Military history professor Christopher Gabel discusses the importance of railroads and Steam Powered locomotives to the union and confederate armies and explains how railroads made the scale of the civil war possible and describes how and why the confederacys powerful Railroad System broke down as the war progressed. The Kansas City Public Library hosted this hourlong event. Thank you very much for the kind introduction and for being here. Folks, you know when we look back at the onset of the american civil war, we view it through the lens of the war, itself. That shapes what were looking at. If you view the onset of the civil war a little more objectively instead of being all seeing all of the differences between north and south, youll tend to spot all the similarities. Think about it. The two sides in this conflict. It was a war of brother against brother and in some cases literally so. The two sides shared a common language. They had similar cultures and religions. They shared a ver
Advantage for the north, maybe that statistic is not really important either. Its whether or not the railroads actually were that significant in the conduct and outcome of the civil war. And if the answer to that question is no, we can save a lot of time here tonight. Ok. Well, this is the game changer right here. Water turns to steam and expands 1600 well so what . People have known this for thousands of years. Ok . Well, in the 1820s somebody figured out how to take that expansion and turn it into forward motion. You collect excuse me you collect the steam. You send it down to a piston. The piston drives the rod back and forth. The wheels go around and around and it goes forward. All right. So what . Well, here is the so what. With a Steam Powered locomotive pulling a train, you can carry more cargo farther on the same amount of fuel than you can by muscle power. A sixmule wagon carrying 1 1 2 tons of cargo can go roughly 333 miles on one ton of mule fuel. So you multiply 1. 5 tons t
And hell do it again hear on the steps of the capital in front of the entire nation. We may not see as many people around the excitement is in the air. We will get to steve ruden with what to expect temperaturewise but first we go to tom because it is such a big night. The official ball is tomorrow but there are many balls underay. The big crowd is here this is the maryland state ball here at national harbor. We were at a state bsallall in arlington as folks celebrate innaguration weekend. I Barack Hussein obama solemnly swear. He was officially sworn in today and joe biden tokok the oath of foficeoffice and tomorrow is the parade. Some say a second innaguration doesnt matter as much as most it is a big deal to have an africanamerican get reelected. Many say they will be there. It will be crowded on the metro but it will be fine. A million fewer people are expected but it will be crowded. Many spots will be shut down not just for cars but pedestrians. Some will stay away. The weather w