General William T. Sherman at Fort No. 7, Atlanta, Ga., overlooking Chattanooga Railroad lines, 1864

Sherman recognized the importance and vulnerability of railroad corridors. In September 1862 Sherman ordered an expedition to “destroy” the town of Randolph, Tennessee, because guerrillas had fired on Union steamships from the banks of the Mississippi River. In 1864 he adopted similarly hard measures to protect the railroads during his Atlanta Campaign.

General William T. Sherman