The Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Rail Road

The history of American railroading is littered with overambitious plans, failed schemes, unfinished lines, bankrupt corporations. . . . Grant turns his sights on one such failure, the Louisville, Cincinnati, and Charleston Rail Road. . . and in the process reveals as much, if not more about the messy business of railroad construction, as one could learn from a history of a successful line.

* Ohio Valley History *

H. Roger Grant has written an interesting book about something that did not happen. . . . Grant speculate[s] that a healthy LC & C would have influenced American history, perhaps to the point of changing the trajectory towards war. Railroad enthusiasts will certainly like this book . . . but Civil War scholars should find the last chapter an interesting exercise in Civil War causation. . . . [H]e has written a well-researched book that should make you think about the antebellum South and the coming of the Civil War.

* Civil War Book Review *

Professor Grant has produced an outstanding work on an important element of American railroad history. Grant has devoted much of his life to the story of America's railroads, and it shows. The book is rich in detail, and he very skillfully places what was happening in South Carolina within the context of railroad history throughout the country. The endnotes reveal an extensive mining of primary and secondary sources. In short, The Louisville, Cincinnati & Charleston Rail Road tells an important story—and tells it well.

* The Civil War Monitor *

Professor Grant's well-researched book traces the attempt to connect Charleston with the Ohio, and muses on what might have been, had the projects succeeded. . . . Thanks to the author's treatment of the subject matter, the book should appeal to anyone interested in the history of early railroads, not just those of the Old South.

* The Lexington Quarter