Sherman's March to the Sea was a military campaign of the American Civil War conducted through Georgia from November 15 until December 21, 1864, by Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army. The campaign began with Sherman's troops leaving the captured city of Atlanta on November 15 and ended with the capture of the port of Savannah on December 21. His forces followed a "scorched earth" policy, destroying military targets as well as industry, infrastructure, and civilian property, disrupting the Confederacy's economy and transportation networks. The operation broke the back of the Confederacy and helped lead to its eventual surrender. Sherman's decision to operate deep within enemy territory and without supply lines is considered to be one of the major campaigns of the war, and is considered by some historians to be an early example of modern total war.
Daniel Craig McCallum was a Scottish-born American railroad engineer, general manager of the New York and Erie Railroad and Union Brevet Major General during the American Civil War, known as one of the early pioneers of management. He set down a group of general principles of management, and is credited for having developed the first modern organizational chart.
Henry Warner Slocum, Sr., was a Union general during the American Civil War and later served in the United States House of Representatives from New York. During the war, he was one of the youngest major generals in the Army and fought numerous major battles in the Eastern Theater and in Georgia and the Carolinas. While commanding a regiment, a brigade, a division, and a corps in the Army of the Potomac, he saw action at First Bull Run, the Peninsula Campaign, South Mountain, Antietam, Chancellorsville, and Harpers' Ferry.
The Atlanta campaign was a series of battles fought in the Western Theater of the American Civil War throughout northwest Georgia and the area around Atlanta during the summer of 1864. Union Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman invaded Georgia from the vicinity of Chattanooga, Tennessee, beginning in May 1864, opposed by the Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston.
Moncure Robinson was an American civil engineer, railroad planner and builder and a railroad and steamboat owner, who is considered one of America's leading Antebellum period civil engineers. He was educated at the College of William and Mary and at the Sorbonne; his most noted project was the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad.
Sherman's neckties were a railway-destruction tactic used in the American Civil War. Named after Maj. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman of the Union Army, Sherman's neckties were railway rails destroyed by heating them until they were malleable and twisting them into loops resembling neckties, often around trees. Since the Confederacy had limited supplies of iron, and few foundries to roll the rails, this destruction was very difficult to repair. They were also called Sherman's bow ties or Sherman's hairpins.
John Newton was a career engineer officer in the United States Army, a Union general in the American Civil War, and Chief of the Corps of Engineers.
Historic ferries operated on rivers around Atlanta, Georgia area, and became namesakes for numerous current-day roads in north Georgia. Most of the ferries date to the early years of European-American settlement in the 1820s and 1830s, when Cherokee and other Native Americans still occupied part of what became Georgia.
Herman Haupt was an American civil engineer and railroad construction engineer and executive. As a Union Army General during the American Civil War, he revolutionized U.S. military transportation, particularly the use of railroads.
The Skirmish at Pace's Ferry was an engagement fought on July 5, 1864, near Pace's Ferry, Atlanta, Georgia, during the Atlanta Campaign of the American Civil War. Union troops of Maj. Gen. Oliver O. Howard seized a key pontoon bridge over the Chattahoochee River, enabling Federal troops to continue their offensive to capture the important rail and supply center of Atlanta.
The city of Atlanta, Georgia, in Fulton County, was an important rail and commercial center during the American Civil War. Although relatively small in population, the city became a critical point of contention during the Atlanta Campaign in 1864 when a powerful Union Army approached from Union-held Tennessee. The fall of Atlanta was a critical point in the Civil War, giving the North more confidence, and leading to the re-election of President Abraham Lincoln and the eventual surrender of the Confederacy. The capture of the "Gate City of the South" was especially important for Lincoln as he was in a contentious election campaign against the Democratic opponent George B. McClellan.
The U.S. Military Railroad (USMRR) was established by the United States War Department as a separate agency to operate any rail lines seized by the government during the American Civil War. An Act of Congress of 31 January 1862 authorized President Abraham Lincoln to seize control of the railroads and telegraph for military use in January 1862. In practice, however, the USMRR restricted its authority to Southern rail lines captured in the course of the war. As a separate organization for rail transportation the USMRR is one of the predecessors of the modern United States Army Transportation Corps.
The Potomac Creek Bridge was first built in 1842 by the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad across the Potomac Creek in Stafford County, Virginia, United States.
The Tapeworm Railroad was a railway line planned by Congressman Thaddeus Stevens and nicknamed by opponents ridiculing a lengthy serpentine section around the Green Ridge of South Mountain after an orator compared the path to a tapeworm depiction on a product's packaging. Switchbacks were planned on the west slope at Hughs Forge along the E Br Antietam Creek and on the east slope at Stevens' 1822 Maria Furnace along Toms Creek, with 3 east slope tunnels through spurs of Jacks Mountain.
The 28th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 111th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
The 73rd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Independent Battery E, Pennsylvania Light Artillery, was an artillery battery that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. The unit organized in September 1861 from the elements of two infantry regiments and served until 14 June 1865. The battery participated in the battles of Cedar Mountain and Antietam in 1862 and Chancellorsville and Gettysburg in 1863. That fall, Battery E transferred to the Western theater where it fought in the battles of Wauhatchie, Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge, and Ringgold Gap. The years 1864–65 saw the unit take part in the Atlanta Campaign, Sherman's March to the Sea, and the battles of Averasborough and Bentonville. Battery E marched in the Grand Review of the Armies before being mustered out.
William Wierman Wright was a well known nineteenth century American railroad engineer and civil engineer. He was born in York Springs, Pennsylvania.
