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Stealing the General: The Great
Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor Reviewed by Todd Presnell On Sept. 11, 1967, Chattanooga Mayor Ralph Kelly obtained a writ of attachment from a Hamilton County court and, with the help of sheriff’s deputies, blocked the local railroad and took possession of a Civil War era steam engine known as the General, which was being carried to Kennesaw, Georgia, for permanent display. Sixteen months later, Federal Judge Frank Wilson, in an opinion published at 298 F. Supp. 1, released the writ of attachment, thereby permitting the General to exit Chattanooga forever. Rumor has it that Mayor Kelly never forgave Judge Wilson for this decision. What was all the fuss about? Atlanta lawyer Russell S. Bonds answers this question and more in his riveting, page-turning account of what is known as The Great Locomotive Chase or The Andrews Raid. In this first major examination in years of what was described as “the boldest adventure” of the Civil War, Bonds explains how 20 men, most of them Union soldiers but led by civilian spy James Andrews, covertly slipped behind Confederate lines and stole the General from its daily travels. The goal of this raid was to run the General north from Marietta to Chattanooga, dismantling track and burning bridges along the way, and rendezvous with an advancing Union army in Chattanooga. Accomplishing this task would free Union-friendly East Tennessee, a major desire of none other than President Lincoln. The raid was ill-fated, however, as the General’s conductor, William Fuller, successfully chased Andrews and his men first on foot, then by hand car, and later at the head of another steam engine known as the Texas. Despite the failure of the mission, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton made six of the Andrews Raiders the first recipients of the recently established Medal of Honor. Although this story has been the subject of major films in 1927 and 1956, Bonds’ story eclipses all other accounts as this book meets his goal of telling “the story of the Great Locomotive Chase,” reexamining “its place in the war and its lasting legacy,” and avoiding “being influenced by the romantic adventure that has surrounded the story.” Bonds accomplishes his goals in a descriptive and eloquent style while simultaneously personalizing the story, such as describing one raider as “having rosy cheeks, sparkling eyes, a curling mustache, and a dark bushy beard that combined to make him look for all the world like a young Saint Nick, not yet gone gray.” Bonds’ successful examination, moreover, will be of particular interest to Tennessee lawyers. The plan began in Shelbyville (“on a knoll on the farm of a man named Holland”), and the raiders made their way to Georgia through Manchester, Jasper and Chattanooga. After being captured, the raiders were imprisoned in a pitiful jail located at the corner of Fifth and Lookout streets in Chattanooga. Andrews was tried in Chattanooga, being defended by well-known Chattanooga lawyer Reese B. Brabson. Other raiders were tried in Knoxville, where they were defended by famous Knoxville lawyer Oliver P. Temple and future federal judge John Baxter. Those who were hanged now rest in the National Cemetery in Chattanooga. For good measure, Bonds sprinkles in various long-forgotten historical nuggets, such as the fact that Chattanooga, originally named Ross’ Landing, is a Creek Indian word meaning “rock coming to a point.” All of which leads to the post-raid fate of the General, which sat on public display at Union Station in Chattanooga from 1891 to 1961, at which time it was removed, among other reasons, to tour the country during the Civil War centennial celebrations. When it was destined to return for permanent display in Kennesaw, not Union Station in Chattanooga, Mayor Kelly took matters into his own hands. Judge Wilson may have ended the story of the General in his 1969 opinion, but Russ Bonds’ account brings the story back to life in superior fashion. • • • Todd Presnell is an attorney at Miller & Martin PLLC in Nashville. Tennessee Bar Journal
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