Meaning of Sherman necktie | Babel Free

Definitions

A segment of rail that has been heated and twisted into a loop, as a means of destroying a railway.

US, historical, in-plural

Equivalents

Examples

“We were compelled to go by carriage, as the railroads had been destroyed, the fat-pine cross-ties burned to heat the rails and the red-hot rails wrapped around the trees growing near the track. We used to call⟳ these iron⟳ rails "Sherman's neckties," and the solemn-looking chimneys standing guard over the former sites of once happy homes were called by the natives "Sherman's monuments."”

“As the Democrats met in Chicago to declare⟳ the war a failure, northern soldiers 700 miles away were making "Sherman neckties" out of the last⟳ open⟳ railroad into Atlanta by heating the rails over a bonfire of ties and twisting the iron⟳ around trees.”

“I break⟳ camp and push⟳ down the road to the tiny town of Lithonia. It was here that [William Tecumseh] Sherman saw⟳ the first homes on the March⟳ to the Sea go up in flames as his men wrecked the railroad, twisting the iron⟳ rails into Sherman's Neckties.”

“Sherman's army cut⟳ a swath of destruction fifty miles wide as it marched leisurely through Georgia without any meaningful Confederate resistance. The men destroyed nearly all property in their path, famously twisting railroad tracks around tree trunks—"Sherman neckties"—so they would never be usable again.”

“Sherman, however, had grown to hate⟳ the Confederate trains running into Atlanta almost as much as the armies behind the city's earthworks. He declared, "Let⟳ the destruction be so thorough that not a rail or tie can be used again." The troops had a two-day-long Sherman necktie party.”

“The Road to Tara Museum had a lot of Gone with the Wind and almost no Sherman, except for one twisted Sherman's necktie.”

CEFR level