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America Accidentally Attacked the Soviet Union and Other Lesser Known History Moments

Khalid Elhassan February 27, 2020 34 min

Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star - Aircraft — American F-80s in action during the Korean War. Squdron

12. The Great Locomotive Chase

Andrews and his men seized a locomotive named ‘The General’. Library of Congress

Seizing the train’s locomotive, Andrews and his raiders uncoupled it from the rest of the train and took off, beginning what came to be known as “The Great Locomotive Chase”. The raiders cut telegraph lines, and stopping along the way, removed some rail tracks. When a hue and cry was raised, the raiders led Confederate pursuers on a 90-mile chase on foot and on locomotives.

In Big Shanty, the conductor whose locomotive they had hijacked, a William Fuller, organized a pursuit. First by foot, then by handcar, until Fuller and posse reached an idle locomotive on a spur line, which they fired up and began the chase in earnest. Switching locomotives along the way, the pursuers steadily closed the distance with the raiders. For some time, Andrews’ men stayed ahead of news of their raid because they had cut telegraph wires. That prevented warnings and orders to block the raiders’ escape route from reaching Confederate forces ahead of the fleeing Union volunteers.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.