The Great Locomotive Chase

In April, 1862 civilian spy James Andrews convinced Union General O.M. Mitchel to let him attempt an action behind Confederate lines which, if successful, would disrupt a major supply and communication pipeline for the enemy. He had spent considerable time gaining knowledge of the South, and gaining the confidence of many Southerners by smuggling medicine into the country. On this April day he was sure he could carry-out a successful raid.

His plan was to recruit sufficient men to his cause, infiltrate Confederate lines, steal a train and run it northward tearing up railroad tracks and telegraph lines as he went, but the main objective was to burn as many of the seventeen wooden bridges on the line as possible. The railroad he planned to destroy was our own W&A (Western & Atlantic) which ran from present-day Atlanta to Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Andrews recruited 23 men from three Ohio regiments, and one civilian volunteered for the adventure. The men were to break into small groups and make their way separately, by various routes, to Marietta, Ga. just north of Atlanta. If questioned, they were to say they were seeking to join the Confederate Army.

As it played out, that's just what happened to two of Andrews' men. They were forced to join-up to prevent giving away the plot. The rest of the "raiders" made it to Marietta, where they joined Andrews at the Lacy House, a well known hotel. The next morning, all but two boarded the train by twos and threes, took their seats while all the time appearing not to know any of the others if they met. The two missing men had overslept and missed the train. The train, the General, pulled out of Marietta at about 5 AM, headed north.

A short time later, the engineer stopped the train at a cafe' in Big Shanty (known today as Kennesaw). While the crew and passengers got off to take breakfast at the cafe', Andrews and his raiders slipped back onto the train, fired it up, and headed north. Hearing his train leaving without him, Conductor Captain W.A. Fuller,jumped up and shouted "Someone who has no right to do so has stolen our train!!" whereupon he left on a run. Joined by two other railroad employees, he began running afoot after his train. You see, he believed his train was taken by "draftdodgers" and that they would abandon the train once they were out of sight. Witnesses had told him there were only four men on the train, not having seen the large group that had hidden away in the empty boxcars.

Just north of Big Shanty, near Moon Station, Fuller came upon a railroad handcar, which he and his men boarded. Making better time now, they continued in pursuit. Near the Etowah River, at Cooper's Iron Works, they commandeered an engine named the Yonah. It was old but definitely faster than the handcar.

Andrews was proceeding northbound, with no idea that anyone was chasing him, but he wasn't making the kind of good time he had expected, due mostly to one of those strange little quirks of fate that so often foil the "best laid plans of mice and men". You see, the plan was originally scheduled to have taken place the day before, but because of various problems, Andrews had delayed one day. He shouldn't have. Because of the fighting around Chattanooga, the railroad had decided to move all it's rolling stock southward to Atlanta to prevent it from being confiscated by the enemy. Today was the day for that, causing the schedule Andrews had obtained to be woefully inaccurate. Unscheduled trains came along every few minutes causeing the General to side-track often, loosing time. At the Kingston railyards, the raiders were delayed for more than an hour, giving Fuller time to catch up. The Yonah arrived in Kingston, just 5 minutes after the General pulled out. Fuller left the Yonah and took command of the William R. Smith, a smaller engine which had just come in on the Rome Railroad.

As the General was also running off schedule, Andrews was questioned at Kingston about his business, but he was quite a good actor and was able to convince his interagators that he was making an emergency run taking supplies to Confederate General Beauregard. He had used the same story at the Cassville Station where the young Station Master had believed the lie, as did others, and let him pass. The same story was used at other stations until, after passing a southbound train at the Calhoun station, the spies believed they had a clear track all the way to Chattanooga. But all the time Cpt. Fuller and his men, including a large group of armed men who had joined the chase along the way (some say these included members of the 1st Georgia Volunteers) were getting closer and closer. So close, in fact, that the spies had not enough time to do the damage they had intended.

Having abandoned the William R. Smith due to track damage, Fuller and crew pressed on, once again on foot. Just south of Adairsville, they encountered the Texas, a fast moving, southbound freight. They flagged it down and explained their problem to Engineer Bracken. Bracken dropped his extra cars on a siding at the depot in Adairsville and, without taking time to turn the train around, headed up the tracks after the General....running in reverse!

By now Andrews knew he was being pursued. In his rush to get away, he had little time to do the amount of damage he wanted. The minor damage he did cause was not enough to stop the Texas. They tried to burn the wooden covered bridge at Resaca, the Oostanaula Bridge, but because of the rain the bridge wouldn't burn. Andrews set fire to a wooden boxcar and left it in the bridge, hoping to burn the bridge and also to block it so that Fuller couldn't get through. The Texas just pushed the flaming car out of the bridge, on to a siding, and hurried on.

The spies had used all their fire wood; they had burned their last car; there was no fuel for the engine, so the General stopped just north of Ringgold, Georgia. Andrews ordered his men off the General, and reversed the engine to ram the Texas, but the General was so low on steam that it failed to do any serious damage. The spies fled into the woods in an attempt to escape, but Fuller and his men, joined now by local citizens and reinforcements out of Chattanooga, soon captured all of them. They were imprisoned in Chattanooga, then moved to Knoxville for trial. Because Union forces were getting close to Knoxville, only Andrews and seven of his men were tried. As the Confederate government was attempting to hide the prisoners from the Union, they were all hurried off to Atlanta. There, eight were hanged, including Andrews. Later, eight more escaped. The remaining six were eventually returned to the Union in a prisoner exchange.

The United States Medal of Honor had just been approved by the US Congress. Andrews' Raiders were the first to receive this token of a nation's thanks, with Jacob Parrot (the youngest) receiving the prototype. However, there is a side story here: As Andrews was a civilian, he could not receive the Medal which was strictly for military personnel. There was another civilian in the group, Campbell, who also was ineligible, and there was one soldier, Shadrack, who had enlisted under a fictitious name and, therefore, he was denied a Medal as well. As the Confederate States had no such Medal, Cpt. Fuller and the two railroad employees received a Certificate of Thanks from the Confederate Congress.

Today, the beautifully restored General is housed in the Southern Railroad Museum in Kennesaw. The Texas, also expertly restored, is housed in the Cyclorama Musuem in Atlanta. Both museums, and both trains are well worth a trip south.