is his book "The Northern Railroads in the Civil War 1861-1865." (I have been doing a lot of reading and rereading of civil war books in the past month.)
This table lists the total bills presented (and presumably paid) by the United States Government for U.S. Army Transportation for a 10 month period from April 1861 to Feb 1862.  There are 73 railroads listed in the table for a total charge of about $1.8 million dollars (or about $47 Million in 2020 dollars.) It is interesting to note that the top three, and 7 of the top 10, are eastern railroads.
The next step would be to combine this data with the railroads overall revenue to get a sense of the percentage of military business each railroad did.  Also, it would be nice to find this data for other years in the conflict. but this gives a nice snapshot. 
One of the reasons that western railroads are under represented in this data is that a large portion of military traffic in the western theaters was carried by steamship. But that is a subject for another day. 



The following is a statement of all bills presented by railroad companies, for transportation for the United States Army, from April 1, 1861, to Feb. 1,1862:


1

Baltimore and Ohio 

$567,922.55

2

Pennsylvania Railroad

$255,534.82

3

Northern Central

$223,610.24

4

Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana

$110,321.00

5

Cleveland and Pittsburg 

$105,852.00

6

Phil., Wilmington and Baltimore

$69,389.73

7

Cumberland Valley

$62,661.00

8

Camden and Amboy

$48,110.70

9

New Jersey Railroad

$32,438.00

10

Milwaukee and Prairie du Chien

$30,851.93

11

Portland, Saco and Portsmouth

$26,177.32

12

Connecticut River

$25,611.00

13

Erie and Northeast

$18,654.86

14

Bcston and Providence 

$18,169.60

15

Elmira and Williamsport

$17,554.91

16

Fall River Railroad Line

$14,387.50

17

Detroit and Milwaukee

$14,022.19

18

Kennebec and Portland

$13,221.59

19

Philadelphia and Erie

$13,135.18

20

Old Colony and Fall River

$10,779.60

21

Cincinnati and Chicago Air Line

$10,103.40

22

Boston and Worcester

$10,011.53

23

NY and Erie

$9,618.18

24

Cleveland and Toledo

$9,232.43

25

Norwich and Worcester

$8,207.40

26

Androsroggin and  Kennebec

$7,084.00

27

Androsooogin and Kennebec

$7,081.80

28

Annapolis and Elk Ridge

$5,780.00

29

Western Railroad

$5,662.64

30

St. Louis, Alton and Chicago

$5,660.44

31

liannibal and St. Joseph

$5,556.00

32

Hudson River, Troy and Boston, Rutland and Buriington

$5,370.00

33

Dayton and Michigan

$4,518.00

34

Hudson River Railroad

$3,923.38

35

Philadelphia and Reading

$3,850.44

36

Buffalo, New York and Erie

$3,684.00

37

Lake Shore and Michigan steamers..

$3,454.08

38

Lafayette and Indianapolis 

$3,000.00

39

Milwaukee and Chicago

$2,860.00

40

New York and New Haven

$2,475.05

41

Pittsburg, Fort Wayne and Chicago

$2,315.84

42

Iron Mountain

$2,314.00

43

Rutland and Washington

$2,050.00

44

Allegheny Valley Railroad Company  

$1,802.00

45

Chicago and Milwaukee

$1,437.00

46

Allegheny Valley Railroad Company .

$1,302.28

47

New York Central

$1,283.79

48

Eastern Railroad

$1,191.25

49

Chicago, Bnrlii-cton and Quincy 

$1,138.00

50

Worcester and Nashua

$1,105.20

51

MIchigan Central Steamers 1 026

$1,026.24

52

Central Ohio

$831.64

53

New York and Boston Express

$739.48

54

North Pennsylvannia

$564.46

55

Terre Haute and Richmond

$370.58

56

NY, Providence and Boston

$201.68

57

Indiana Central

$193.66

58

Chicago and Northwestern

$186.00

59

Little Miami, Columbus and Xenia

$177.00

60

Keokuk, Fort Des Moines and Minnesota

$127.50

61

Cleveland, Colunilins and Cincinnati ..

$77.00

62

Indianapolis and Cincinnati

$70.25

63

Columbus, Piqua and Indianapolis

$65.38

64

Troy and Boston

$51.78

65

Buffalo and State Line 43 88

$43.88

66

Boston and New York Express Co.

$14.18

67

Stonington Line Railroad 

$8.48

68

La Crosse and Milwaukee

$8.00

69

Lackawanna and Bloomsburg.

$7.90

70

Hailford, Providence and Fishkill 

$7.85

71

Cleveland and Mahoning

$5.96

72

Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton 

$1.40

73

Naugatuck

$0.84

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