08/29/2026
South of Atlanta, Georgia
August 1864
Today, the permanent destruction of the Confederate rail lines going into Atlanta began. This is a great description of how Sherman's Neckties, or Sherman's Hairpins, were made. One example is located at Fort McAllister State Park. Park staff and volunteers have a video of the making process on YouTube.
The US 16th Army Corps spent the day destroying the railroad from the vicinity of Fairburn, Georgia southward. Major William Chamberlain of the 81st Ohio Infantry noted that the Pioneer Corps of the 2nd Division, which was “composed mostly of escaped slaves or contraband was the most effective at destroying the railroad.
He wrote “These men had been employed in building bridges, repairing roads and such work, which seemed to their woolly heads to be rather aiding than injuring the south, but now when the opportunity came of absolutely tearing up a great Highway of rebeldom, their joy knew no bounds, and manifested itself in Herculean efforts at overturning long sections of the road at once, accompanied with songs and shouts of gladness.”
A soldier of the 105th Ohio described how the railroad was destroyed for the most successful performance. “That force engaged was always divided into three bodies, with separate and distinct duties. The first marched in a single file along the side of the track to be torn up until each man stood at the end of a tie. Then, at the word of command, each stooped, took a hold of the tie, and at the other word, the whole track was lifted up and overturned. Then this party marched on and renewed the movement.
The second party heaped the ties upon the track, laid the rails across them, leaving the ends extended on each other, and set the ties on fire.
The third party, coming up later, took the rails then red hot in the middle, twisted them about trees or otherwise bent and distorted them so that no rolling mill could straighten them, wholly destroying the road for use until new ties and new rails could be supplied.”
General Sherman had given detailed instructions on how he wanted the West Point Railroad to be wrecked. On August 29th, his troops put them into effect. While 2/3 of them entrenched and stood guard against enemy attack, the other third lined up along the track, two men to a tie, stuck their bayonetted rifles into the ground so that they would be handy, and then at a heave ho, grabbed the ties and lifted, ripping up the track and flipping it over.
They then took sledgehammers, hand spikes, or anything else that would serve the purpose, and knocked the ties loose from the rails. With that done, they piled up the rails, set them on fire, and laid the iron rails on top.
When the rails were red hot, they picked them up at both ends and twisted them around telegraph poles or trees. General Sherman also ordered that the deeper railroad cuts through which the rail beds passed be filled with brush logs and rocks, to which they added explosive shells fixed so that they would explode if the Confederates tried to remove them. Altogether 12 and a half miles of the West Point Railroad between Fairburn and Red Oak, Georgia, received this treatment.
Source:
A Summer of Battles: The First Weeks of the Civil War, 1864 Atlanta Campaign
Volume 1
by David Allison
Decision in the West: The Atlanta Campaign of 1864
by Albert Castell
