Isaiah Leo Sharfman

“ It is interesting to note that Germany's campaign for the organization of rail-power dates from the early thirties, but received especial impetus from the experience of our Civil War and the War of 1870–1871, at which time "the alleged perfection of Germany's arrangements ... is merely one of the fictions of history" ”

“ Moreover, in dealing with such special problems as the establishment of a distinct military organization for railway destruction and restoration, the adjustment of railway control between the military and technical (railway) elements, the development of special devices for the protection of railways, the utilization of armored trains and railway ambulance transport, attention is repeatedly directed to the fact that the initial steps in all these matters, and substantial progress in some of them, must be traced to our Civil War. ”

“ The purpose of the work is to describe in detail the policies and practices in the utilization of rail-power for military purposes that had been developed up to that time, to indicate the nature and possibilities of this factor in warfare as it was "imposed upon mankind in 1914, to undergo a development and an application on a wider, more impressive, and more terrible scale than the world had ever seen before". ”