What was The Great Locomotive Chase of Georgia?

The Great Locomotive Chase of Georgia, also known as “Andrews’ Raid” took place on April 12 of 1862. During the Civil War, 22 Union volunteers led by James J. Andrews commandeered a train called the General and rode it North towards Tennessee from Georgia, destroying the tracks as they went along.

James J. Andrews was a Kentucky-born man who worked as a civilian scout and secret agent for Union Major General Don Carlos Buell in Nashville, Tennessee. In March of 1862, Andrews approached Buell with a plan to steal a train in Georgia and take it North on the Western and Atlantic Railroad towards Confederate-occupied Chattanooga. His idea was to destroy the track by breaking railroad ties, burning bridges, and clipping telegraph lines to prevent the Confederacy from transporting soldiers and supplies to Chattanooga, as well as preventing communication between Confederate military bases. This would aid the Union in capturing Chattanooga, securing Tennessee to the Union side.

On the morning of April 12, Andrews and his men arrived in Big Shanty, presently known as Kennesaw. Shortly after their arrival, the General chugged into the city and stopped at the Lacy Hotel to provide its passengers with breakfast. After the train’s conductor, William A. Fuller, left the locomotive; Andrews and his men boarded the train and stole it, taking three boxcars with them but leaving the passenger cars. Fuller and two other men tried to chase down the train on foot before acquiring a handcar used by Big Shanty’s work force just North of the city.

Andrews was able to pass through the next few train stations by informing the station masters that he and his men were on special orders to deliver ammo to the Confederate front in Chattanooga by Confederate General Beauregard in response to the Union threats on the city. Unfortunately, when they arrived to Kingston, Georgia; this excuse didn’t work. They failed to realize that the General had a red flag attached to the back of it, meaning it was travelling in a sectional order and had a train close behind it. This train was the Yonah, commandeered by William Fuller in Etowah as he tried desperately to chase down the Andrews Raiders. Andrews and his men were placed on a halt of movement until the next train arrived.

They pulled out of the station in Kingston just moments before Fuller arrived on the Yonah. They continued North, never far ahead of Fuller and his men. When they were just 18 miles away from Chattanooga, the General burned through the

last of its fuel. The raiders scattered, trying to get as far away from the train as possible before Fuller arrived.

With their luck seemingly gone for good, all 22 men were captured by the Confederacy within two weeks of their attempted escape. All were put on trial and charged with “unlawful acts of belligerence”. Andrews was sentenced to execution in Atlanta, where he was hanged on June 7, 1862. Shortly thereafter, seven more of his men were sentenced to hang, and they swung in Atlanta on June 18. Now terrified of impending death, the remaining raiders tried their hand in escaping once more. They took off in pairs, headed for the Union borders in Tennessee. Eight of them were successful, having been helped by slaves and Union sympathizers. Two men even reached safety by floating down the Chattahoochee River until they were rescued by Union blockade ship USS Somerset in the Gulf of Mexico.

The remaining six men were captured as prisoners of war by the Confederacy, and they were held hostage until a prisoner trade between the Union and the Confederacy on March 17, 1863. The unfortunate souls who were executed were dumped unceremoniously in an unmarked grave, but have since been moved to their final resting place in Chattanooga National Cemetery.