Wilmington and Manchester Railroad

The line was devastated at the end of the war, when Union Gen. William T. Sherman dispatched some 2,500 federal troops from the South Carolina coast to locate locomotives and rolling stock that the Confederates were hiding in the state's hinterland.[4] In April 1865, the force, under Gen. Edward E. Potter located nine locomotives and approximately 200 cars, many belonging to the Wilmington and Manchester, near Manchester, SC, and destroyed them.

Gen. William MacRae took over as superintendent in January 1866 and helped get the line back in operating order. However, the Wilmington and Manchester declared bankruptcy in 1870. The railroad was reorganized as the short-lived Wilmington and Carolina Railroad and again as the Wilmington, Columbia and Augusta Railroad.

The line was formally merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad (ACL) in 1898. The line from Florence to the junction with the Fayetteville Cutoff became part of the Atlantic Coast Line's main line.[5]

The Atlantic Coast Line became the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad in 1967 after merging with their former rival, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. In 1980, the Seaboard Coast Line's parent company merged with the Chessie System, creating the CSX Corporation. The CSX Corporation initially operated the Chessie and Seaboard Systems separately until 1986, when they were merged into CSX Transportation.

CSX still operates the former ACL main line segment (which is now the CSX's A Line). The line from Mullins to Whiteville is now operated by the R.J. Corman Railroad Group[6]