Rails of the Manassas Gap Railroad, Alexandria Va.

From an elevated perspective, A. J. Russell made this photograph overlooking the Union Army's plentiful supply of iron rails. Rows of barracks and a train of boxcars fill the background. Between the tall, neatly stacked rails rests a train of flatbed cars loaded with more rails. During the American Civil War, the frequent destruction of railroads required a large supply of replacement rails. According to one report, the Union's. Military Railroad purchased over 21,000 tons of track between 1862 and 1865.