A Different View: Windows Into Black History on the Railroad

By Makea King

Two African American men work on railroad construction while a White man watches. The image was taken in the early 1860s during the building of Civil War railway construction.¹

You’re never too old to learn something new, right? I was in elementary school when I learned about Chinese immigrants building the Transcontinental Railroad. It went right along with the classroom lesson that revolved around the California Gold Rush and the promise of a bright, new country emerging in the West. After learning about Chinese immigrants working on the Transcontinental Railroad, I assumed that that was the end of the story. The immigrants built the railroad and connected the two coasts and everyone lived happily ever after. This is generally the point in the story when the narrator steps in to do a voiceover to let you know that actually, everyone did not live happily ever after.

In learning this lesson, I inadvertently failed to learn another lesson. I was 36 years old when I learned that enslaved Blacks were forced to lay the entirety of the southern railroad system.¹ The railroad companies would either have their own enslaved workers for the railroad or they would lease them from nearby plantations. During the Civil War, the enslaved who could escape to the Union army would act as spies and offer counterintelligence on Confederate railroad locations and army camps. This would allow Union troops to sabotage rail ties and launch sneak attacks². Who wouldn’t want to learn about this during history class? However, despite this enormous contribution to the Union army’s victory, most Union commanders commonly referred to the self-emancipated Blacks as “contraband”, which diminished their value and importance.

 

A group of railroad construction workers is gathered around railroad tracks on construction site in Virginia.²

 After the end of the Civil War and the subsequent Emancipation Proclamation declaration, the jobs available for the formerly enslaved often meant staying on the plantations and farms, working as sharecroppers. Those who sought to move on beyond that lifestyle gained employment with various railroad companies as brakemen, porters, maids, and cooks. Formerly enslaved women and men gained steady wages by working with railroad companies, however, there were limited avenues of promotion available to them. In the late 19th century, George Pullman established the Pullman Company, which operated a line of train sleeper cars, staffed by Pullman Porters and Maids. These employees served the White middle-class train passengers and provided them a sense of luxury while traveling via rail. Pullman Porters cooked their food, made their drinks, cleaned, and prepared their sleeping quarters, while the Pullman Maids watched the children, bathed, dressed, and even styled the hair of the women riding the train.³

A train passenger sits in a booth across from an African American woman employed as a Pullman Maid. The passenger seems to be getting her nails done. This was among the few beauty services Pullman Maids provided to train car passengers.³

While the promise of a stable job and consistent wage drew many to working on the railroads, many formerly enslaved Blacks were simply eager to enjoy the freedom of train travel. However, despite the end of the Civil War and the fall of the Confederacy, Black people were still forced to walk a narrow line in American society. In 1866, a man named Aaron Bradley simply wanted to travel on the B&O Railroad. Bradley believed that his ticket allowed him to sit wherever he desired, yet he was quickly escorted out of the passenger car that held only White passengers to a train car with only Black passengers. Bradley argued that his ticket did not specify which train car he could ride in, and thus afforded him a seat wherever he deemed fit. Bradley would later sue the B&O Railroad for $100, but he would ultimately lose, despite the legitimacy of his case and his occupation as a lawyer.⁴ 

Throughout the Jim Crow Era and the brief period of Reconstruction, Black Baltimorians used the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to push forward new civil liberties for emancipated Blacks. The Mutual United Brotherhood of Liberty, established in 1885 by Pastor Harvey Johnson and others working within the church ministry, worked to elevate the livelihood of Blacks in Maryland and the United States as a whole. With the B&O Railroad in their figurative backyard, the MUBL was able to challenge segregation laws in transportation, education, and the government.⁵

Well after the Civil War, Black women joined White women as railroad workers to replace their male counterparts as World War I and World War II reshaped the globe.⁶ Although many women went back to their households after the wars ended, many did not. The spark of independence was not easily diminished and the learned skills and trades made available at railroad companies proved to be an avenue that allowed women to earn their own wages. 

Three African American women clean a locomotive. Left to right: Florence Rancher, Ann Rancher, and Ila Young.⁴

The land that the B&O Railroad occupies is rich with the stories, collective histories, and hopes and inspirations of the many generations who have come before us. The fortitude of mind that the self-emancipated enslaved had in order to escape and go on to work with the Union army to secure their freedom is directly tied to the cultural significance of railroads and their place in Black history. It is no coincidence that the name for the network of abolitionists that helped the enslaved escape is called the Underground Railroad. Regardless of it being underground, or surface level, the railroad has always been a symbol of freedom and a path to opportunity.

Four African American men are pictured in cook’s uniforms in a train kitchen car. Obtaining employment on a train as a cook was viewed as a steady and reliable form of employment.⁵

About the Author: Makea King is an experienced marketing and communications professional, currently working in higher education. She is completing her internship at the B&O Railroad Museum working on an oral history collection of African Americans and the railroad system. She is set to graduate with her MLIS degree at the conclusion of the Fall 2020 semester. 

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References

1: Cavanaugh, Maureen, and Pat Finn. “The African-American Railroad Experience.” KPBS Public Media, KPBS, 23 Mar. 2010, www.kpbs.org/news/2010/mar/23/african-american-railroad-experience/.

 2: Blouin, Lily Anna. “The Civil War and African American Railroaders: Part 1 of 2.” Nrrhof, Railroad History | National Railroad Hall of Fame | Galesburg, 12 Nov. 2018, www.nrrhof.org/single-post/2017/11/10/The-Civil-War-and-African-American-Railroaders-Part-1-of-2.

3: “Pullman Porter.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Mar. 2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_porter.

4:“African Americans Struggle to Define Freedom on the Border.” A Brotherhood of Liberty: Black Reconstruction and Its Legacies in Baltimore, 1865-1920, by Dennis Patrick Halpin, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019, pp. 18–19.

5: “Rev. Dr. Harvey Johnson: the Preacher & 19th Century Activism.” Black Baltimore 1870-1920, Harvey Johnson, Maryland State Archives, Maryland State Archives, 3 Feb. 1998, msa.maryland.gov/msa/stagser/s1259/121/6050/html/12414000.html.

6: Lily Anna Blouin, Mae Gilliland Wright. “African American Women and the Railroads.” Nrrhof, Railroad History | National Railroad Hall of Fame | Galesburg, 30 Nov. 2017, www.nrrhof.org/single-post/2017/11/30/African-American-Women-and-the-Railroads.

 

Image References

 

1: United States Army. Military Railway Service, Russell, A. J., photographer. (ca. 1862) Two Railroad Construction Workers Hammer Track as Third Construction Worker Watches. United States, ca. 1862. [or 1863] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2006676186/.

2: United States Army. Military Railway Service, Russell, A. J., photographer. (ca. 1862) Railroad Construction Workers. United States, ca. 1862. [or 1863] [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/2006676183/.

3: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Public Relations Department. (ca. 1925). P1.6.2.6.7-001. Pullman maid serving white passenger on the B&O Railroad's Capitol Limited Line. General Photograph Collection, Hays T. Watkins Research Library, B&O Railroad Museum.

4: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Public Relations Department. (1940). P1.6.2.1.7-023. African American women work crew cleans locomotive in Ivorydale, Ohio. Left to right: Florence Rancher, Ann Rancher, and Ila Young. General Photograph Collection, Hays T. Watkins Research Library, B&O Railroad Museum. 

5: Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, Public Relations Department. (ca. 1930). P1.6.2.5.1.1-027. African American cooks as part of a dining services crew. General Photograph Collection, Hays T. Wakins Research Library, B&O Railroad Museum. 

 

GILMOR'S RAID

Major Harry Gilmor

On February 11, 1864, Major Harry Gilmor of the Confederate Army conducted his first of two war-time strikes against the B&O Railroad. Major General J.E.B. Stuart ordered Gilmor's command to split the B&O line, with the objective of preventing Union forces from moving eastward to reinforce the Army of the Potomac. Gilmor chose 28 men under his command to carry out the mission. He chose a halfway point between Duffield's Depot and Kearneysville, two stops along the B&O line in West Virginia, to carry out his mission.

Gilmor during the Civil War

The small confederate force was unable to dismantle the securely fastened track, so they laid down fence rails and logs to derail the next train. The B&O Engineer who sighted the timbers on the track tried to come to a stop in time, but was unsuccessful. Fortunately the engine slowed down enough to the point where it gently hopped off the rails, remaining largely undamaged. Despite explicit orders not to rob anyone on the train, Gilmor's men removed the passengers of their pocket watches and wallets. Gilmor was unable to break into the large iron safe located in the baggage car. With the threat of capture behind enemy lines, Gilmor's force fled before the arrival of federal troops.

Harry Gilmor, circa 1875

In the post-war, Gilmor had a brief stint as a commander of cavalry in the Maryland National Guard. In 1874 Gilmor became a Baltimore City Police Commissioner. In July 1877 Gilmor would find himself leading mounted police at Camden Station in Baltimore during the Great Railroad Strike of 1877. Thirteen years after leading an attack on a B&O train, he defended B&O Railroad property around the city.

The Telegraph at War

Daniel Carroll Toomey

Guest Curator; The War Came by Train

     When the Civil War began, there were 50,000 miles of telegraph lines in the United States. While the commercial side was well established, the United States Army had not yet adopted this new technology. The first tactical use of the telegraph came in July of 1861 when Major General George B. McClellan began his advance into Western Virginia to secure the mail line of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad for the Union.

     On May 26, McClellan received a report that Confederate troops had burned two bridges thirty-five miles west of Grafton. Grafton was a major rail center and junction where the main line continued on to Wheeling and the Northwestern Virginia Railroad ran to Parkersburg. He telegraphed orders to Colonel Benjamin F. Kelly in Wheeling to advance with his First Virginia Regiment U.S. by train and drive the Rebels out of Grafton. A second force under Colonel James Steedman of the Eighteenth Ohio Infantry left Parkersburg with the same orders. Outnumbered thanks to McClellan’s skillful use the railroad and the telegraph, the Confederates were forces to fall back to Philippi where there were defeated on June 3 and retreated to Rich Mountain.

     As General McClellan advanced toward Rich Mountain he not only utilized the existing telegraph line along the B&O tracks to keep his superiors in Washington informed of his movements, but ordered a temporary line built along his route of march, a first in the annals of modern warfare. He also had two experienced telegraphers assigned to his headquarters staff to insure the rapid transmission of information. Within one hour of occupying the enemy’s camp, McClellan was notifying his commander, General Winfield Scott, “We are in possession of all the enemy’s works…Our success is complete and almost bloodless.” As a group of Confederate prisoners were marching by one exclaimed, “My God here’s the telegraph!” 

    

          

The War Came by Train : Opening Invitation

Extra! Extra!

Presented here are some noteworthy news articles from the Baltimore Sun in April of 1862

Baltimore Sun on April 21, 1862

CAVALRY PRADES-several companies of the first Maryland Cavalry Regiment, stationed near Mount Clare Depot, made a dress parade on Saturday morning through the street of the city (Baltimore) and attracted much attention. The commander of the regiment is Col. A.G. Miller, of the regular United States army. The command mustered about 500 men.

Baltimore Sun April 24, 1862

DISASTER TO HARPERS FERRY BRIDGE-Three Spans Wash Away-The Repairs Progressing-we regret to announce a disaster to the temporary bridge erected across the Potomac at Harpers Ferry, by the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, under the direction of the government. It was rumored in the city on Tuesday evening that the Potomac was very high, and rising. On Tuesday night three of the central spans broke loose and were carried way. At 2 o’clock yesterday morning the water began to subside, and no further damage was apprehended. Preparations were immediately made for ferrying freight and passengers across, and Mr. John L. Wilson, the master of the road, and Mr. Quincy, his assistant, soon had a large force of men employed in the work of replacing the lost spans. This, it was expected, would be accomplished in forty-eight hours from the time of its commencement. The accident will not interrupt materially the large government operations on the road longer than to-day at farthest, should the water continue to fall and the weather prove favorable. In the meantime no interruption of travel between points westward need be apprehended. In a few weeks at most the company will commence the erection over the Ferry of the new iron bridge, which for six months past they have been preparing at their machine works, at Mount Clare, from the plans of Mr. Wendel Bollman. That will then supersede the temporary structure.

Emerging Technology for National Defense

Early Railroads and Military Strategy 1830-1848

Courtney B. Wilson, Executive Director

B&O Railroad Museum

Railroad technology had not advanced to the point that it was useful for military purposes until near the end of the Mexican War (1846-1848) yet early railroad entrepreneurs, citizens and government officials eyed the possibilities from its genesis.

The American Army did not particularly distinguish itself during the War of 1812 and, subsequently, political and military leaders became absorbed by problems of national defense in the ensuing decades. Inevitably, with the establishment of America’s first planned long distance railroad, the Baltimore & Ohio in 1827, military strategists began to view the endless possibilities of this new transportation system.

In the immediate years following the War of 1812, Congress began to appropriate funds for wagon roads, turnpikes and other sustainable ground transportation routes that may have commercial interests but also for the purpose of military transportation. As is common today, many a congressman raided the national treasury for infrastructure improvements in their home districts under this initiative.

Even before the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad proved that railroads were not the frivolous products of impractical visionaries, other railroad companies had been formed and city, state and federal governments were receiving requests for financial aid. With railroads popping up rapidly in the period 1830-35 and with no unanimity as to how the railroads would improve, or even serve, national defense every private and public railroad promoter was not shy in assuring the military necessity of their line no matter where it was located or what points on the landscape it connected.

As early as 1829 the directors of the South Carolina Canal and Railroad Company asked the federal government to subscribe to 2,500 shares of their company assuring that their efforts would anticipate a “higher benefit” for the “protective arm of the General Government” by the greater efficiency with which troops could be rushed across the country. (1)

The citizens of Adams County Illinois petitioned that a railroad be constructed between Buffalo, NY to a point on the Mississippi River eloquently stating how inexpensively troops and munitions could be transported and that those troops would reach the battleground “…presenting the spectacle of an Army fresh and fit for immediate action…” Similarly, the directors of the West Feliciana Railroad Company asked Congress to help build their line from St. Francisville, Louisiana to Woodville, Mississippi in exchange for a promise to transport military troops free of charge. (2)

Most of these early petitions were concerned only with the fortunes of a single company, however, on March 16, 1836 a mass meeting of citizens was held in Uniontown, Pennsylvania that was instigated by the Baltimore & Ohio to present a larger vision (and thus profit the Baltimore & Ohio) for national defense. Appropriate resolutions were unanimously adopted to favor federal aid to the Baltimore & Ohio whose company presented the best and nearest connection between the Atlantic seaboard and the West. The preamble states that the line was of the “…highest national importance, whether in reference to the mail, military or commercial operations of our country.” Other resolutions, more of a general character, envisioned a network of railroads traversing the Atlantic seaboard that would be “…superior to any system of fortifications.” This, one resolution stated, would be “…equally available for the repulsion of invasion from abroad and the suppression of insurrections at home.” Records of this meeting put forth the idea that, were such a system in place during the War of 1812 it would have “…saved the country from the mortification and disgrace of having its capital destroyed by hostile hands.” (3)

The War Department was well aware of the military and strategic use of railroads and some of the suggestions developed in the Uniontown meeting mirrored a report to Congress by Secretary of War Lewis Cass in 1836. That report acknowledged the phenomenal growth of the United States since the war of 1812, increased national security problems and suggested that the use of railroad transportation systems would enhance troop mobility and rapidity of deployment, provide for the efficient transport of arms, munitions and sustenance, and disable the ability of hostile navies to plunder coastal cities long before defensive tactics and troops could be rallied and brought to the front. (4)

Lewis Cass, Secretary of War

 Of course the Secretary’s encouraging words inspired railroad promoters and profiteers to approach Congress for more and more support. In 1838 the Alabama, Florida and Georgia Railroad petitioned Congress for 500,000 acres of public land the sale of which would finance the completion of a railroad line from Pensacola, on the Gulf of Mexico, to Montgomery, Alabama on the Alabama River. Their principal argument was that this line would provide an “…economical defense of the maritime frontier on the Gulf of Mexico.” With strong support in the Senate, the House of Representatives sent the matter to Lieutenant Colonel J.G. Totten, chief of engineers for his opinion of the military importance of the proposed road. Totten, a graduate of West Point, had been working on coastal defense issues for the preceding 30 years. He concluded that the proposed Alabama, Florida and Georgia line would be a welcome contribution to the solution of southern coastal defense problems. Ultimately the proposal failed to gain support in the House of Representatives. (5)   

                                                                     

J.G. Totten

Numerous proposals for new railroad lines were received all stating their strategic military purpose. The Selma & Tennessee Railroad, Alexandria & Falmouth Railroad, the Citizens of Detroit and others all recalled the embarrassing military performances of the War of 1812 in their proposals to Congress. Up until 1840, all of these proposals to Congress based on military importance made up a bundle of disjointed, personally profitable and self serving railroad projects that were not a part of any grand plan. In slightly more than a decade about 1,800 miles of track had been laid and while certain areas of the country like New England and the Mid-Atlantic region were fairly well served by a railroad network the remainder of the country, in particular the West and southern coastal regions were without.

The citizens of Uniontown, in their effort to assist the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, manifested a broader vision than most of their contemporaries but fell short of a new vision offered by General Edmund P. Gaines. A veteran of the War of 1812 and with decades of Army service on the frontier Gaines would offer the War Department a comprehensive plan for a national railroad system designed to enhance homeland defense. In 1831 he quietly launched a campaign to inform and convince the War Department that railroads embodied the future of military tactics. In 1838, he had developed his plan well enough to submit it to Washington. Unfortunately, Gaines had few friends in the Department and had often been at loggerheads with General Winfield Scott and other high ranking leaders throughout his career due his proclivity to criticize Departmental policies and action. His plan for the railroad system therefore received a less than warm reception. Convinced that the War Department had a vendetta against him he broke through the chain of authority and launched his proposal directly to Congress in 1840 by presenting a lengthy memorial outlining “…a system of national defense, and praying its adoption by Congress.” (6)

Edmund P. Gaines

  In his proposal was a plan to design and construct seven railroad trunk lines radiating from Tennessee and Kentucky, the two most central states in the Union, to seven strategic locations on the frontier. One line would go from Lexington, Kentucky to Buffalo, New York with branches to Detroit, Albany and Boston; the second from Knoxville, Tennessee to Baltimore, Maryland with branches to Richmond, Virginia and Newbern, North Carolina; the third from Memphis to Charleston, South Carolina with branches to Milledgeville, Georgia and the Northeast coast of Florida; the fourth from Louisville to Mobile with a branch to Pensacola; the fifth from Lexington to New Orleans; the sixth from Memphis deep into Arkansas and the seventh from Albany, Indiana to St. Louis with branches to Chicago and the upper reaches of the Des Moines River. He supplemented this vision for a national railroad system with powerful coastal floating batteries, heavily armed and propelled by steam engines. This, he argued, would all but eliminate the need for standing coastal and interior fortifications.

Gaines asserted that the 600 miles of right of way he proposed would average $15,000.00 per mile of double track laid. If constructed by the U.S. Army the total cost would be approximately $64 million. A large investment, no doubt, but Gaines credibly illustrated that troops and munitions could be moved throughout he country in one tenth of the time and at one tenth of the expense under current conditions. He also argued that “…we shall save our citizen soldiers from what they usually deem the most irksome and insupportable afflictions and privations attending their tours of military service; we shall save them from long and tedious marches, and from still more painful separation from wife, children, friends and business.”

This system was calculated by Gaines meticulously right down to the salary of the labor of the lowest enlisted man required to construct the seven roads. Ending his memorial he made a passionate plea to Congress stating that he had previously been ignored and, even, snubbed by the War Department on many occasions prior.  Within a week of his presentation he was immediately disillusioned when Congress referred his proposal right back to the Secretary of War J.R. Poinsett. (7)

Upon receipt of Gaines’ proposal, Poinsett replied “…with every respect to the gallant author…” he could hardly agree with any proposal that relegated the entire defense of the nation to a system of railroads and floating batteries. Congress laid aside Gaines’ ambitious scheme and, once again, centered its attention on individual railroads and their promoters to achieve a network that could be efficiently used by the military when required. Perhaps General Gaines made one fatal error in his proposal-despite his sour reputation inside the War Department, by proposing that his system of railroads and floating coastal batteries would eliminate the need for all coastal fortifications and garrisons.

During the next several years proposals by individual railroad companies continued to flood through Congresses doors almost all singing the same song by highlighting their strategic and economic importance for military strategy. In further assessments by the War Department up until and through the Mexican War the argument continued over whether the strategic use of railroad would replace or reduce the size and number of standing fortifications and coastal defense systems and little was accomplished.

While some transportation historians have dubbed the Mexican War America’s first ‘steamboat war” railroad networks and technology had advanced to the point that the military was able to utilize the system, not in the theater of war which was concentrated in the Southwest, but to transport troops from city centers to points where the great caravan of war gathered to move West. In March of 1846 the First Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, raised in Philadelphia, was able to move by train in relatively rapid fashion in order to join General Winfield Scott’s army in New Orleans. (8)
 

Winfield Scott

  At the end of the War in 1848 and with a net gain of more than 500,000 square miles of former Mexican land, the United States at once had an uninterrupted passage to the Pacific.  Railroad companies once consumed by petitioning Congress for financial aid in constructing relatively short lines with an argument for national defense now turned an eye to the embryonic concept of a transcontinental railroad. It would be another dozen years following the opening guns of the American Civil War before the railroads would make their mark in military strategy, troop and munitions movements and, even, as tools of destruction but it is clear that the military might of this emerging technology in the United States did not go unnoticed by the profiteers, politicians and citizens alike.

                                                                 

 

NOTES:

1.                  Memorials of the President and Directors of the South Carolina Canal & Railroad Company, Feb. 9, 1829 and January 3, 1830. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), SEN 20A-G10 and SEN 21A-G10.

2.                  NARA SEN 23A-G13, January 10, 1832

3.                  NARA SEN 24A-G15, March 28, 1836

4.                  House Executive documents, 24^th Congress, 1st Session, No. 243, pp. 17-18

5.                  Senate Journal, June 25, 1838 p. 493, and House Executive Documents, 25^th Congress, 3^rd Session, No. 198.

6.                  James W. Silvers, Edmund Pendleton Gaines and Frontier Problems, 1801-1849 (Nashville, 1935).

7.                  Memorial of Edmund P. Gaines Outlining a system of National Defense, March 6, 1840. NARA SEN 26A-G11

8.                  House Executive Documents, 32^nd Congress, 1st Session, no. 5, pp. 230-232