Identifier: greatlocomotivec01pitt (find matches)
Title: The great locomotive chase; a history of the Andrews railroad raid into Georgia in 1862
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Pittenger, William, 1840-1904
Subjects: Chattanooga Railroad Expedition, 1862
Publisher: Philadelphia, The Penn publishing company
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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John W. Scott. From a war-time photograph. This was necessary, for though there was no office at Big Shanty, aportable battery might be found, or a swift messenger be sent back toMarietta, and a single lightning flash ahead would blight our fondesthopes. Breaking a wire is not as easy as it seems; but we adopted aplan which worked all day, and took up no time that was not also utilizedfor other purposes. John Scott, who was agile as a cat, ran up the pole,and knocking off the insulating box at the top, swung down on it. Asmall saw found on the engine easily cut the tightly stretched wire closeto the box. This did not take more than one or two minutes. At this first stop, Andrews, who had not shared our uneasiness aboutthe fire in the engine, came back and clasped our hands in ecstasy, mani-festing more excitement than I ever saw in him before; exclaiming that
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Capture of the Train. 10/ we had the enemy now at such disadvantage that he could not harm us orsave himself. When we have passed one more train, he declared, wellhave no hindrance, and then well put the engine at full speed, burn thebridges after us, dash through Chattanooga, and on to Mitchel at Hunts-ville. We have the upper hand of the rebels for once ! By saying that we had only one more train to pass before doing this,Andrews did not mean that there was but one train coming toward us.There were three, which had already left Chattanooga; but only the firstof these, a local freight, which might be met at any point between this andKingston,was a real obstacle. Andrews knew the time schedule of the othertwo, and could plan to meet them at any given station, even if we were farahead of our own time. Had there been none but these three trains, histriumphing would have been well warranted. The following is the basis upon which Andrews made his calculations:he believed that no engine co

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