New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern

The New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern was a 206-mile (332 km) 5 ft (1,524 mm) gauge[1] railway originally commissioned by the State of Illinois, with both Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln being among its supporters in the 1851 Illinois Legislature.

It connected Canton, Mississippi with New Orleans, and was completed just before the American Civil War, in which it served strategic interests, especially for the Confederacy.

This was largely due to the efforts of its president, Henry Joseph Ranney, a Confederate officer during the period of 1861 to 1865, [2] who had served as part of the original engineering corps for the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.

[4] From 1866 to 1870, when a hostile takeover induced a change of leadership, the president of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern was P. G. T. Beauregard (1818-1893), former Confederate States Army general under whose command the first shots had been fired on Fort Sumter and who during the war helped design the Confederate battle flag.

The original rights-of-way for the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern not only serve the purpose of a major freight railway but also support Amtrak passenger service.

Amtrak station in Hammond, Louisiana , refurbished with a passenger platform along the original path of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern
Part of the original route of the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern, still operational in the Canadian National Railway line at this railroad crossing in Hammond, Louisiana .
Currency note that says three on each side. On the tope it reads New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern above an illustration of a train and the words "Railroad Company."
1862 3-dollar note issued by New Orleans Jackson & Great Northern Railroad Company (Mississippi).