Capturing a Locomotive: A History of Secret Service in the Late War. — John Shaqi
Capturing a Locomotive: A History of Secret Service in the Late War.Pittenger, William
History
Capturing a Locomotive: A History of Secret Service in the Late War.
Pittenger, William
Chattanooga Railroad Expedition, 1862; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns
Who was this Mr. Andrews, from whom we had just parted in storm and
darkness,--the man from whose brain sprang the Chattanooga Railroad
Expedition, and to whose keeping we had so fearlessly committed our
lives? Few of us knew much about him at that time, but became wiser
afterwards. As he is the hero of the earlier part of this story, it may
be well to give the reader the benefit of all the information as to his
character and history subsequently obtained.
Mr. J. J. Andrews was born in that part of Western Virginia known as the
"Pan Handle," on the eastern bank of the Ohio River, and only separated
from my own county of Jefferson by that stream. While quite young he had
removed to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, settling in Fleming
County. Here he acquired considerable wealth, but at the outbreak of
the civil war lost most of it again. While in business here he
travelled over much of the South, and became acquainted with many men
whom the war afterwards threw into prominence. At the first outbreak of
hostilities he joined the Union army, not as a soldier, but in the still
more useful and dangerous character of a spy and secret negotiator. He
accompanied General Nelson in his Eastern Kentucky campaign, on which
occasion I had seen him at Prestonburg, and afterwards he journeyed back
and forth two or three times from Nashville before the capture of that
city. He also spent several days in Fort Donelson during the week
preceding its capture by General Grant. At this place he narrowly
escaped detection. Subsequently he visited Atlanta and brought back much
valuable information. By representing himself as a blockade-runner, and
carrying southward through our lines articles of small bulk but of great
value to the enemy, he secured their confidence and brought back
information a hundredfold more valuable. This business was pecuniarily
profitable to himself as well as very serviceable to the Union army. A
Mr. Whiteman, of Nashville, afterwards testified that he had paid him
ten thousand dollars for one cargo, the most of which was clear profit.
Some of the Southern officers with whom he was intimate had bestowed
upon him passes authorizing him to come and go through their lines at
pleasure. It is not my intention to offer any apology for a man who thus
betrays the confidence even of rebels. What justice requires to be said
on this subject will find a more appropriate place in explaining the
position of those who accompanied him in his last and most perilous
journey. His occupation was one of the utmost danger, and he could not
expect much mercy if detected. He had even gone the length of taking the
oath of allegiance to the Southern Confederacy, though he was
passionately loyal to the old government. Indeed, his hatred for
secession and everything connected with it had become the more intense
from the very disguise he so frequently assumed; and the desire to work
all possible injury to that cause had far more influence in inducing him
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