The Ohio and Mississippi Railway (earlier the Ohio and Mississippi Rail Road), abbreviated O&M, was a railroad operating between

Cincinnati, Ohio Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...

, and

East St. Louis, Illinois East St. Louis is a city in St. Clair County, Illinois. It is directly across the Mississippi River from Downtown St. Louis, Missouri and the Gateway Arch National Park. East St. Louis is in the Metro-East region of Southern Illinois. Once a b ...

, from 1857 to 1893. The railroad started in 1854 and paralleled the Cincinnati and Whitewater Canal. Its East St. Louis terminal near the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

was completed in 1857. It was a founding rail line of the

Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis The Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis is a Class III switching and terminal railroad that handles traffic in the St. Louis, Missouri, metropolitan area. It is co-owned by five of the six Class I railroads that reach the city. Present ope ...

. General Ormsby M. Mitchel (d. 1862) was a civil engineer on this project. On September 17, 1861, during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

a train carrying union troops fell through a sabotaged bridge at

Huron, Indiana Huron (formerly Fenter) is an unincorporated community in Spice Valley Township, Lawrence County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. History Huron was platted in 1859. It was named after Huron, Ohio. On September 16, 1861, during the American Civil W ...

, injuring or killing 100. On October 6, 1866, the

Adams Express Company Adams Funds, formerly Adams Express Company, is an investment company made up of Adams Diversified Equity Fund, Inc.(NYSE: ADX), a publicly traded diversified equity fund, and Adams Natural Resources Fund Inc. (NYSE: PEO), formerly Petroleum & Res ...

car was robbed by the

Reno Gang The Reno Gang, also known as the Reno Brothers Gang and The Jackson Thieves, were a group of criminals that operated in the Midwestern United States during and just after the American Civil War. Though short-lived, the gang carried out the firs ...

just east of

Seymour, Indiana Seymour is a city in Jackson County, Indiana, United States. Its population was 21,569 at the 2020 census. The city is noted for its location at the intersection of two major north–south and east–west railroads, which cross each other in th ...

, becoming the first

train robbery Train robbery is a type of robbery, in which the goal is to steal money or other valuables being carried aboard trains. History Train robberies were more common in the past when trains were slower, and often occurred in the American Old West. Tr ...

in U.S. history. The insolvent Ohio and Mississippi Railroad was reorganized in 1867 as the Ohio and Mississippi Railway. It merged in 1893 with the Baltimore and Ohio Southwestern Railway, and is now part of

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

's Indiana Subdivision and Illinois Subdivision.

References

External links

Ohiohistorycentral.org

The Rebellion the United States by Jennett Blakeslee Frost - 1862
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ohio Mississippi Railway Defunct Ohio railroads Defunct Indiana railroads Defunct Illinois railroads Rail transportation in Cincinnati East St. Louis, Illinois Historic American Engineering Record in Indiana Predecessors of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Railway companies established in 1861 Railway companies disestablished in 1893 Defunct Missouri railroads 1861 establishments in the United States 1893 mergers and acquisitions American companies disestablished in 1893 American companies established in 1861

References

Further reading

External links