The Great Locomotive Chase

Jim Klag

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June 7, 1862 - James Andrews is hanged in Atlanta. The Great Locomotive Chase.

 
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diane

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Stealing The General is one of my favorites about the Andrews Raid. Poor James Andrews. It would have been nice if they'd hung him right! He assembled quite a crew with his raiders, though - including some acrobats and circus people.
 

diane

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James Andrews decided the best location for the hijacking would be Big Shanty - when they got there and passengers disembarked to eat breakfast, that's when he stole the General! The goal of this raid was to sabotage the Western and Atlantic railroad which travelled from Chattanooga to Atlanta.
It was a reasonably good idea, should have worked...except Grant was too successful in April. The tsunami of troop movements from the win at Shiloh and the fall of New Orleans with Farragut caused the bottom to fall out of the Andrews Raid. But it had some real moments! William Fuller, the engineer of the General, looked up from his ham and eggs to see his engine chugging out of the station - he gave chase on foot. He was also in shape - he ran all the way to Moon's Station, where he grabbed a handcar. Pumping away, he made it to another locomotive - the Yonah, which was parked on a spur. Meantime, the General had been sidelined while Confederate train traffic raced through - which was what delayed Mitchell's movements - and the Yonah gave out. Fuller managed to commandeer the Texas, headed south driven by engineer Peter Bracken. He backed her up and gave chase - backward! - to the General. That's when things got very Buster Keaton! Flaming logs on the tracks, explosives flying through the air, stopping to set a bridge on fire only to have the pursuers stop and put it out - the Texas going faster backward than the General going forward. It was quite the race, to be sure! In the end, it was 26 to 0, Confederate win. Some of the raiders were hung and some escaped, or were allowed to escape. The most interesting journey was an Englishman and his partner went right through the heart of Dixie clear to the Gulf of Mexico and would have starved along the way, except the Englishman knew what clams looked like! His buddy had no idea. They were pretty skinny as it was when a Union patrol boat picked them up. At first their story wasn't believed one bit and they were treated rather carefully, like you do with crazy people...then word came to the captain what was going on.
 
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