The Civil war saw the 1st use of armored rail cars. With this page I hope to document the various designs used and proposed by the North and the South. If you as find any information, drawings, or photos that I may use to round out the available information, please contact me at firstmdus@comcast.net
Confederate Rail
“Dry Land Merrimac” (Title from
Proposed by Gen Robert E. Lee to
“Is there a possibility of constructing an iron plated battery mounting a heavy gun on trucks, the whole covered with iron to move along the
Completed: June 14, 1862
Designer: Lieut. John M. Brooks, CSN
Armament: 32 pound 57 CWT
Weight of car: 60 tons
Supervisor of Construction: Lt. James Barry, CSN
Commander: Lieut R.D. Minor
Crew:
Savage Station, June 1862. Pushed by standard RR engine. Ordered to be advanced from
Period image of the Rail car. Sketch by Private Robert Sneden,
Note side iron armor and “cotton clad” sharpshooter car.
From “The History of the Confederate States Navy”:
“To a Confederate officer, Lieut James Barry, who had served both afloat and ashore, was due the invention and construction of an ironclad railway battery. He and some of his men, members of the Norfolk United artillery, had served on the CSS Virginia in Hampton Roads; and when the Confederate army was drawn behind the railroad lines around Richmond he conceived the project of, as the Richmond newspapers styled it, the “Dry Land Merrimac.” Upon a double set of car trucks he built a firm floor, upon which he erected an armor-plated casemate similar to that of the Confederate ironclads, and mounted in it one of the Brooke banded and rifled guns so admirably adapted to firing either shot or shell. It was on several occasions brought into action on the York River railroad in the neighborhood of
Note: See Federal 1 gun Armoured Parrot car below. It has been suggested that they might be the same car. I do not know if this is true or false as the car no longer exists, nor will I comment as this site is only to provide a clearinghouse of available information.
Galveston Confederate cottonclad Rail Battery
Proposed by General John Magruder.
Completed: Late 1862
Designer: ?
Armament: 32 pounder on a barbette carriage
Armor: breastwork of 500lb cotton bales
Supervisor of Construction: ?
Commander: ?
A simple railroad flat car mounting a cannon behind a wall of cotton bales. Employed Jan 1, 1863 in a gunfire exchange with the Federal gunboat,
Jacksonville Confederate cottonclad Rail Battery
Proposed by Brig Gen Joseph Finegan.
Completed: 1863
Designer: ?
Armament: 30 pound Parrott rifle
Armor: breastwork of 500lb cotton bales
Supervisor of Construction: ?
Commander: Lt Drury Rambo (crew of 14)
Similar to Magruder’s car. Used in several skirmishes near
Federal 1 gun “
Completed: 1861
Designer: ?
Armament: 12 pound napoleon?, Sharpshooters
Commander: ?
Used on
Federal 2 gun Rail Road Monitor
(Analysis of Image by Michael Levy)
(Plan drawings from Edwin Alexander book. Dimensions for "O" scale model)
(Actual Edwin Alexander model. National Toy Train Museum, Strasburg PA)
Completed: 1861
Designer: ?
Armament: 2- 12 pound napoleons?
Commander: ?
Used to protect trains from raiders. Built on a standard RR flat car. Pushed or pulled by Standard RR engine. Advantage of being able to fire to the sides of the train.
Federal 3 gun Rail Road Monitor
Completed: ?
Designer: ?
Armament: 3- field guns
Described in account of the battle of Folck's Mill, just east of
“The confederate forces then turned south to cross the Potomac near
Defending was the 153
Some of the
The armored train in support was an ad-hoc affair, consisting of "iron-clad railroad batteries containing three guns each, and four musket proof boxcars with loop holes for riflemen. Manning the train was a detachment of Company K, 2nd Regiment, Potomac Home Brigade, under Captain Peter B. Petrie."
Confederate gunner George McElwee of the Baltimore Light Artillery sent his first shot through the locomotive boiler, disabling the train. He then disabled an artillery piece on one of the gun cars with his second shot. With the train disabled, the crew and soldiers bailed out. McElwee was certainly the premier anti-armor gunner of his day.” Armored Trains in the Civil War
Opequon Monitor
Unknown design (possibly same 3 gun car described above)
In operation defending repair parties along the B&O rail line west of
Great Cacapon Monitor
Unknown design (possibly same 3 gun car described above)
Drove off an attacking enemy party at
Federal Rifle Car
No picture, (yet)
Completed: ?
Designer: ?
Armament: small arms
Resembled ordinary boxcars, but their shielding was placed inside the cars. Musket apertures on all sides offered their crews wide fields of fire for small arms. Improvement over the Federal 1gun car in that the infantry men were separated from the cannon of the monitor car.
Federal 1 gun Armored Parrot Car
(Plan drawings from Edwin Alexander book)
(Actual Edwin Alexander model, National Toy Train Museum, Strasburg PA)
(Harold Zeigler model, 1991, Railroad Museum of PA, Strasburg PA)
-
Completed: 1864
Designer: ?
Armament: 1 Parrot Rifle ?pdr
Commander: ?
Used as a siege gun near
Federal ironclad car #319
Unknown design, possibly one of above.
Car #319 Listed in a railroad bill of damages as lost to rebel action near
Federal
Map by a Captain R.S. Williamson, a
(Map image provided by Steve Shaffer,
2 cars constructed
Completed: Summer 1862
Designer: ?
Armament: 2-32pdrs
Commander: ?
Built and used for the defense of
“We shall have a chance to celebrate the 4th of July, as we did the 8th of February, 14th of March and the 19th of April. There is nothing of much importance except getting ready to move. A train is running between here and Beaufort. The road bed has been repaired as far as
Pvt. Henry Brown, 21st Mass. Co. F
Bibliography
“Civil War Railroads & Models”, Edwin P. Alexander, Clarkson N. Potter, Inc,
“Images from the Storm”, Private Robert Sneden, The Free Press,
“History of the Confederate States Navy”, J. Thomas Scharf, Fairfax Press
“Northern Railroads in the Civil War”, Thomas Weber,
“American Civil War Railroad Tactics”, Robert Hodges Jr., Osprey Publishing,
"Railroads of the Civil War an Illustrated History", Michael Leavy, Westholme Publishing, Yardley Pa, 2010
UPCOMMING! “Ironclads on Rails”, Alan R. Koenig, 2011?
Links
Armored Trains in the Civil War
HO scale models from Bradford Exchange
Civil War Railroad Yahoo group
National Toy Train Museum Home of many of the Alexander models
US Military Railroad 1863 Some absolutely beautiful models by Bernard Kempinski. A must see!
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Last modified: Mar 2014
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