Eben C. Smeed

He also worked on building several large stone arches still standing on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad near Scranton, Pennsylvania.

[1] In November 1862, Smeed was with Colonel William Wright who was assigned by Haupt as Chief Engineer and Superintendent of Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad to rebuild the wharves at Acquia creek as well as fifteen miles of the railroad [5] to Fredericksburg, Virginia controlled by the Union army with Adna Anderson acted as chief engineer of construction.

After rebuilding the bridges and wharves for the road, Wright was forced to abandon Acquia creek on September 6, 1862, due to Lee's victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run.

[4] In this case, Smeed led a small force of carpenters, worked for nearly half a day under fire, until their ropes were cut, the pulleys smashed, and the timbers knocked about with shells.

A military force of 200 men, which had been detailed to assist, straggled off soon after the action commenced, not leaving a single man to protect Smeed's crew.

[4] Sherman in his Atlanta and Savannah campaigns had always been "obsessed with the efficient wrecking of railroads, and never ceased to emphasize to his subordinates the importance of twisting the rails so that they would have to be re-rolled.

[4] The problem Haupt confronted was that "(e)ven when track is torn up, if the cross-ties are not burned and the rails destroyed, the time required to repair is less than is necessary to inflict the damage.

[1] Haupt praised Smeed as the driving force behind McCallum and Wright's success with the Construction corps in both Virginia and Atlanta campaigns.