[3] The line was devastated at the end of the war, when Union Gen. William T. Sherman dispatched some 2,500 federal troops from the South Carolina coast to locate locomotives and rolling stock that the Confederates were hiding in the state's hinterland.

Gen. William MacRae took over as superintendent in January 1866 and helped get the line back in operating order.

The bridge, which was jointly owned by both railroads, was completed in 1867 allowing both railroad to extend from a point near Navassa (on the west side of the Cape Fear River) to central Wilmington.

In 1980, the Seaboard Coast Line's parent company merged with the Chessie System, creating the CSX Corporation.

The line from Mullins to Whiteville is now operated by the R.J. Corman Railroad Group[7]