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I recall that among the advantages which the North had in the American Civil War were that (a) railroads connected at central terminals in cities and (b) they all used the same gauge.

In the South, on the other hand, each railroad would have its own terminal in a city. Railroad A might have its terminal on the east side of (Stonewall) Jacksonvania while Railroad B would have its terminal on the south side of the place. Goods would have to be hauled by wagon or barge from one to the other when transferring between one railroads. It is my understanding (and I’m not an expert) that southern railroads did not have a standard gauge, so that even if the railroads were connected, the locomotives and rolling stock could not run on the other line.

I recall that among the advantages which the North had in the American Civil War were that (a) railroads connected at central terminals in cities and (b) they all used the same gauge.

Standard gauge, sure. And I guess railroads may have shared terminals in smaller cities or towns. But in larger cities different railroads did have different passenger terminals.

I don't know about freight terminals or links between the terminals of different lines. Maybe somebody else has more information.

This is true; Southern roads had a jumble of gauges. After the War, however, all the nonstandard gauge roads came to realize that they would have to re-gauge to the standard.

The cross-loading of freight and passengers between different gauge roads was turning out to be an intolerable inefficiency. All the standard-gauge roads had adopted free roaming of freight cars, meaning that contractual arrangements existed that allowed any road's car to travel anywhere in the rail network. Of course, standards were created and had to be met, and accounting practices put into place to track the cars and allocate per diem charges.

So the nonstandard gaugers knew that they had to re-gauge. They got together and prepared for an effort that had to be as rapid as possible. New rolling stock was ordered and some was converted. Tens of thousands of extra men were hired and at the ready.

In the case of the Atlantic and Western (the line of the Great Locomotive Chase), they converted their 138 miles in a 24-hour period beginning on 31 May, 1886. I believe this was the date that other southern roads did likewise.

I think that qualifies as the Unix Hacker's proverbial long weekend.