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twisting the rails so that they would have to be re-rolled." Ordinary methods such as those used in constructing the track in the first instant were not portable or were too heavy to carry on raiding parties. The problem Haupt confronted was that "(e)ven when track is torn up, if the cross-ties are not burned and the rails destroyed, the time required to repair is less than is necessary to inflict the damage." It required rendering the rails unusable. Rails that are simply bent can easily be reworked in usable shape with relatively little effort. Haupt discovered that the answer was to twist the rail in a corkscrew fashion. Any rail worked in such a manner could not be fixed in the field but required shipment back to a rolling mill to be reheated and reshaped. Smeed invented a simple contrivance called a "cant hook". With a pair, rails could easily be twisted as well as breaking the track fasteners, or "chairs". Smeed's cant hooks were used in the
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Without Smeed, Sherman's military railroads could not have been reconstructed with the celerity with which the work was accomplished. Without the roads, there could have been no transportation of supplies; without supplies, the army could not have moved in the enemy's country and the campaign would
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destruction of the railroads at
Atlanta and were carried on the subsequent campaigns; but (Smeed's) cant hooks appear to have been most prevalent, because they were easier to transport, and two hooks at each end of a rail could twist it the same as a wrench. The hooks were made and carried by the
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As Haupt noted in his memoirs, in this 1863 retreat, Smeed remained at his station long after they had been evacuated by the military in retreat. In this case, Smeed led a small force of carpenters, worked for nearly half a day under fire, until their ropes were cut, the pulleys smashed, and the
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Haupt considered it to be part of the
Construction corps mission to "break the communications of the enemy...". Sherman in his Atlanta and Savannah campaigns had always been "obsessed with the efficient wrecking of railroads, and never ceased to emphasize to his subordinates the importance of
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Haupt praised Smeed as the driving force behind McCallum and Wright's success with the
Construction corps in both Virginia and Atlanta campaigns. For Smeed. as Haupt observed, "the trumpet of fame" never published his exploits of that period. Smeed's work on building the
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Campbell, E. G. "The United States
Military Railroads, 1862-1865. Part I. War Time Operation and Maintenance." The Journal of Military History 2.2 (1938): 70. For an extensive discussion on Smeed's techniques for building temporary bridges, page 77
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In 1862, Smeed came to
Virginia in the employ of Daniel Stone as a foreman of carpenters. Smeed was superintendent for the pontoon bridge crossing of the Rappahannock on the occasion of General Burnside's ill-fated attack on Fredericksburg.
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154:. Wright returned to Acquia creek in November 1862 while Lee had destroyed the railroad line from its terminus at Acquia creek all the way to Fredericksburg. Working under Wright, Smeed rebuilt the road including the
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timbers knocked about with shells. A military force of 200 men, which had been detailed to assist, straggled off soon after the action commenced, not leaving a single man to protect Smeed's crew.
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acted as chief engineer of construction. After rebuilding the bridges and wharves for the road, Wright was forced to abandon Acquia creek on
September 6, 1862, due to Lee's victory at the
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Stuart, Meriwether. "Samuel Ruth and
General RE Lee: Disloyalty and the Line of Supply to Fredericksburg, 1862-1863." The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 71.1 (1963): 35-109.
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Haupt praised Smeed as a "man without education... a close student expert mathematician" as well as the best organizer of worksites Haupt had ever seen. Smeed's work on building the
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Army Jr, Thomas F. "Engineering
Victory: The Ingenuity, Proficiency, and Versatility of Union Citizen Soldiers in Determining the Outcome of the Civil War." (2014).
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to rebuild the wharves at Acquia creek as well as fifteen miles of the railroad to
Fredericksburg, Virginia controlled by the Union army with
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Shiman, Philip Lewis. "Engineering
Sherman's March: Army engineers and the management of modern war, 1862-1865." (1992): 4452-4452.
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On August 24, 1892, Smeed died in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from kidney disease and was interred on August 28 at Emporia, Kansas.
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Engineering News and American Railway Journal, Volumes 27-28, Engineering News Publishing Company, September 8, 1892, page 226.
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Price, Charles Lewis. Railroads and reconstruction in North Carolina, 1865-1871. Diss. University of North Carolina, 1959.
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In November 1862, Smeed was with Colonel William Wright who was assigned by Haupt as Chief Engineer and Superintendent of
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United States Congressional serial set, Volume 1306, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1867, Wright testimony, page 136.
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Rails being ripped up using one of two hook types in use during Sherman's Atlanta and Savannah campaigns.
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For a detailed discussion on Smeed's role in Sherman's Atlanta campaign, see this
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to Gettysburg forced Union forces to retreat from their Fredericksburg positions.
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was in Haupt's opinion, unmatched anywhere in the world or military history.
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was in Haupt's opinion, unmatched anywhere in the world or military history.
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List of US military railroad civil engineers in the American Civil War
77:. With his brother Mathias, Smeed started as a rodman in 1851 on the
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Anon. (August 25, 1892). "Colonel Smeed dead". Salt Lake City Times.
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Smeed became chief engineer of the Union Pacific railroad in 1890.
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have been a failure. Let Smeed have the credit that is due to him.
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on December 8, 1830. Smeed married Mary Smeed and had a daughter,
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
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This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the
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but was forced to again abandon the railroad in June 1863 when
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who was best known for his work on railroads, particularly the
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In 1852, Smeed was one of three engineers who designed the
30:(December 8, 1830 – August 24, 1892) was an American
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Rail hooks developed by Smeed for destroying iron rails
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Michigan and Missouri engineers and by the cavalry.
134:seated center-left and Eben C. Smeed seated right.
474:People of Pennsylvania in the American Civil War
71:Nicholson Township, Wyoming County, Pennsylvania
69:Smeed was born into a pioneer family of six in
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