The Central of Georgia Railway supported the South's war effort. Helen Dortch Longstreet defended the South's scapegoat. Now papers by and about them will be more accessible to researchers

Helen Dortch Longstreet, Central of Georgia records (Atlanta History Center) and a Nancy Hanks ad (Wikipedia)

The archives of Georgia’s first railroad -- which during the Civil War moved troops and supplies, lost locomotives, boxcars and miles of track to the enemy, even suffering the indignity of its rails being fashioned into “Sherman’s neckties” – have been moved from Savannah to Atlanta, where they will be made more accessible to researchers.

The Atlanta History Center acquired the equivalent of three football fields of Central of Georgia Railway records from the Savannah-based Georgia Historical Society, which in turn received collections from the AHC. Among the latter are papers relating to Helen Dortch Longstreet, stout defender of her husband, Confederate Gen. James Longstreet.

The swap was made possible through a $500,000 gift from Norfolk Southern. The idea is to allow researchers to pore through consolidated collections in Atlanta or Savannah – and not have to travel to both cities.

The collection includes records of affiliated and acquired rail lines (Atlanta History Center)

In 2021, Norfolk Southern donated the Southern Railway archives, dating to 1828, to the AHC.

“With the addition of the Central of Georgia Railway records, that story is now more complete, offering a deeper look at how rail transformed the Southeast,” Norfolk Southern said. Both railways were predecessors of Norfolk Southern.

While researchers had been able to go through some Central of Georgia records, many documents have never been processed and were kept at a storage site in Savannah, officials said.

Jackson McQuigg, vice president of properties for the AHC, told the Picket “the expectation is that processing and indexing these records will make the materials of interest and available to scholars and others beyond narrow niche groups.” In other words: a broader audience.

A portion of William K. Hubbell's railroad map showing lines in 1861 indicates the Central Rail Road as No. 41. From "The Railroads of the Confederacy" by Robert C. Black III. Copyright © 1952 by the University of North Carolina Press, renewed 1980 by Robert C. Black III. Used by permission of the publisher. www.uncpress.org

Central of Georgia, founded in Savannah in 1833 as the Central Rail Road and Canal Company, was a key transportation concern in the Southeast. It merged with Southern Railway in 1963. Many Georgians remember the Nancy Hanks train that ran from Atlanta to Savannah for decades.

Railroads were crucial to both sides during the Civil War. Several companies operated in Georgia, and the Confederacy fashioned a network through towns and larger cities where the lines connected.

Known as Central Rail Road & Banking Co. of Georgia in the 1860s, the company was profitable for the first few years of the war, according to a 1976 book by Richard E. Prince.

Its main line was from Savannah to Macon, with an extension to Milledgeville – Georgia’s capital at the time – and Eatonton. It had affiliates elsewhere.

It will take months to go through the trove of documents (Atlanta History Center)

The Central of Georgia “ran through an area plentiful with large plantations, and is known … as the ‘bread basket of the South,’ the source of much of the food consumed by the Confederate Army,” Prince wrote in "Central of Georgia Railway and Connecting Lines.”

The Coastal Plain region also produced valuable cotton for the Southern war effort

In September 1863, the Central of Georgia and other companies moved Longstreet’s corps from Orange Courthouse, Va., to North Georgia, where they arrived in time to help deliver a blow against the Union army at Chickamauga.

But the relative good times for the resilient company came to an end in 1864 as Federal troops descended on Atlanta and the heart of Georgia.

The Central of Georgia records will complement the Southern Railway collection (Atlanta History Center)

“Particularly for the first few months of the 1864 campaign, both Sherman and Grant feared that the Confederates would send forces from Virginia and the Atlantic Coast to Atlanta by rail, with the final link being the Georgia Railroad,” said Charlie Crawford, president emeritus of the Georgia Battlefields Association.

“All the rail lines were important to supplying (Atlanta), though most of the foodstuffs and animal feed came from the Macon & Western and the Atlanta & West Point,” said Crawford.

While the railway was still operational, trains were used to disperse the Confederate wounded to hospitals east of Atlanta, including in Madison, Washington and Augusta, he added.

Union Maj. Gen. George Stoneman’s botched cavalry July 1864 foray toward Macon dealt a punch to Central of Georgia, though it was able to rebuild some infrastructure. More than 100 miles of track, along with station houses, depots and other structures, were damaged or destroyed.

Sherman’s March to the Sea (illustration, Library of Congress, above) was even more crippling as the wings of his army advancing on Savannah tore up track and burned locomotives, bridges and boxcars.

Old articles in the Central of Georgia “The Right Way” magazine detail some of the company’s losses. One calculated $1.6 million (in 1860s dollars) for reconstruction and losses, including $220,100 as the value of enslaved people who got their freedom.

“These figures do not include the value of 34 cars burned by Sherman’s troops, nor the value of 95 cars lost on foreign roads, where some were sent to evade capture, and some commandeered by the Confederate Government for its use. Neither do they include the funds advanced to the Confederate Government, the depreciation in Confederate currency held by the Railway, or the deferred repairs made to engines, cars and roadway. In addition, many of the structures erected after this raid and charged to cost of reconstruction of the road, were not as substantial as the original ones, and were replaced by the Railway over a period of many years.”

In 1862, the Central of Georgia had 58 locomotives and 729 cars. It maintained 49 locomotives and 537 cars in 1866, when service was restored from Savannah to Macon. The Central of Georgia rebounded fairly quickly after the war ended, providing passenger and freight service for generations.

The Atlanta History Center said by spring 2026 it will have completed the “discovery phase” of what all is in the Central of Georgia papers, including records from the Civil War era. (Replica of a Sherman Necktie at Fort McAllister, Ga., right)

McQuigg provided some context, starting with the 1833 formation of the Monroe Railroad and Banking Company, known later as the Macon & Western.

“The Macon & Western was, of course, the third railroad to reach Atlanta (after the Western & Atlantic Railroad and the Georgia Railroad), in 1846. Although the Macon & Western was not acquired by the Central of Georgia until after the Civil War, we’ve seen some interesting Macon & Western materials in the collection, including maps showing the railroad’s approach into Atlanta which identify the adjacent property owners,” McQuigg said. “And we know that there are engineering drawings of many of the Central of Georgia and Macon & Western’s pre-Civil War structures, such as bridges. There is bound to be much more.”

Highlights from the collection include extensive photographs of farms and communities along the routes of the Central of Georgia. They were produced in the late 19^th century, the AHC said.

“Some of the railroad’s passenger and freight trains are also depicted in the collection, including the well-known ’pocket streamliners,’ which ran passenger service on the railroad following World War II -- the Atlanta-Columbus Man O’ War and the Atlanta-Savannah Nancy Hanks -- as well as some of the through passenger trains operated by the CofG,” said McQuigg.

In its early days, the Savannah-based railway printed its own currency

Allen Tuten, president of the Central of Georgia Railway Historical Society, said his organization has done substantial research in the files when they were kept at the Georgia Historical Society.

“The society also inventoried/indexed all of the unprocessed files that had been in storage. We will be working with the AHC (as we did with the GHS) to ensure that all of the files, documents and drawings are made available for researchers. The materials now at AHC comprise the largest single collection of CofGa files,” Tuten said.

For its part of the archives swap, the Georgia Historical Society received several major manuscript and photographic collections from the AHC that add to its existing collections.

“Many document pivotal moments in modern Georgia, including portions of the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games photo archive and files from the Georgia Film Commission,” an October news release said.

The GHS had two-thirds of the papers relating to Helen Dortch Longstreet. The AHC had one-third, and sent them to Savannah. (At left, James and Helen in 1900, courtesy Dan Paterson)

Keith Strigaro, director of communications for the society, said the Longstreet collection consists primarily of correspondence, with the majority consisting of carbon copies of letters written by Helen Dortch Longstreet.

The society provided this information:

“The correspondence covers her numerous interests, both personal and political. Personal topics include family information, her health, her financial situation and her passion to clear the name of her husband, General James Longstreet. Contained in the political correspondence are letters to many politicians covering topics such as elections, the New Deal, political corruption in the Virgin Islands (also newspapers), and other political issues she viewed as important.”

“A large portion of the collection describes her efforts to clear General Longstreet's name. She attempted this through speeches, publications, the Longstreet memorial Association, and the Longstreet Memorial Exhibit, both at the New York World's Fair of 1938 and the Golden Gate Exposition of 1940. There are also photographs of the exhibit, the Longstreet Memorial and the 75th Gettysburg Reunion.”

Helen led a fascinating life and is remembered as a progressive reformer, librarian, postmistress and riveter at  a Georgia aircraft manufacturing plant during World War II.

She died in 1962, 58 years after her husband’s passing.