Use of Torpedoes by Confederates to Destroy Union Trains

GMSorrel

Private
Joined
May 31, 2011
In researching a Confederate soldier, I have come across a reference that the Confederates were (at least once) using torpedoes under railroad tracks to try and destroy Union trains. It looks like this happened in Tennessee during the summer of 1863. Does anyone have any additional information or particulars on this tactic used by the Confederates? Thanks!
 
Thanks for passing that along. I'd love to know what you find in your files if you ever get the opportunity to look.
 
Attached is a pdf of a page from the June 16, 1864, Philadelphia Press, which includes an account of a "Train Destroyed by a Rebel Torpedo." (5th column, bottom, under "The War in the Southwest.")
 

Attachments

  • Press_1864-06-16_2.pdf
    1.2 MB · Views: 72
I also find in the Springfield Republican (Mass.) of Nov. 4, 1863, as part of a letter from Nashville (dated Oct. 25):


“No train has left here for the south since my arrival, except one yesterday, which returned after having gone ten miles southward. We have the promise of a train tomorrow, but there is little or no possibility of getting through. Of late the rebels have been using torpedoes in a new manner, and to-day succeeded in blowing up the third locomotive within four days. A train was blown up near Corran today and entirely destroyed. The torpedo was placed on the track and under a bridge or culvert.”

 
Back
Top