“Devereaux and Haupt, The Magician Engineers of the US Military Railroad, Forum presented by Bill Etue August 12, 2009

John H. Devereux started his career as a surveyor in Ohio and then became a railroad superintendent prior to the Civil War. Once the Civil War started, he volunteered his services to the US Government and was assigned to the United States Military Railroad (USMRR) where he served as Superintendent of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad from March 1862 until he left the service in March 1864. He went on to have an outstanding career as a railroad man in the Mid-west. Herman Haupt was a 19th Century railroad genius who had already established his credentials prior to the war. The Secretary of War personally requested him to work for the USMRR. He served without pay from April 1862 to September 1863 and only left when after being promoted to a Brigadier General, the military required him to join the regular army which he refused. He resigned instead. Both Devereux and Haupt established procedures, rewrote policies and developed the USMRR into a branch of the service critical to the war effort. The presentation will discuss many of their successful exploits.
Free. Donations welcome.
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