This is also the reason why none of the tunnels were ever dropped during the war save those above Gallatin, TN. That tunnel was bored out of shale which could burn. That was how Morgan dropped it - pushing in rail cars that were on fire which then caught the roof supports on fire and then the shale which finally collapsed. The L & N RR line was down for weeks.

The tunnel at Cowan, TN was 2200 feet long and in order to drop something like that you would have to do what coal miners do today (and then) - drill 15 to 20 feet into the tunnel walls and pack it with black powder and then set it off. No army had such equipment so the best they could have done was stack debris in the tunnel. The tunnel in north Georgia at what is now Tunnel Hill, could only have been dropped by the same method. Its other problem was that the Western & Atlantic RR was then and now, owned by the state of Georgia and Gov. Joe Brown would not have liked his nice tunnel taken down. This was especially important as that line was vital for Confederate supplies.

This is why bridges made much easier targets - you could tear up their rails and burn them much faster ans with less work.

There is an excellent web site dedicated to the Confederate rail system by the way loaded with lots of fantastic research. It can be reached at - www.csa-railroads.com

Greg Biggs