The General

On April 12, 1862, one of the greatest raids almost happened that could have shortened the Civil War by two years at lest. It is now known as the Great Locomotive Chase. The chase last for 116 miles. It started in Atlanta and ended close to Chattanooga.

It started off as a normal day the crew of the General. The General pulled into the station Big Shanty. This time was the crew and the passengers to stop and get breakfast. So everyone got off the train to go eat at the hotel right across the street from the station. When everyone was off, James J. Andrews and 20 other union soldiers unhooked the General and some of its freight cars and left the station. Andrews and his men were able to steal the General from over 300 confederate soldiers and the people that were eating breakfast at the hotel.

After completing that, all they had to do was to get out of Georgia. What they weren't counting on was the conductor of the train, William Fuller, and a couple of other men were giving chase on foot for awhile. Andrews and his men were destroying tracks and cut the telegraph wires to stop who was ever following them and to stop any soldiers coming from Alabama.

Fuller was following Andrews on foot until they got to Moon Station and there they got a push car until they got to Major Cooper's Iron Foundry and there they toke the Yonah and closed the gape between the General and them. The General had to stop to get water and to rip up the tracks so this slowed their progress.

When Andrews got to Kingston, they had to wait an hour to get through because Mitchel had taken Huntsville so all the goods would go through there instead of going out west. When Fuller got there, he knew that he would never get through so they had to stop and they got on a mail train that was in the right direction, so they hoped on and were in pursuit again. After following for awhile they had pursue on foot because Andrews tore up another piece of the track.

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