VICKSBURG  Mississippi 

The Southern Railroad Company

$1       Dec. 26, 1861 

Civil War era fare note

~ 5 3/4 X 2 3/4  inches

The Southern Railroad Company, chartered in 1836 and headquartered in Vicksburg, Mississippi, played a vital role in connecting the agricultural interior to river and coastal trade routes. By the early 1860s, its 141-mile line stretched from Vicksburg to Meridian, forming a strategic east-west corridor through central Mississippi. Vicksburg itself was a thriving river port, central to cotton exports and antebellum commerce. The railroad’s completion in June 1861 coincided with the outbreak of the Civil War, and its infrastructure quickly became militarily critical. Confederate forces relied on it for troop and supply movement, but Union campaigns—especially Sherman’s 1864 raid—targeted and devastated its western segment. Repairs drained Confederate rail reserves, leaving the line underpowered for wartime logistics. After the war, the Southern Railroad was reorganized as the Vicksburg & Meridian and eventually absorbed into the Illinois Central system. Its early scrip, like the $1 fare note, reflects both commercial ambition and wartime adaptation.

Scarce!

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