View attachment 68172
This photograph shows seven of the twenty-one men who were members of Andrews' Raiders, a mission to capture and destroy Confederate supply lines during the Civil War. The men are identified as (standing, left to right) William Bensinger, Daniel A. Dorsey, J.A. Wilson; (seated, left to right) William Knight; William Pittenger, Jacob Parrott, John R. Porter.
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Men of the 21st & 33 Ohio Regiments
THE MITCHELL RAID
April 12, 1862
THE MITCHELL RAIDERS
MARIAN A. ROSS, Sergt-Major, 2nd Ohio Inf. **
WILLIAM PITTINGER, Sergt-Major, 21st Ohio, Inf.
J. A. WILSON, Private, Co. C, 21st Ohio Inf. **
MARK WOOD, Private, Co. C, 21st Ohio Inf.
W. J. KNIGHT, Private, Co. E, 21st Ohio Inf.
W. W, BROWN, Private, Co. F, 21st Ohio Inf.
JOHN M. SCOTT, Sergt., Co. F, 21st Ohio Inf. **
WILLIAM BENSINGER, Private Co. G, 21st Ohio Inf.
JOHN R. PORTER, Private, Co. G, 21st Ohio Inf.
ROBERT BUFFUM, Private, Co. H, 21st Ohio Inf.
M. J. HAWKINS, Corpl, Co. A, 33rd Ohio Inf.
WILLIAM REDDICK, Corpl, Co. B, 33rd Ohio Inf.
JOHN WOLLAM, Private, Co. C, 33rd Ohio Inf.
SAMUEL SLAVENS, Private, Co. E, 33rd Ohio Inf. **
DANIEL A. DORSEY, Corpl, Co. H, 33rd Ohio Inf.
E. H. MASON, Sergt., Co. K, 33rd Ohio Inf.
JACOB PARROTT, Private, Co. K, 33rd Ohio Inf.
JAMES J. ANDREWS **
WILLIAM CAMPBELL **
W. A. FULLER
ANDREW MURPHY
SAMUEL ROBERTSON **
PERRY SHADRACK **
JAMES SMITH
NOTE: ** Hanged at Atlanta, GA, as spies.
THE MITCHELL RAID
One of the most interesting and thrilling incidents of the
early campaigns of 1862, as an exploit of reckless daring, if
not of successful strategy, was this celebrated railroad raid,
organized with the purpose of destroying the rebel line of
communication with Chattanooga, and placing that important
stronghold at the mercy of General Mitchell's forces.
The raid was led by James J. Andrews of Kentucky, who had
previously acted as a spy for General Buell. The expedition
consisted of twenty men of the Second, Twenty-first, and
Thirty-third Ohio regiments, who volunteered for the service,
and two civilians.
Wearing citizens' clothes, and carrying only side-arms, they
proceeded from General Mitchell's camp at Shelbyville, Tenn.,
to Chattanooga, in detachments of three or four, representing
themselves to be Kentuckians on their way to join the
Confederate Army. From Chattanooga they made their way to
Marietta, GA, which was to be the starting point for the raid.
On the morning of the 12th of April they boarded a train
loaded with rebel troops and ammunition, and rode to Big
Shanty (now Kenesaw Station), having bought tickets to
different stations along the line to disarm suspicion. At Big
Shanty the train stopped, and the conductor, engineer, and
many of the passengers went out to breakfast, leaving the
train unguarded.
The little band immediately took possession, uncoupled a
section of the train, consisting of three empty box-cars, the
locomotive and tender, and started at full speed on their wild
ride through the enemy's country to Chattanooga. The plan
was, by cutting the telegraph wires and tearing up the track,
to destroy all means of communication east and south,
preventing the re-enforcement or the garrison at Chattanooga,
and leaving the way clear for General Mitchell, who, with a
detachment from his division, was at this very moment moving
on the town by rail from Huntsville, Ala., one hundred miles
to the west.
The train was run at a furious rate of speed, stopping
occasionally to enable the men to tear up the rails and cut
the wires. At the stations where he was compelled to stop,
Andrews replied to all inquiries that he was running an
impressed powder train through to General Beauregard. The
only difficulties ahead were the extra trains flying south
from General Mitchell's forces, whose approach had stampeded
the enemy.
The danger was all in the rear, where another engine in charge
of Anthony Murphy, master-mechanic and superintendent of the
road, assisted by the conductor and engineer of the captured
train, was gradually gaining on them in spite of the obstacles
in its way. The pursuers had started on a hand car, which had
run off the track at one of the breaks in the road, had been
obliged to proceed on foot for some distance, and had finally
pressed into service a locomotive and a company of soldiers.
Delayed by the south-bound trains as well as by the necessary
work of destruction, the Union men lost valuable time, while
the Confederates seemed able to surmount all obstacles. The
chase was as desperate as the flight, the issue almost equally
vital to pursuer and pursued.
At Kingston the Federals were only four minutes ahead, and, at
their next halt, the whistle of the enemy's engine was heard
while they were pulling up the rails. The rebels saw the
obstruction in time to avoid a wreck, but had to leave their
engine and start again on foot. The relief to the fugitives,
however, was slight, for, before going far the rebels stopped
and reversed a south-bound train, and continued the chase.
From Calhoun there was a clear track to Chattanooga, but the
pursuers were gaining rapidly. The fugitives dropped a car
which was taken up and pushed ahead by the engine in the rear.
The Federals broke out the end of their last box-car, and
dropped cross-ties on the track, checking slightly the
progress of the rebels, and gaining enough time to get in wood
and water at two stations.
Several times they stopped, and almost succeeded in lifting a
rail, but each time the Confederates, coming within rifle
range, compelled them to give up the attempt. As a final
desperate effort they set fire to their third and last car,
and as they passed over a long, covered bridge at Oostenaula,
uncoupled it and left it in the center of the bridge.
The Confederates were upon the bridge before the fire had
gained much headway, and the pursuing engine, dashing through
the flame and smoke, drove the car before it to the next side-
track. Every effort had failed that ingenuity could devise
and reckless courage execute, and, on the very threshold of
success, it was plain that escape was impossible.
Fuel was now very low, and, though the locomotive was urged to
its greatest speed, swaying and trembling from its tremendous
impulse, it was a question of very few minutes before it would
have to be abandoned. As it began to slow down the signal was
given for a general sauve-qui-peut, but the little band was at
once overpowered.
They were taken to Atlanta, where the leader and seven of his
men were tried by court-martial, condemned, and executed. The
others were kept in prison until the following October, when,
agreeing among themselves that death by a bullet would be
preferable to the scaffold, they planned an escape, a venture
quite as desperate as that upon which they had embarked in the
spring, but, fortunately, more successful.
By a concerted attack upon the guards they managed to escape,
but only eight of them reached home, after a most terrible
experience, thus described by one of the survivors:
"In just forty-eight days and nights, for the nights should be
counted, since under cover of darkness we made most progress,
we reached the Federal lines, footsore and worn to skeletons.
We were forced to wade streams, swim swift-running rivers,
scale mountains, and at the same time be constantly on the
alert against the enemy, who were always around us.
The thought that capture meant certain death alone kept us on
the march. No person can describe our sufferings -- God only
knows what we were forced to endure.
"To gain rest in sleep was impossible. To close our eyes in
unconsciousness was only to dream of pursuit by bloodhounds,
of the huge scaffold on the outskirts of Atlanta, where our
friends had been hanged, and where, it was said, we should
share the same fate; or of a sudden attack in which a bullet
would have been more merciful than man."
Source: Deeds of Valor, p. 17