This made the railroad important to the Confederacy in the Civil War to ensure a supply of coal for munitions and iron working.

[3] In 1866 the Clover Hill Mining Company built a wharf at Osborne's Landing in order to load the coal on to ships to the coast.

[2] Clover Hill, in turn, bought bars and spikes from the Tredegar Iron Works.

[6] The U.S. Federal Government ran the Clover Hill Railroad in the last year of the Civil War to meet coal shortages in Richmond and Petersburg.

The first tracks were laid from the Clover Hill Pitts to 4 miles (6 km) south at Epps Falls on the Appomattox.