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«£VERY 05E take care of himself ,”
nd they left in squads of three or
four. Four of them were run down in
t jj e fork of the river at Graysville and
one was forcibly persuaded to tell who
they were.
The militia, mounted on fresh
horses, scoured the woods that after
noon, and by the next day the last of
the fugitives were captured.
Later there was a trial by military
cour t and eight of the number were
executed. Six were exchanged, but
before the sentence of the court was
carried out eight escaped.
Thus ended one of the most daring
exploits on record.
THE CHASE.
Notes.
Accounts have been published be
fore, but in local papers only : though
one of the band published a work
called “Capturing a Locomotive,” J.
B. Lippencott & Co., of Philadelphia.
The leader’s name was J. J. An
drews, a Kentuckian; he was one of
the executed.
The Southern Confederacy, a paper
published at Atlanta at the time,
says:
“The fugitives, not expecting pur
suit, quietly took in wood and water
at Cass Station, and borrowed a sched
ule from the tank-tender upon the
plausible pretext that they were run
ning a pressed train, loaded with pow
der for Beauregard. The tank-tender
was named William Russell, who said
he would give the shirt off his back for
Beauregard if it had been asked for.”
In the book referred to, Mr. Pitten
ger, who was on the flying engine,
says:
“We obstructed the track as well as
we could by laying on cross-ties at dif
ferent places. We also cut the wires
between every station. * * Final
ly, when we were nearly to the station
where we expected to meet the last
train, we stopped to take up a rail.
We had no instruments but a crowbar,
and instead of pulling out the spikes as
we could have done with the pinch
bars used for that purpose by railroad
men, we had to batter them out. * *
Just as we were going to relinquish
the effort the whistle of an engine in
pursuit sounded in our ears. * *
With one convulsive effort we broke
the rail in two, took up our precious
half rail and left.
“We were scarcely out of sight of
the place where we had taken up the
half rail, before the other train met us.
This whs safely passed. When our
pursuers came to the place where the
broken rail was taken up, they aban
doned their engine, and ran on foot
till they met the freight train and
turned it back after us. * * We
adopted every expedient we could
think of to delay pursuit; but as we
were cutting the wire near Calhoun
they came in sight of us. * * We
instantly put our engine to full speed,
and in a moment the wheels were
striking fire from the rails in their
rapid revolutions. The car in which
we rode, rocked furiously and threw us
from one side to the other like peas
rattled in a gourd. I then proposed to
Andrews to let ortr engineer take the
engine out of sight while we hid in a
curve after putting a cross-tie on the
track ; when they checked to remove
the obstructions, we could rush on
them, shoot every .person on the en
gine, reverse it and let it drive back
ward at will.”
The article in the Southern Confeder
acy, says of the fugitive Federals :
“They had on the engine a red hand
kerchief, indicating that the regular
passenger train would be along pres
ently. They stopped at Adairsville
and said that Fuller, with the regular
passenger train was behind, and would
wait at Kingston for the freight train,
and told the conductor to push ahead
and meet him at that point. (This was
done to produce a collision with Capt
Fuller’s train.) * * When the
morning freight reached Big Shanty,
Lieut. Cols. R. F. Maddox and C. D.
Phillips took the engine, and with fifty
picked men followed on as rapidly as
possible. (Capt. Fuller, on his return,
met them at Tunnel Hill and turned
them back.) Peter Bracken, the en
gineer on the down freight train, ran
his engine 50J miles—two of them
backing the w T hole freight train up to
Adairsville—made twelve stops,coupled
the two cars dropped by the fugitives,
and switched them oft on sidings, in
one hour and five minutes.” (Captain
Fuller fully corroborates the invalua
ble services rendered by the veteran
Biacken.)
Judge Hall, of Georgia, remarked
that “in the daring of its conception,
it had the wildness of a romance;
while in the gigantic and overwhelm
ing results it sought and was likely to
accomplish, it was absolutely sub
lime.”
In his evidence at the trial, Pitten
ger stated that during the chase, An
drews’ men came near open mutiny.
They proposed to stop the engine in a
short curve,
AMBUSCADE AND KILL FULLER
and his men as they came up, but An
drews would not agree to it. Capt.
Fuller was not aware of this danger;
but he pressed his pursuit so hotly that
they had little time to take on wood
and water. When the “General” gave
out, the fugitives were burning oil
cans, the tool box and planks ripped
off the freight car. As they aban
doned the engine they reversed her in
order to bring on a collision with Capt.
Fuller’s engine, but in their excite
ment they left the brake on the ten
der, and the steam had not sufficient
,'W
. < CONDUCTOR W.*A. FULLER,
force to back the engine.
There were twenty-two men engaged
in the enterprise ; twenty of them were
from Ohio and two from Kentucky.
They were to receive $60,000 in the
event of success. For the brilliancy
of the effort they should have been
paid anyhow, even in addition to the
gold medals subsequently voted them
by Congress.
THE KENNESAW GAZETTE.
Os the dramatis persona of the pur
suers, Capt. Fuller and Mr. Murphy,
are citizens of Atlanta, Ga., Jeff Cain,
the engineer, is still in the service of
the Western & Atlantic Railroad, run
ning the switch engine at Cartersville.
Mr. Bracken is running a saw mill in
south Georgia, and Mr. Fleming Cox
is running a locomotive south of Ma
con.
The engines have been long in ser
vice since the chase. The “General”
is now on the road pulling one of the
accommodation trains. The “Texas”
is also on the road pulling a freight
train. For some unknown reason the
present master machinist’s predecessor
changed her name to the “Cincinnati,”
and under this name she runs. It ought
to be changed back to that under
which she became known to fame by
overhauling the “General.”
The “Yonah” was dismantled and
used as a stationary engine in the At
lanta shops.
The “General.”
Apropos of the illustrated article in
this paper, headed The Capture of a
Locomotive, we reproduce the following
article, which appeared in the Kenne
saw Gazette of March, 1886, and
shows that the old “General” has had
an eventful life:
the “general.”
This famous locomotive is still on the
Western & Atlantic Railroad pulling a
train. She is one of the “old issue
but is retained in service, although her
capacity is rather limited when com
pared with the big “ten-wheelers” and
other more modern locomotives which
the ever wide-awake Western & At
lantic Railroad company now possess.
It is a matter of national knowledge
that the “General” was captured by 22
Federal soldiers, in disguise, April 12,
1862, at Big Shanty, and the attempt
was made by them to escape with her
and burn the bridges on the W. & A.
R. R., etc. Their chase from Big
Shanty to a point near Ringgold and
the capture of the entire party, are
well known facts.
It is not known, however, that the
“General” was almost under fire of the
Federal battei ies at the great battle of
Kennesaw Mountain, June 27, 1864.
When the battle began during the early
morning General Johnston sent up a
train load of ammunition, etc., to the
Confederate lines at the eastern base
of Kennesaw Mountain. The ammuni
tion, etc., was unloaded and carried to
the front as quickly as possible, but the
engine and train were detained at that
point, by order of General Johnston,
to carry back the wounded at the close
of the battle. During the entire morn
ing the “General” and her train stood
at the point where is now the station,
Elizabeth, and some of the Federal
bombshells, flying over the Confeder
ate entrenchments, exploded almost in
her neighborhood. In the afternoon
the wounded soldiers from Feather
ston’s division and others in that por
tion of the field were placed aboard the
train, and the “General” brought them
down to Marietta and thence on to At
lanta.
The “General” was also the last W.
&A. R. R. engine to leave Atlanta
when Hood’s army evacuated it, and
it was thought just before she left that
it would be impossible to take her
away, but they managed to get her
safely out, and she went southward
with a train load of refugees, war ma
terial, etc.
The W. & A. R. R. runs sixteen
passenger trains daily.
The Western & Atlantic Rail
road.
No railroad in the United States has as
much historic interest as this. Almost every
mile of it,from Chattanooga to Atlanta,from
the Mountain City on the north to the Queen
City on the south, is replete with associa
tions connected with the civil war, and es
pecially . with Sherman’s “Atlanta cam
paign.” Setting out from the foot of Look
out mountain the traveler is whirled past
MISSIONARY ItIDGE,
ever to be associated with the names of
Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, McPherson,
Hooker, and others, on to Chickamauga—
“river of death.’’ By this prophetic name
did not the Indians unwittingly foreshadow
the terrible slaughter along the banks of
this stream on those three memorable days
in September, 1863 ? Graysville recalls two
battles of lesser note.
Passing
RINGGOLD
we pass through the deep cut where Gen.
Cleburne bravely stayed Hooker’s victori
ous progress November 27, 1863, and look
up the steep sides of the ridge, down which
the Confederates ioiled huge rocks that in
flicted great loss upon their assailantsand
threw them into confusion.
We look out at
TUNNEL HILL
to see two battle grounds, one on either side
of the track, and passing through the tun
nel anil then along the foot of Rocky Face
mountain to Mill Creek gap, we fly through
the gorge which Gen. Sherman found im
passible.
DALTON
also has its battle record, while a few miles
to the southwest are Snake Creek gap and
Dug gap, which played such an important
part in that skillful flank movement of
Sherman’s, which compelled Johnston to
fall back from Mill Creek gap, evacuate
Dalton and retire to Resaca. Westward
from the road, just north from this latter
point, we see the ridge, on the western slope
of which Johnston so skillfully disposed his
forces during that four-days’ battle, and the
loss of nearly I,BCO men failed to dislodge
them, but from which the Confederate Gen
eral wisely withdrew, when again he was
likely to be flanked and cut off from his
base of supplies by Sherman’s movement,
across the Oostanaula at Lay’s ferry.
CASS STATION
reminds one of the artillery duel between
the two armies on May 24, 1864, at Cass
ville, a few miles north of the station.
And here is
ALLATOONA
and its pass, from which, also, Sherman
compelled Johnston to fall back and which
he afterwards fortified and made his base of
supplies. This, also, was the scene of that
struggle which occasioned that communica
tion by signal “through the sky” and over
the heads of the enemy from the top of Ken
nesaw Mountain, that suggested that stirring
religious lyric, “Hold the Fort.”
BIG SHANTY
is a little place, but is memorable as the
station at which the locomotive, known as
the “General,” was boldly captured by a
few Federal soldiers with the intention of
burning the bridges on the Western & At
lantic Road, which was then in possession
of the Confederates and the r'ght arm of
their strength..
And now behold
KENNESAW MOUNTAIN,
that looked down upon the most protracted
and bloody struggle in all this campaign.
There it is in advance of us, and now at our
right, towering up 700 feet above the sur
rounding region, a mighty and indestructi
ble monument to the soldiers who gave their
lives for their country on its declivities and
are buried in the cemetery at Marietta, only
a short distance from its foot.
On wj go and soon cross the historic
CHATTAHOOCHEE,
and the plains beyond, which were so long
the home of war and bloodshed, and at last
enter Atlanta, not unworthily called the
Queen City of the south—the city so thor
oughly destroyed twenty-five years ago and
now so thoroughly and beautifully rebuilt.
It will please you to know that among
the newest and finest of these buildings is
that of the Atlanta Y. M. C. A. This is the
headquarters of another army also composed
of voung men who are engaged in another
Atlanta campaign. They would take that
city for Christ as you would fain take
Peoria, and both them and you may be well
inspired for that better conflict by the ex
amples of courage, fortitude and endurance
set by those who fought for their country
—The Ti anscript, Peoria, 111.
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