| Overview | |
|---|---|
| Locale | Tennessee |
| Dates of operation | 1856–1877 |
| Successor | Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway Company Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company Seaboard System Railroad Company |
| Technical | |
| Track gauge | 5 ft (1,524 mm) |
The McMinnville and Manchester Railroad Company was chartered by an Act of the legislature of the State of Tennessee on February 4, 1850. [1] Under this charter, the railroad company built a line of railroad from McMinnville, Tennessee. southwesterly through Manchester, Tennessee. to Tullahoma, Tennessee, where it connected with the railroad line of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad Company. [2]
The McMinnville and Manchester company opened 34.2 miles (55.0 km) of 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge railroad between McMinnville and Tullahoma in November 1856. [1] In the absence of any contract with the original owner that differed with the franchises granted by law, the railroad was entitled to a right-of-way extended 100 feet (30.5 m) on either side of the center of the railroad line. [3]
The McMinnville and Manchester Railroad line was leased to and operated by the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad for five years from January 1, 1857. [4] During the American Civil War, in early 1862, the railroad came under Union Army control. [5] In August 1862, the area through which the line was located came under Confederate States Army control for almost a year before it was reoccupied by Union forces.
Because of its strategic location in southeastern Tennessee, about 55 miles (89 km) north of Chattanooga, Tennessee, and its connection with the important Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, the McMinnville and Manchester line and equipment was fought over, used and damaged by both Union and Confederate armies.
In late August 1862, Confederate General Braxton Bragg began the Confederate Heartland Offensive, which culminated in the Battle of Perryville, Kentucky, on October 8, 1862. Bragg intended to recruit troops and support in Kentucky and to divert the Union Army's attention from Chattanooga and Vicksburg, Mississippi. Union Major General Don Carlos Buell's army was in control of most of southeastern Tennessee. Buell decided to deploy his force to stop Bragg from marching on Nashville, Tennessee. Union Major General George H. Thomas held McMinnville with two divisions. Three other divisions were to the south at Altamont, Tennessee, where they could maneuver to concentrate at various points to block Bragg's routes to Nashville, although the terrain was rugged. Thomas thought that the army should concentrate at McMinnville, in part because the railroad provided a line of supply and in part because it would be easy for Bragg to bypass Altamont, which he did after a successful diversionary attack there by Confederate Colonel Joseph Wheeler's cavalry. After Buell decided to withdraw all of his forces to Murfreesboro, Tennessee and then to Nashville to protect against Bragg's offensive, he had to race north with his army when he realized Bragg's actual objective was Kentucky. After the Battle of Perryville, as Bragg discovered that few recruits and little support had been found for the Confederate cause in Kentucky, he withdrew to Murfreesboro in the face of growing Union forces and extended. [6]
After the Battle of Stones River, or Murfreesboro, on December 31, 1862, and January 2, 1863, where Bragg faced a new Union commander, Major General William Rosecrans, Bragg retreated a short distance but still was located astride the main railroad about 30 miles (48 km) from Nashville on the line to Chattanooga. [7] For six months Rosecrans rebuilt his army and supplies before finally launching the Tullahoma Campaign which drove the Confederates back to Chattanooga through skillful maneuvers and with only 540 casualties. [8] Union forces were back in control of most of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad and its two connecting lines, the McMinnville and Manchester to the northeast from Tullahoma and the Winchester and Alabama Railroad to the southwest from Decherd, Tennessee, a few miles south of Tullahoma. Rosecrans established bases at McMinnville, Manchester and Winchester, Tennessee [9]
After the American Civil War, the McMinnville and Manchester Railroad property was placed in the hands of a receiver appointed by the State of Tennessee. [10]
Because the McMinnville and Manchester Railroad failed to pay interest on state bonds given in aid of its construction, the State of Tennessee foreclosed on its lien, or statutory mortgage, in 1871. [11] A decree was entered in the state chancery court in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 7, 1871, which ordered the sale of the McMinnville and Manchester Railroad, its franchises and property. [11] Because of uncertainty about whether the state could enforce the lien before the maturity date of the bonds, the railroad was given the right to purchase the road for a fair minimum price of $300,000. [12] The court entered a decree on September 30, 1871, stating that the railroad had been sold to itself. [13]
The McMinnville and Manchester Railroad Company never complied with the terms of sale. [13] On June 28, 1875, another decree was entered by the court confirming the sale of the McMinnville and Manchester Railroad and the Winchester and Alabama Railroad to the Memphis and Charleston Railroad Company. [13] On July 10, 1875, the Memphis and Charleston Railroad took title to the McMinnville and Manchester Railroad. [13]
On July 28, 1877, the Memphis and Charleston Railroad Company sold the McMinnville and Manchester Railroad and the Winchester and Alabama Railroad to the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway Company, which had been formed in 1872 through the consolidation of the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad Company and the Nashville and Northwestern Railroad Company. [13] [14] The McMinnville and Manchester Railroad line became the McMinnville branch of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway. [14]
The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway Company extended the McMinnville Branch line from McMinnville, Tennessee to Sparta, Tennessee, which it had the right to do under the McMinnville and Manchester Railroad Company charter and the charter of the Southwestern Railroad Company (Tennessee), which the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway Company also had acquired. [15]
The Southwestern Railroad Company also had defaulted on the state bonds issued in aid of its construction and the chancery court at Nashville, Tennessee entered a decree against it on June 8, 1871, and on July 6, 1871, the railroad was ordered sold. [16] As with the McMinnville and Manchester, the railroad, franchises and property of the Southwestern Railroad were sold to the company itself, which subsequently sold them to the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway Company. [17] The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway Company built the extension of the McMinnville Branch line from McMinnville, Tennessee, to Sparta, Tennessee. [15] After the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway Company completed the extension of the McMinnville line, the McMinnville Branch extended 55 miles (89 km) from Tullahoma, Tennessee, to Doyle, Tennessee. [1]
The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway later further extended the line to the Kentucky state line after it acquired the property and franchises of the Bon Air Railway Company on December 3, 1887. [18]
Tullahoma is a city in Coffee and Franklin counties in southern Middle Tennessee, United States. The population was 20,339 at the 2020 census. In 2019, the population was estimated to be 19,555. It is the principal city of the Tullahoma micropolitan area, which consists of Coffee, Franklin, and Moore counties and is the second largest micropolitan area in Tennessee.
Braxton Bragg was an American army officer during the Second Seminole War and Mexican–American War and Confederate general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, serving in the Western Theater. His most important role was as commander of the Army of Mississippi, later renamed the Army of Tennessee, from June 1862 until December 1863.
The Battle of Stones River, also known as the Second Battle of Murfreesboro, was a battle fought from December 31, 1862, to January 2, 1863, in Middle Tennessee, as the culmination of the Stones River Campaign in the Western Theater of the American Civil War. Of the major battles of the war, Stones River had the highest percentage of casualties on both sides. The battle ended in Union victory after the Confederate army's withdrawal on January 3, largely due to a series of tactical miscalculations by Confederate General Braxton Bragg, but the victory was costly for the Union army. Nevertheless, it was an important victory for the Union because it provided a much-needed boost in morale after the Union's recent defeat at Fredericksburg and also reinforced President Abraham Lincoln's foundation for issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, which ultimately discouraged European powers from intervening on the Confederacy's behalf.
The Army of Tennessee was the principal Confederate army operating between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River during the American Civil War. It was formed in late 1862 and fought until the end of the war in 1865, participating in most of the significant battles in the Western Theater.
Lieutenant-General Leonidas Polk was a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and founder of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, which separated from the Episcopal Church of the United States of America. He was a slaveholding planter in Maury County, Tennessee, and a second cousin of President James K. Polk. He resigned his ecclesiastical position to become a major-general in the Confederate States Army, when he was called "Sewanee's Fighting Bishop". His official portrait at the University of the South depicts him as a bishop with his army uniform hanging nearby. He is often erroneously referred to as "Leonidas K. Polk," but he had no middle name and never signed any documents as such.
The Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway was a railway company that operated in the U.S. states of Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, and Georgia. It began as the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, chartered in Nashville on December 11, 1845, built to 5 ft gauge and was the first railway to operate in the state of Tennessee. By the turn of the twentieth century, the NC&StL grew into one of the most important railway systems in the southern United States.
The Louisville and Nashville Railroad, commonly called the L&N, was a Class I railroad that operated freight and passenger services in the southeast United States.
The Tullahoma campaign was a military operation conducted from June 24 to July 3, 1863, by the Union Army of the Cumberland under Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans, and is regarded as one of the most brilliant maneuvers of the American Civil War. Its effect was to drive the Confederates out of Middle Tennessee and to threaten the strategic city of Chattanooga.
The Chickamauga campaign of the American Civil War was a series of battles fought in northwestern Georgia from August 21 to September 20, 1863, between the Union Army of the Cumberland and Confederate Army of Tennessee. The campaign started successfully for Union commander William S. Rosecrans, with the Union army occupying the vital city of Chattanooga and forcing the Confederates to retreat into northern Georgia. But a Confederate attack at the Battle of Chickamauga forced Rosecrans to retreat back into Chattanooga and allowed the Confederates to lay siege to the Union forces.
Alexander Peter Stewart was a career United States Army officer, college professor, and a general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He fought in many of the most significant battles in the Western Theater of the war, and briefly took command of the Army of Tennessee in 1865.
The western theater of the American Civil War encompassed major military operations in the states of Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, North Carolina, Kentucky, South Carolina and Tennessee, as well as Louisiana east of the Mississippi River. Operations on the coasts of these states, except for Mobile Bay, are considered part of the Lower Seaboard Theater. Most other operations east of the Appalachian Mountains are part of the eastern theater. Operations west of the Mississippi River took place in the trans-Mississippi theater.
John Thomas Wilder was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, noted principally for capturing the critical mountain pass of Hoover's Gap during the Tullahoma Campaign in Central Tennessee in June 1863. Wilder had personally ensured that his "Lightning Brigade" of mounted infantry was equipped with the new Spencer repeating rifle. However, Wilder initially had to appeal to his men to pay for these weapons themselves before the government agreed to carry the cost. The victory at Hoover's Gap was attributed largely to Wilder's persistence in procuring the new rifles, which disoriented the enemy.
The Southwestern Railroad started a 5 ft gauge spur line from Sparta, Tennessee to McMinnville, Tennessee to connect with the McMinnville and Manchester Railroad. The Southwestern Railroad Company was chartered in 1851–52 to build a railroad from Danville, Kentucky to McMinnville in less than ten years. The company received several extensions to complete the road during and after the American Civil War. Former Confederate general George Gibbs Dibrell served as president. The company went bankrupt in 1871 having constructed only a small part of the road from McMinnville to Sparta. Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway (NC&StL) purchased the assets. In 1884, NC&StL finished the 26-mile (42 km) segment to Sparta to reach the coal mines at Bon Air, Tennessee.
The 47th Wisconsin Infantry Regiment was a volunteer infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
5th Indiana Battery Light Artillery was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It was often referred to as Simonson's Battery.
The 72nd Indiana Infantry Regiment, also known as 72nd Indiana Mounted Infantry Regiment, was an infantry and mounted infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The regiment served as mounted infantry from March 17, 1863, to November 1, 1864, notably as part of the Lightning Brigade during the Tullahoma and Chickamauga Campaigns.
The 5th Tennessee Cavalry Regiment was a cavalry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. This regiment was originally recruited as the 1st Middle Tennessee Cavalry.
Benjamin Jefferson Hill was a Confederate States Army brigadier general during the American Civil War. Before the war, he was a merchant and served in the Tennessee Senate. After the war, he was a merchant, lawyer and president of the McMinnville and Manchester Railroad.
Henry Benedict Mattingly was a Union Army soldier in the American Civil War and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration, the Medal of Honor, for his actions at the September 1, 1864 Battle of Jonesborough, Georgia.
