The Civil War slowed coal industry growth, but key figures like Jedediah Hotchkiss and the Imboden brothers explored coal areas during and after the war, helping future development. Big growth came in southern West Virginia when the Chesapeake & Ohio Railway reached from Richmond to Huntington in 1873, opening up the New and Kanawha coalfields. In the 1880s, the Norfolk & Western Railway connected the Pocahontas and Flat Top coalfields to markets, reaching the Ohio River by 1892.