How a Simple Railroad-Wrecking Trick Changed the Course of the Civil War

Sherman's Neckties, also known as Sherman's Bowties, Jeff Davis's Neckties, and Sherman's Hairpins, were tactics used by the Union Army during the American Civil War to sabotage railroad operations. These techniques, credited to Major General William Tecumseh Sherman who came up with them, aimed to undermine the Confederacy's strategic and economic resources by directly targeting its railways.

The Union Army needed to slow down the Confederates

As the Civil War approached its conclusion, the Union sought a method to cripple the Confederates, identifying their vulnerable point in the form of limited iron supplies and foundries. In the summer of 1864 during the Atlanta Campaign , Sherman issued orders for the Union Army to focus on dismantling the enemy's rail systems to sever Confederate troops from their crucial supply lines.

The directive, issued on July 18, 1864, stated :

"In case of the sounds of serious battle he will close in on General Schofield, but otherwise will keep every man of his command at work in destroying the railroad by tearing up track, burning the ties and iron, and twisting the bars when hot. Officers should be instructed that bars simply bent may be used again, but if when red hot they are twisted out of line they cannot be used again.

"Pile to ties into shape for a bonfire, put the rails across, and when red hot in the middle, let a man at each end twist the bar so that its surface become spiral. General McPherson will dispatch General Garrard's cavalry eastward along the line of the railroad to continue the destruction as far as deemed prudent."

This marked the initiation of Sherman's Neckties. After a mere three days, all but one railroad line in Atlanta had been effectively dismantled.

The first way to make Sherman's Neckties

Simply destroying the railroad tracks was not enough to effectively disrupt Confederate supply lines. After Union forces dismantled them, they couldn’t fully remove the rails, allowing the Confederates to easily reassemble them.

To address this issue, Sherman directed his troops to lift the tracks off the ties and place them vertically across a bonfire. As the rails heated, their weight caused the metal to warp. However, this method was not entirely successful, as it only partially deformed the rails. With determined effort, Confederate troops could straighten the rails and swiftly restore the tracks to their original condition.

The second way to make Sherman's Neckties

The soldiers on the ground developed a more efficient technique for bending the rails, making them entirely unusable. They would use the heat from a bonfire to heat the rail until it was glowing red, then wrap it around a tree, twisting it until the ends overlapped.

These twisted rails, left hanging on the trees, became known as Sherman's Neckties. The Confederates didn’t have the foundry capacity to melt down the rails or the manpower to lay new tracks.

Meridian Campaign of 1864

The town of Meridian, situated in eastern Mississippi, held a lot of strategic value for the Confederate Army due to its intersection of three vital railroads and its role as a hub for storing and distributing agricultural goods for Southern military operations.

Recognizing Meridian's importance, Sherman aimed to intercept and destroy Confederate access to these railroads. By achieving this objective, Union forces could effectively limit Confederate mobility as they advanced towards the Mississippi River during their March to the Sea Campaign .

On February 3, 1864, Union troops started the campaign "to break up the enemy’s railroads at and about Meridian, and to do the enemy as much damage as possible in the month of February, and to be prepared by the 1st of March to assist General [Nathaniel] Banks in a similar dash at the Red River country."

The Impact of Sherman's Neckties

When Sherman's men arrived in Meridian on February 14, they immediately began prying up the railroad tracks, leaving only Sherman's Neckties in their wake. They completed their objective and returned to Vicksburg by March 6. It took the Confederates 26 days to restore the rails.

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The sabotage put the South's rail lines out of commission for nearly a month, critically impacting their position in the war and proving that Sherman's Neckties were an effective tactic.