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
"This would have eclipsed anything Captain Morgan ever attempted. To
think of a parcel of Federal soldiers--officers and privates--coming
down into the heart of the Confederate States,--for they were here in
Atlanta and at Marietta (some of them got on the train at Marietta that
morning, and others were at Big Shanty); of playing such a serious game
on the State road, which is under the control of our prompt, energetic,
and sagacious governor, known as such all over America; to seize the
passenger train on his road, right at Camp McDonald, where he has a
number of Georgia regiments encamped, and run off with it; to burn the
bridges on the same road, and go safely through to the Federal
lines,--all this would have been a feather in the cap of the man or men
who executed it."
No. III.
A FRENCHMAN'S VIEW OE THE CHATTANOOGA RAILROAD EXPEDITION.
The following extract from the "History of the Civil War in America," by
the Comte de Paris (vol. ii. pp. 187, 188), is suggestive and
characteristic, though erroneous in many particulars. The numbers of
those who escaped and of those who perished are reversed, and the cause
assigned for the failure of the expedition is purely imaginary; but the
local coloring is exquisite:
"Among the expeditions undertaken by Mitchel's soldiers at this period,
we must mention one which, despite its tragic termination, shows what a
small band of daring men could attempt in America; it will give an idea
of the peculiar kind of warfare which served as an interlude to the
regular campaigns of large armies. An individual named Andrews, employed
in the secret service of Buell, and twenty-two soldiers selected by him,
went to Chattanooga under different disguises, and thence to Marietta,
in Georgia, which had been assigned them as a place of rendezvous, and
which was situated in the very centre of the enemy's country. Once
assembled, they got on board a train of cars loaded with Confederate
troops and ammunition. During the trip this train stopped, as usual,
near a lonely tavern close to the track; everybody got out, and both
engineer and fireman went quietly to breakfast. Andrews took advantage
of their absence to jump upon the locomotive, which was detached by his
men, with three cars, from the rest of the train; they started off at
full speed, leaving their fellow-travellers in a state of stupefaction.
At the stations where they stopped they quietly answered that they were
carrying powder to Beauregard's army. Presently they began the work of
destruction which they had projected; they cut the telegraph wires, tore
up the rails behind them, and proceeded to fire the bridges which they
reached on their way to Chattanooga. They hoped to arrive at that city
before the news of their expedition had spread abroad, to pass rapidly
through it, and join Mitchel at Huntsville. But it was necessary to
avoid the trains running in the opposite direction. One of these trains,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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