"Stealing the General"

[Anonymous]

From the WSJ:

The Great Train Robbery
By J. TRACY POWER
November 10, 2006; Page W4

"As the civil war entered its second year in 1862, it was still possible to imagine that the war would be short and relatively bloodless. But nothing that the Union or the Confederacy had accomplished during the previous year had resulted in a decisive advantage, and so soldiers and civilians on both sides began proposing imaginative schemes aimed at ending the war in a single brilliant stroke.

"Russell S. Bonds's masterly "Stealing the General" captures those early days by recounting one such scheme: a Union plot to steal a railroad locomotive deep in the South and race north, leaving destruction in its wake. The theft of the engine called the General -- together with the frantic chase that ensued -- is one of the most fascinating stories of the Civil War. Mr. Bonds's compelling narrative and convincing analysis give the episode its due at last.

"The dramatic expansion of railroads in the 30 years before the war had transformed the landscape of mid-19th century America, and railroads would play a major role in the war. The Confederacy had relatively few miles of track and a limited supply of engines and rolling stock, so protecting this equipment was critical to the Southern military effort -- and presented an inviting target to the Union."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116313149725619588-search.html

Dave

[CShaveRR]

I have to be a subscriber to make use of that link.

Does the book say anything new about the "chase" itself?

[TomDiehl]

AKA the Andrew's Raid or the Great Locomotive Chase, spawning at least a couple movies by the same title.

[Anonymous]

http://www.amazon.com/Stealing-General-Great-Locomotive-Chase/dp/1594160333/sr=1-1/qid=1163132523/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-4761434-3332642?ie=UTF8&s=books

 

http://www.westholmepublishing.com/stealinggeneral.html

 

http://www.southernmuseum.org/news/authorvisit.html

[CANADIANPACIFIC2816]

James J. Andrews was a double spy. He was well known among people both in the Union and the Confederacy. The Confederacy caught up with Andrews and the rest of his party just outside of Ringold, Georgia. Andrews along with eight others from his party which had taken part in the hijacking of the General and her passenger train, were tried for spying by the Confederacy and were then hanged. The rest of them were sent to prison camps such as Andersonville.

A lot of them eventually escaped and made it back to the Union Lines where they eventually met at the White House with Presidident Lincoln. They, along with the surviving spouses of Andrews and the others who the Confederacy had hung, were the first individuals in this nation's history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.

The General itslelf survived the Civil War, although in battered condition. In 1962, 100 years after the Andrews Raid at Big Shanty, Georgia, she was restored to operating condition by the Louisville & Nashville Railroad. She is now on display in a museum in Kennesaw, Georgia.

O.Winston Link, who is best known for his black and white images of Norfolk & Western steam power, also made a number of sound recordings, one of which is that of the General in motion. I have that particular recording, it was recorded on a 45 RMP disk, which I purchased from the Colorado Railroad Museum in 1985.

CANADIANPACIFIC2816

 

 

[jockellis]

The Yankees had such a good time stealing the General that after the war, they stole the freight, too. According to the Summer 1984 edition of The Atlanta Historical Journal, which was for many years edited by historian and great railroad buff Franklin M. Garrett, the railroads got preferential freight rates after the War of Northern Aggression that lasted until midnight, Thursday, May 29, 1952. Northern railroad companies fought as valiently as any troops in protecting Northern industry from Southern aggression. They claimed the South had better climate, water, natural resources and lower wages should be forced to pay more for shipping than the North, which at the same time "they" claimed had better (and undefinable) 'transportation conditions' which allowed for cheaper rates.
The South had a champion in Franklin Roosevelt who often stayed at Warm Springs, GA and was observant and indignant about the inequities between the North and South. Calling the South the "nation's number one economic problem," Roosevelt urged governors to unite. They instituted in 1934 what became the Southern Governors' Conference to fight inequality in freight rates.
In 1939, the ICC voted an end to many preferential rates, but that had little effect and it held hearings throughout WW II before its May 1945 ruling that all inequitable rates be abandoned and rates from anywhere in the east to the Rocky Mountains would be the same.
Of course, the Northern railroad interests fought that but lost at the Supreme Count in 1946. All this after a comprehensive study which found railroading actually cheaper in the South. Duh!
During the war, Georgia's governor, Ellis Arnold, conceived of a conspiracy theory and, being a lawyer, argued the case himself before the U.S. Supreme Court. Georgia lost, but did get a 5-4 decision by the Brethren to allow a state to sue on behalf of its citizens. Although Georgia did not prevail on making rates equitable, it may have been the impetus for the government to work harder toward equity which was finally reached in 1952.
Article author Sam Hall Flint ended the piece with the graf:
"Children will continue to be most impressed with "the Great Locomotive chase"; they love the story of how Georgians thwarted the daring try of Andrews' Raiders to destroy the Western & Atlantic Railway, "the lifeline of the Confederacy." But someday they should be told of another North-South railroad battle, and that one of Atlanta's and the Southland's most important and lasting victories was in the great freight rate fight.