Great Locomotive Chase - The Chase

The Chase

Because railway dining cars were not yet in common use, railroad timetables included water, rest, and meal stops. In addition, as the locomotives of the time needed to frequently replenish fuel and water, stops for passenger and crew meals were combined with the stops for water and fuel as a feature of passenger railway travel.

On the morning of April 12, a northbound passenger train with the locomotive General stopped at Big Shanty, Georgia (now Kennesaw) so that the crew and passengers could breakfast at the Lacy Hotel. Andrews and his raiders hijacked the General and the first several rail cars. They intended to drive the train north towards Chattanooga to meet up with Mitchel's advancing army. The raiders chose to make their move at Big Shanty station because it had no telegraph. Along the way, Andrews planned to stop and tear up track, sabotage switches, burn covered bridges, and cut the telegraph wires at numerous locations. The raiders steamed out of Big Shanty, leaving behind startled passengers, crew members, and onlookers, which included a number of Confederate soldiers from Camp McDonald, which stood directly opposite the Lacy Hotel.

The train's conductor, William Allen Fuller, and two other men, chased the stolen train, first on foot, then by handcar. Locomotives of the time normally averaged 15 miles per hour (24 km/h), with short bursts of an average speed of 20 miles per hour (32 km/h). In addition, the terrain north of Atlanta is very hilly, and the ruling grades are steep. Even today, average speeds are usually never greater than 40 miles per hour (64 km/h) between Chattanooga and Atlanta. Since Andrews intended to stop periodically for sabotage, a determined pursuer, even on foot, could conceivably have caught up with the train before they reached Chattanooga.

Fuller spotted the locomotive Yonah at Etowah and commandeered it, chasing the raiders north all the way to Kingston. There Fuller switched to the locomotive William R. Smith at Kingston and headed north to Adairsville. Two miles south of Adairsville, the raiders had destroyed the tracks. Fuller had to continue on foot. Beyond the damage, he took command of the southbound locomotive Texas at Adairsville, running it backwards and tender-first to the North.

The raiders never got far ahead of Fuller. First, destroying the railway behind the hijacked train was a slow process. Second, the raiders had stolen a regularly scheduled train on its route, and they needed to keep to the train's timetable. Even if they reached a siding ahead of time, they would have to wait at the siding until scheduled southbound trains passed them, before they could continue north. All the time, Fuller was gaining on them.

The Texas train crew had been bluffed by Andrews into taking the station siding, thereby allowing the General to continue northward along the single-track mainline. As Andrews' party had cut the telegraph lines, all train crews, station masters, and W&A management to the north had no idea that the General had been captured by the enemy. Fuller, in command of the Texas, picked up 11 Confederate troops at Calhoun.

With The Texas still chasing the General tender-first, the two trains steamed through Dalton and Tunnel Hill. The raiders continued to sever the telegraph wires, but they were unable to burn bridges or damage Tunnel Hill. The wood they had hoped to burn was soaked by rain.

Finally, at milepost 116.3, north of Ringgold, Georgia, just 18 miles from Chattanooga, with the locomotive out of fuel, Andrews' men abandoned the General and scattered. Andrews and all of his men were caught within two weeks, including the two who had missed the hijacking that morning.