George T. Lewis, receiver for the Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville Railroad, noted the railroad was “not able to meet interest promptly upon bonds granted to said company,” according to a March 10, 1866, letter. The letter was included in an 1867 House Judiciary Committee report produced during the the impeachment investigation against President Andrew Johnson.

Lewis also stated that “during the first year of the war the bridges upon the road were all destroyed, excepting one permanent and one draw-bridge over the Cumberland river; also the greater portion of the tressle on the line of the road, and the road-bed itself has been greatly injured during the past five years—cuts filling up and embankments being washed away.”

That meant the railroad had major repairs to make. The state legislature “funded the interest due on the bonds of the State, the larger portion of which had been issued in aid of different railroad companies; and the Legislature also appropriated, to put the Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville railroad in running order, State bonds amounting to four hundred thousand dollars ($400,000).”

Lewis also noted:

In obedience to instructions from his excellency the Governor, Wm. G. Brownlow, I purchased, as receiver for the Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville railroad, from the United States government, rolling stock, such as engines, passenger and freight cars, and other material and supplies, all of which amounted to over three hundred thousand dollars. The road is now being put in order, and it is believed will be operated over the entire line from the State line of Kentucky to Paris, Tennessee, by the first day of June next. All of the means appropriated by the Legislature will be required for the rebuilding of bridges, and repairs necessary to put the road in good condition; consequently, I shall not have any means to meet the monthly instalments due the United States government, the collection of which has up to this time been suspended by Major General Thomas, commanding.

The Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville Railroad received it charter on Jan. 28, 1852, from the state of Tennessee. The line connected with the Memphis & Ohio Railroad and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad to provide connecting service between Memphis and Louisville. As Lewis pointed out:

The Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville railroad forms an important link in the line of railroad connecting Louisville with Memphis, New Orleans, and Mobile, and will, when in operation, have a large portion of passage and freight traffic from the north and east to the south and southwest. But, in consequence of the embarrassed condition of the road, financially, I am satisfied the instalments due to the United States government cannot be met for some time to come, as the proceeds of the road will be required tor the betterment of the road, so as to make it what it should be, a first class road.

Lewis asked the government “to suspend the collection of the claim of the United States government for two years,” noting that most “have been greatly embarrassed by the prostration of their business for the past five years.” After two years, Lewis predicted, “the monthly instalments will be met promptly.”

According to “The Reports of the Committees of the House of Representatives Made During the Second Session Thirty-Ninth Congress”:

Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville railroad.—Shortly after the close of the war, propositions were made by this company to the Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville Railroad Company to repair their road from Clarksville to Paris, Tennessee, with a view of forming a through railroad connection with Memphis. The Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville railroad having no means to put the road in order, the Louisville and Nashville railroad offered to operate the road, and to apply the net earnings to the redemption of the debt. Unfortunately this proposition was not accepted, and a whole year’s business was thus lost. Early last spring the Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville Railroad Company obtained aid from the State of Tennessee—$400,000 in bonds—and soon after an arrangement was entered into by the two companies, according to which the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company was to furnish the money on the security of these bonds. Under this arrangement, much more favorable and secure to this company than the one first proposed, the repairs of the road are now being pushed with energy, under the able management of George T. Lewis, esq., the receiver on the part of the State of Tennessee, and will be completed early in August.*

The opening of this line of road brings us 118 miles nearer to Memphis, Mobile, and New Orleans; and a new section of country, along the Memphis and Ohio, Mobile and Ohio, and Mississippi Central railroads, is made accessible to the trade of Louisville, which heretofore could only be reached in a very indirect way. Arrangements have been made with the two connecting lines for the operation of the road to Memphis, in effect the same as if it was under the control of one company. Passengers will not have to change cars between Louisville and Memphis, and freight will go through without break of bulk. One day and two nights is all the time required to put freight from Louisville to Memphis, and vice versa. This arrangement, it is hoped, will, when fully known among business men, induce a large amount of freight to go over this line. The superintendents of the Mobile and Ohio and Mississippi Central railroads have declared their willingness to make favorable arrangements with us for the speedy transportation of freight over their roads at reasonable rates.

Taken Aug. 14, 2011, in Smyrna, Ga.

Photos taken Aug. 19, 2011.

It was June 5, 1862, less than two months after Andrews led a daring raid behind enemy lines. The Andrews Raid, as it is today known, aimed to destroy the Western & Atlantic Railroad, a major lifeline between Atlanta and Chattanooga.

“The sentence seems a hard one for the crime proven against me, but I suppose the court that tried me thought otherwise,” Andrews wrote in a letter to D.S. McGavic, an attorney in Flemingsburg, Ky., Andrews’ home town. “I have now calmly submitted to my fate and have been earnestly engaged in preparing to meet my God in peace; and I have found that peace of mind and tranquillity (sic) of soul that even astonishes myself. I never supposed it possible that a man could feel so entire a change under similar circumstances.”

Two days later, Andrews was taken by train to the present day intersection of Juniper and Third streets in Atlanta and hanged. His body was buried in a shallow grave, where it remained for more than two decades when it was exhumed and re-interred at Chattanooga National Cemetery.

The Andrews Raid, also known as the Great Locomotive Chase, is one of the more colorful events that took place during the Civil War. A number of museums and historic markers in Georgia remember the raid.

Check back for Part II.

While trains still operate in a number of those cities, railroads are a distant memory in others. But a handful of cities in Georgia have a memorial dedicated to the role railroads played.

Here is a brief overview of steam locomotives on public display throughout Metro Atlanta.

Winder: Gainesville Midland 208

Gainesville Midland No. 208 was built by Pennsylvania-based Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1930. The decapod – as the locomotive is known because of its 10 drive wheels – originally operated as No. 530 on the Seaboard Air Line.

The Gainesville Midland purchased the steamer during the 1950s, and the locomotive operated until 1959. After its retirement, No. 208 was given to the city of Winder. No. 208 was originally displayed near Athens Street and was moved to its current location in 1981.

Conyers: The Dinky

Between 1948 and about 1960, this small 0-6-0 steam locomotive served on the 3-mile-long Milstead Railroad between Callaway Mills in the small community of Milstead and nearby Conyers, where the line interchanged with the Georgia Railroad.

Engine No. 104, built in 1905 by Rogers, is, according to some sources, one of only a handful of this type locomotive still in existence. The engine apparently picked up the nickname “Dinky” because of its short stature.

The West Point Railroad originally owned the Dinky. Callaway Mills, formerly the Milstead Manufacturing Co., bought the locomotive in 1948 and put it into service hauling cotton over the Milstead Railroad. The locomotive is today on display in downtown Conyers, the town the Dinky once served.

Marietta: Glover locomotive

Locomotive No. 81421 was built in 1916 by Marietta’s own Glover Machine works. The 2-6-0 narrow gauge steam engine operated as Coulbourn Brothers No. 4 starting the following year. In 1921, the locomotive returned to Glover Machine Works.

Having just pulled out of the parking lot, I noticed the familiar flashing red lights at the railroad crossing just ahead. I gunned it, so I would reach the crossing in time to watch the train pass by. (For starters, how man people speed up so they can wait at a grade crossing?)

After stopping, I asked my fiancé for her camera. I was set. The only problem: Her camera didn’t have a memory card in it.

I then reached for my camera. I quickly realized it was in my trunk.

I jumped out and ran for the trunk. The woman in the car behind me must have though I lost my mind. I was having a Chinese fire drill all by myself.

I grabbed the camera and set up to start taking pictures only to find out that my camera’s batteries were dead.

Just then, the train passed by. It was a work train. What great photos there could have been.

What does it always seem to be that way?

Taken in Springfield, Tenn., circa 2002

These images were taken in August 2003.