Herman Haupt: The Union Railroad Chief Who Built a Beanpole Bridge

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Herman Haupt was born in Philadelphia in 1817, lost his father at 11, and won an appointment to West Point from Andrew Jackson, only to resign his commission soon after graduating in 1835. He patented the Haupt truss in 1839, taught at Pennsylvania College in Gettysburg, and rose to general superintendent of the Pennsylvania Railroad, before sinking his savings into the Hoosac Tunnel in Massachusetts when his partner failed to raise capital.

In April 1862, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton made him chief of the military railroads. Haupt refused a uniform and a salary, used formerly enslaved laborers in specialized ten man squads, and rebuilt the Potomac Creek bridge in under two weeks, prompting Lincoln's remark about cornstalks and bean poles. He fought with John Pope, Ambrose Burnside, and George McClellan to keep commanders from holding trains as warehouses, supplied the army at Gettysburg, and evacuated over 15,500 wounded. In September 1863 he refused an unconditional commission to protect his tunnel investment and was relieved.

The Potomac Creek bridge spanned about 400 feet and stood roughly 100 feet above the creek.
His two rules: the military must not interfere with train operations, and cars must be unloaded and returned at once.
He experimented with placing explosives in bridge trusses and with firing cannonballs through pressurized locomotive boilers.
On July 6, 1863, he went to the White House to tell Lincoln that Meade was not pursuing Lee.
The Hoosac Tunnel ultimately drained his fortune, and he died in 1905 aboard a Pennsylvania Railroad train.

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