![Osgood rail line](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/78/Osgood_rail_line.jpg)
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 wi ...
, 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 fl ...
was completed in 1857. It was a founding rail line of the
Terminal Railroad Association of St. Louis. 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 ...
a train carrying union troops fell through a sabotaged bridge at
Huron, Indiana, 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 first ...
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. ...
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's
Indiana Subdivision and
Illinois Subdivision.
References
Further reading
*
1856 edition
External links
Ohiohistorycentral.orgThe 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