The Photographic History of The Civil War: in ten volumes, Thousands of Scenes Photographed 1861-65, with Text by many Special Authorities, Volume 1: The Opening Battles.
Francis Trevelyan Miller, Ed.

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Federals advancing into Tennessee--1862: Engineers and Infantry busy at the Elk River Bridge Incessantly, through rain or shine, the work on this bridge over the Elk River, near Pulaski, Tennessee, on the Central Alabama Railroad, went on during the months of June and July. The engineers had before them an enormous task. The Federal General Buell's army was short of supplies and ammunition, and the completion of this bridge, and other bridges, was a matter of vital necessity. Supplies had to be brought from Nashville. The roads were heavy with mud and the incessant rains had swollen the streams, making it not only slow but almost impossible for wagon trains to keep in touch with the base. Over the Central Alabama (Nashville and Decatur Railroad) food and other necessities for the army's very existence had to be transported. Among those workers who labored uncomplainingly and whose work bore fruit, was the First Regiment, Michigan Engineers, that numbered among its enlisted men mechanics and artisans of the first class. They built this bridge pictured here. Four companies were employed in its construction, aided by an infantry detail working as laborers. The bridge was 700 feet long, 58 feet high, and crossed the Elk River at a point where the water was over 20 feet deep. At the right of the picture three of the engineer officers are consulting together, and to the left a squad of infantry are marching to their position as bridge guards. Here is the daily business of war — to which fighting is the occasional exception.