11. The Civil War’s Most Epic Train Chase
Once James J. Andrews and his men seized the General, they uncoupled the locomotive from the rest of the train and took off. That kicked off the start of the Civil War’s – and America’s – most epic train chase. The raiders cut telegraph lines, and made a few stops along the way in order to remove some rail tracks. When a hue and cry was raised, the raiders led Confederate pursuers on a ninety-mile chase on foot and on locomotives. Back in Big Shanty, the conductor whose locomotive they had hijacked, a man named William Allen Fuller, organized a pursuit.
They proceeded first by foot, then by handcar, until Fuller and the posse he had rounded up reached an idle locomotive on a spur line. The raiders in the General had passed it by and considered stopping to burn it. However, there were too many people nearby, and Andrews decided that a fight to seize the locomotive would take too long, and the sound of gunfire might alert nearby troops. Fuller and the pursuers came upon the locomotive, fired it up, and began the chase in earnest. The posse switched locomotives along the way, and steadily closed the distance with Andrews and his raiders.
