Herman Haupt Invents the Container Ship
Further digging at the LoC shows the image I posted earlier Saturday to be one of a series taken at Alexandria by Andrew Russell, documenting the U.S. Military Railroad. You can see more of them here. One in particular includes a caption explaining that “cars loaded at Alexandria can be carried on barges or arks to Aquia Creek, and sent to stations where the Army of the Potomac is supplied, without break of bulk.”
In other words, Herman Haupt invented the container ship.
Full-resolution images here, here, and here.
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Dead Confederates, A Civil War Era Blog 
This is awesome, thanks.
Haupt needs a truly memorable biography–this guy was all over it.What’s McPherson doing?
This is quite interesting, Andy. I have forwarded a copy to my son who is an excellent railroad historian to get his reaction.
It was tongue-in-cheek, of course .