The development of railroad transportation in East Tennessee during the reconstruction period.

The Civil War demonstrated most effectively the value of existing railroads as well as the need for greater development of this mode of transportation. Paradoxically, that war contributed greatly to the destruction of lines of road already completed, and to the paralysis of railroad enterprises under construction. Especially was this true of the border states. Railroads in Tennessee, and in the eastern part of that state in particular, suffered considerably from wilful destruction and deterioration due to neglect during the conflagration between the states. When order was restored in 1865, railroad companies in East Tennessee were faced with the herculean task of rehabilitating existing lines and renovating and completing unfinished roads. Private capital had been practically wiped out by the war, and the natural resources of the state were insufficiently developed to furnish the necessary means for reconstructing the railroads of the state so necessary to the development of those resources. In an effort to meet this stringency, the General Assembly of Tennessee issued enormous quantities of state bonds to railroad companies. During the years immediately following the war, when so many citizens were disfranchised, the control of the affairs of the state was largely in the hands of the East Tennesseeans. Accordingly, railroad executives in that section, often by the exercise of questionable methods, obtained enormous loans from the state and exercised many priviledges not fully enjoyed by other companies of the state. It is the purpose of this narrative to present in a unified story the history of the various railroad developments in East Tennessee during the reconstruction period (1865-1880).