| Rudysnelson | 25 Nov 2017 1:27 p.m. PST |
I know that in some States the use of plank roads were still in use. The growth of railroads reduced their use for long hauls but they seem to be a symbol of prosperity for towns.
So I never see many plank roads for use as terrain. How common were they? |
| Rudysnelson | 25 Nov 2017 1:28 p.m. PST |
I know that in some States the use of plank roads were still in use. The growth of railroads reduced their use for long hauls but they seem to be a symbol of prosperity for towns.
So I never see many plank roads for use as terrain. How common were they? |
robert piepenbrink  | 25 Nov 2017 1:57 p.m. PST |
Well, I think we can specify that the Orange Plank Road saw a lot of use. For that matter, so did the Valley Pike. I look on dirt roads for pre-20th Century warfare as a bit of an hobby convention. A dioramist needs to be as precise as possible. A wargamer tends to stick to the common because the same road/woods/set of buildings has to represent some different place next week. |
 ColCampbell | 25 Nov 2017 2:11 p.m. PST |
Rudy, Other than the obvious ones in the Wilderness/Chancellorsville area, I believe that there were a small number of log corduroyed ones used during Grant's march down the right bank of the Mississippi to get south of Vicksburg in Spring 1863. Not sure if there were any others used. Jim |
| Onomarchos | 25 Nov 2017 2:14 p.m. PST |
Plank roads were not that common. There were many more Corduroy roads. By the time of the Civil War, most pikes were built using the MacAdam process. Mark |
| ColCampbell | 25 Nov 2017 2:22 p.m. PST |
Rudy, Here is an interesting discussion: link Jim |
| Wackmole9 | 25 Nov 2017 3:12 p.m. PST |
hi Heres a article on the finding of ox plank road by road workers
Digging up a road to the past: Civil War-era road found in Fairfax County
link
|
| Rudysnelson | 25 Nov 2017 6:22 p.m. PST |
One plank road called the Central Plank Road or the Federal aCentral Road actually came within a few miles of my house. It ran from Chattanooga to Montgomery to New Orleans based on the comments on historic markers and other places. |
| Grumble87106 | 28 Jan 2018 7:59 p.m. PST |
The Valley Pike in the Shenandoah was definitely Macadam. otherwise how could the Confederates have hauled a locomotive down it? |
| Cleburne1863 | 28 Jan 2018 8:11 p.m. PST |
Can you imagine being without shoes and your commander orders you to fall in and march down a Macadam pike on a sunny day? |
| donlowry | 29 Jan 2018 9:46 a.m. PST |
I could imagine that, but I don't want to. |
| Trajanus | 29 Jan 2018 12:50 p.m. PST |
The Valley Pike in the Shenandoah was definitely Macadam. otherwise how could the Confederates have hauled a locomotive down it? Ah that will be the one with the two bloody great groves down the middle of it then! |
prepares to do some regimental-level ACW gaming.
