First locomotive broke Clarksville’s quiet

In speaking about railroad history, I often talk about communities’ love-hate relationship with railroads.

It was a rainy Saturday morning — April 12, 1862 — when a group of suspicious men boarded a northbound Western & Atlantic train at Marietta, Georgia. The men held tickets to varying points along the line, trying to make it seem as though they were not a part of one large group.

For this first episode of “People and Places of the Western & Atlantic Railroad,” we’re in the historic Smyrna Memorial Cemetery in Smyrna, Georgia, not far from the Western & Atlantic Railroad.