While staying in Marietta, we visited the Civil War and Railroad Museum.  It contained a lot of artifacts and information about the Civil War and how it impacted the local area, with an emphasis on “The Great Railroad Chase”.  I’d never heard of it, although Jeff had, and it was the subject of a few movies over the years.  Early in the Civil War, Yankee generals wanted to cut the supply lines to Atlanta hoping to cripple the South and shorten the war.  Twenty-two volunteers infiltrated the south disguised as civilians in groups of two and three.  They met up at a train station outside of Marietta and boarded.  When the train stopped at the next stop all the passengers and most of the crew deboarded as it was the breakfast stop.  When that happened, the 22 Yankees detached the passenger cars and took off with just the engine, “The General”, and the fuel cars.  The General was a steam locomotive, so it needed wood to fuel the steam engine.

The plan was a good one – the tracks were blocked with the passenger cars that were detached, and the train would head north, stopping periodically for the 22 men to pull up rails and damage the tracks.

But, the conductor of the train that they hijacked ran after them.  Yes, he RAN after them, chasing them on foot for over two miles until he found a train on a siding.  There was only one track, so other trains would pull out onto sidings to let a train past, then they would get back on the track and continue their journey.   The train was headed in the other direction, so the train chased the General backwards!

With a train chasing them, the 22 men couldn’t stop to damage the tracks.  They did set fire to the last car (a wooden boxcar) and left it on the tracks to slow down the chasing train.

The General eventually ran out of fuel and stopped.  Most of the 22 men who ran off into the woods were captured, and several were hung.  Eight escaped and were never heard of again.

How would a successful mission like this have changed the war?  Who knows!