The Railroad:
Important advances were larger-scale innovations such as the railroad. The Civil War was the first war to use railroads, this was encouraged by President Lincoln. The North had a distinct advantage over the South. When the war began, there were 22,000 miles of railroad track in the North and just 9,000 in the South, and the North had almost all of the nation’s track and locomotive factories. While the South's rail system was weak, the North were the first to use trains to their advantage, transporting supplies and soldiers to vital areas.