What Is a Richmond York Railroad Company Gear Worth 1856 Railroads of the Civil War Virginia's railroad network in 1859, prior to the Ceremonious War Source: Library of Congress, Railroad map of the eastern, western and northern states, and Canada (1859) The overt fighting in the Civil War started in 1861, merely the foundations for Spousal relationship victory were laid in the preceding decade. If the war had started in 1850, secession might have succeeded. I of the key changes betwixt 1850-1860 was completion of four separate railroad links between the Ohio River/Great Lakes and the northern states. Without the railroads crossing the Appalachians, farmers in the "Northwest" of the 1850's (especially Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio) would have relied upon the Mississippi River to carry crops to marketplace in New Orleans. Evolution of the steamboat in the 1850'south, allowing