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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;longnine009, post: 8141549, member: 1886&quot;][ATTACH=full]1419270[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1419275[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>On April 12, 1862&nbsp; The&nbsp; locomotive&nbsp; known as The General was stolen by James Andrew and about two dozen&nbsp; Union soldiers from the 21st and 33rd Ohio Infantries. James Andrew was a civilian scout for the Union Army and was in charge of the raid. The objective was to take The General from Georgia to Tennessee, destroy as much Confederate property as possible along the way and then use The General and some railroad cars&nbsp; to aid General Ormsby M. Mitchel&nbsp; of the Union Army in capturing Chattanooga.</p><p><br /></p><p>Andrews and his raiders boarded The General at Marietta Georgia posing as Confederate secret service agents on a special detail for General Beauregard of the Confederate Army who was defending Chattanooga.&nbsp; The General then stopped at Big Shanty Georgia for breakfast. Andrews and his raiders then uncoupled&nbsp; most of the passenger cars and stole the train. The &quot;Great Locomotive Chase&quot; was on.</p><p><br /></p><p>Conductor William Allen Fuller, who had been inside eating, chased The General on foot along with the engineer and station superintendent. Then they grabbed a hand car. Now that Andrews was on the run he didn&#039;t have much time to destroy Confederate property. He barely had time to cut telegraph lines that were ahead of him. He wanted to stop and destroy the Confederate locomotive Yonah but didn&#039;t think he had time with Conductor Fuller chasing.</p><p><br /></p><p>Conductor Fuller did have the time to stop. He switched out of the hand car and into the Yonah and continued the chase. Then Andrews had to pull off on a siding and allow a south bound train to pass only to see a red flag at it&#039;s end. A red flag denoted that another train was coming.</p><p><br /></p><p>The problem was General Beauregard found out about the Union&#039;s plan to march on Chattanooga and was shipping equipment south. There were more red flags&nbsp; keeping The General on the siding.</p><p><br /></p><p>But Conductor Fuller was also delayed by traffic. And he switched out of the Yonah and into the locomotive Texas. And the chase continued. Somewhere in all this Conductor Fuller got a telegraph message off to Chattanooga before the line was cut.</p><p><br /></p><p>Now the &quot;A-Team&quot; had Confederate forces coming at them from Chattanooga and Conductor Fuller coming up from behind. But not for long. Next they ran out of firewood and water. So, &quot;Plan B&quot; was to scatter into the woods of Georgia and try to get back to Ohio.</p><p><br /></p><p>From the beginning, not much of Andrews&#039; plan &quot;came together.&quot; Oh yeah, and then they</p><p>&nbsp;hanged him for being a spy.</p><p><br /></p><p>Some of Andrews&#039; raiders did make it back to Ohio, some escaped while in prison, some were traded for Confederate prisoners and a few joined Andrews and were hanged as spies.</p><p><br /></p><p>Technically, they all became spies when they boarded The General under the pretense of being Confederate secret service agents. Those who were not hanged were most fortunate.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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