Andrews' Raid
- Time Period: April 12, 1862
- Area: Chattanooga, Tennessee area
- Explanation: The Great Locomotive Chase or Andrews' Raid was a military raid that occurred April 12, 1862, in northern Georgia during the American Civil War. Volunteers from the Union Army, led by civilian scout James J. Andrews, commandeered a train and took it northward toward Chattanooga, Tennessee, doing as much damage as possible to the vital Western and Atlantic Railroad (W&A) line from Atlanta to Chattanooga as they went.
They were pursued by Confederate forces at first on foot, and later on a succession of locomotives. Because the Union men had cut the telegraph wires, the Confederates could not send warnings ahead to forces along the railway. Confederates captured the raiders and executed some quickly as spies. Some of Andrews' raiders were the first to be awarded the Medal of Honor by the US Congress for their actions, though Andrews himself was not..
Brig. Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel asked one of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's best spies, James J. Andrews, to take some men, capture a train, and isolate Chattanooga by burning bridges on the northern section of the Georgia State Railroad and the East Tennessee Railroad near the Georgia state line. Andrews recruited 24 Union Army volunteers with no difficulty. On the 12th, out of uniform, they broke up into small groups to make their seperate ways to Marietta, Georgia. Heavy rains, swollen streams, and muddy roads delayed them. The men planned to board the train at marietta and ride to Big Shanty (now Kennesaw), Georgia, a meal stop without telegraph communicatios.
Unknown to Andrews, the Confederates had established a camp at Big Shanty, and his mission (to seize the train and drive 100-200 mile burning bridges, destroying railbeds, and cutting telegraph wires) was now complicated by the precense of hundreds of Confederate soldiers. At Big Shanty, all the passengers went into the station for breakfast except Andrews and his men, who left the train from the side opposite the station, dashed to the engine, uncoupled it its tender, 3 boxcars, and took off with wheels screaching. William A. Fuller, the conductor, and Anthony Murphy, foreman of the railway shop at Atlanta, realized instantly what had happened and started in pursuit--first on foot, then in a handcar, and finally in an engine they found with its steam up.
Andrews discovered that bridges soaked by rain did not take fire easily. The best his men could do was to cut telegraph lines and throw obstacles on the tracks, but Fuller and Murphy were gaining rapidly. Finally, out of fuel 18 miles souyh of Chattanooga, they abandoned the train and took to the woods, but all were captured within a week.
Within 2 months of the raid, Andrews and 7 of his men were court-martialed and executed--Andrews on June 7, and the others on June 18. The fate of the rest had to be postponed because Union forces were advancing rapidly. 8 men escaped but the rest were held as prisoners of war until they were exchanged through a special arrangement with Sec. of War Edwin M. Stanton.
Confederate forces charged all the raiders with "acts of unlawful belligerency"; the civilians were charged as unlawful combatants and spies. All the prisoners were tried in military courts, or courts-martial. Tried in Chattanooga, Andrews was found guilty. He was executed by hanging on June 7 in Atlanta. On June 18, seven others who had been transported to Knoxville and convicted as spies were returned to Atlanta and also hanged; their bodies were buried unceremoniously in an unmarked grave (they were later reburied in Chattanooga National Cemetery).
Writing about the exploit, Corporal William Pittenger said that the remaining raiders worried about also being executed. They attempted to escape and eight succeeded. Traveling for hundreds of miles in pairs, they all made it back safely to Union lines, including two who were aided by slaves and Union sympathizers and two who floated down the Chattahoochee River until they were rescued by the Union blockade vessel USS Somerset. The remaining six were held as prisoners of war and exchanged for Confederate prisoners on March 17, 1863.
Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton awarded some of the raiders with the first Medal of Honor. Private Jacob Wilson Parrott, who had been physically abused as a prisoner, was awarded the first. Later all but two of the other soldiers also received the medals, with posthumous awards to families for those who had been executed. As civilians, Andrews and Campbell were not eligible.
Campaign Battles
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- No Battles were fought
