Crashed Commodore locomotive.
The J. Paul Getty Museum
The Commodore locomotive, built in New Jersey in 1863, was one of 419 locomotives made, bought, or captured during the Civil War by the United States Military Railroad (USMRR), the agency created by the War Department to operate all seized rail lines. The Commodore met an ignominious fate in April 1864 when it derailed on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad near Brandy Station, Virginia, making it one of several trains to crash in that state in 1863–1864. “Going too fast on indifferent tracks,” concluded one Army of the Potomac engineering officer. While its condition was serious, the Commodore was never “dead,” which Captain Andrew J. Russell, official photographer of the USMRR, declared in labeling this image. (One of Russell’s cameras is visible at lower right.) Another wartime photo of the Commodore shows it back on the tracks and ready to roll. The title on that image reads, “United States Military Railroad Locomotive ‘Commodore’ Reconditioned ‘Alive’ After Derailment in Northern Virginia.”
Bob Zeller is president of the nonprofit Center for Civil War Photography, which is devoted to collecting, preserving, and digitizing Civil War images.
