 When the Civil War broke out in 1861, this railroad became of strategic importance as the only east-west railroad running through the Confederacy.On the morning of April 11, 1862, Union troops led by General Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel captured Huntsville, cutting off this railroad's use for the Confederacy.The railroad and its route through Corinth, Mississippi was a significant factor in the Battle of Shiloh in 1862.