Railroads played a central role in deciding how the unit would assail their enemy. In the Civil War, the North had an upper hand on the South for several key reasons; first off, the country's main industrial base was centered in the North East, and they had a majority of the railroads that went through the midwest ending near the South. This meant that a lot of destruction was caused in order to reach the location of the South. When fighting broke out between the North and South in 1861 the country had a rail network stretching over 30,000 miles. Unfortunately for the South over 21,000 miles of this network was concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest, which left the region just around 9,000 miles to transport goods, material and people. This glaring statistic left the South at a tactical disadvantage that would prove appease their progress. The rail network was built of light construction, which was not beneficial to the heavy transport(groups of men, and equipment).
While southern railroads tried to keep the trains moving during the war, Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, a Northern system received critical damage during the attack as well. With its main line and a number of other branches positioned right on the edge of the border between the North and South in Maryland and Virginia; this caused it to constantly remain under attack by either the Confederate army or Southern supporters. To try and deal with the damage that transpired, the South built the first-ever armored rail car that looking very similar to the South's famous Merrimack ironclad warship...accept on wheels!
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