Member Review "Stealing the General" by Russell S. Bonds

James N.

Colonel
Annual Winner
Featured Book Reviewer
Asst. Regtl. Quartermaster Antietam 2021
Joined
Feb 23, 2013
Location
East Texas
Image.jpg


Stealing the General - The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor
by Russel S. Bonds
Pub. 2007 by Westholm Publishing LLC, Yardley, PA
444 pp. total; 374 of narrative, the rest semi-readable notes, sources, and index
Paperback Ed. 2008, $18.95
ISBN 978-1-59416-078-3

It's been a long time since I've read anything as satisfactory and enjoyable overall as Russell S. Bonds' Stealing the General. Many of the members of the forums will recognize that the Andrews Railroad Raid or The Great Locomotive Chase as one of my favorite subjects and this book brings it all back to life and adds much to the overall story. In most of the much shorter secondary accounts I've previously read the story is confined to the action of April 12, 1862 and the relatively few hours in which the so-called "chase" occurred, with only a brief summary of subsequent events. Not so here, in which the raid itself and its background make up perhaps half of the narrative - the remainder tells in full their eventual fates of the raiders following their capture and the executions of some and prisoner exchanges and escapes of the others, following them into their postwar lives.

For those unaware of this incident, it was the product of the imagination of civilian "scout" and spy James J. Andrews of Kentucky who persuaded Union Brig. Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel to allow him to lead an expedition consisting of another civilian and twenty-two of Mitchel's soldiers deep into Confederate territory to seize a locomotive, burn bridges, and generally disrupt rail traffic on Georgia's Western & Atlantic RR from Atlanta, Georgia to Chattanooga, Tennessee. The raid occurred pretty much as planned, but with several critical discrepancies that doomed it to failure and the eventual capture of all twenty-four of the men, all but two of whom were volunteers from Mitchel's brigade of Ohioans. Eight including Andrews himself were quickly tried and condemned to be hanged as spies and saboteurs and were executed in Atlanta; the remainder suffered various vicissitudes including harsh imprisonment, starvation, cold, and in one case even flogging before finally escaping or being exchanged as prisoners of war.

Although the entirety of the book is well-written and enlightening, it is in the accounts of the fates of the prisoners that I found it the most informative. This is usually reduced to a few notes in passing to usual accounts of the raid; here the full impact of the months of uncertainty while in various Confederate jails is made clear and is a major part of the story. The most incredible incident during this time was the escape of ten of the remaining prisoners, eight of whom actually made it back to Union-held territory several hundred miles from their Atlanta prison. In pairs these men went west to the Tennessee River all the way to Corinth, Miss.; overland by two separate northern routes through the mountains of western North Carolina and Tennessee to Kentucky; and even south via the Chattahoochee River through the panhandle of Florida and all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and rescue by the U. S. Navy blockading squadron!

Of course, their Confederate opponents, notably the civilian employees of the W&ARR led by Foreman Anthony Murphy and Conductor William A. Fuller, receive their fair share of attention, especially during the chase itself. There are also "biographies" of notable places involved such as Knoxville and Eastern Tennessee, but especially the terminus's of the raid, Atlanta and Chattanooga. Most helpful to the understanding of the raid in the context of the war overall is the simultaneous account of the maneuvering of the Western field armies under A.S. Johnston, P.G.T. Beauregard, U.S. Grant, D.C. Buell, and especially Buell's subordinate Mitchel, whose decision set the affair in motion. I had no idea of the size and importance of Mitchel's move which ultimately captured Huntsville, Decatur, and Stevenson, Alabama and all the Memphis & Charleston RR between those points, disrupting not only Confederate rail traffic but fatally compromising Andrews' mission as well. The role and importance of railroads to the conduct of the war is also fully explained in an early chapter.

It would be nice to report a happy eventual outcome to the story of the Andrews Raiders and their travail, but unfortunately their post-war experiences were marred by dissention among survivors, particularly the principal - but not only - chronicler of the raid, Rev. William Pittenger and his enemy and detractor Daniel Dorsey. Controversy lingers over the degree Pittenger may have turned states evidence and "betrayed" the seven of his companions who were condemned at a court-martial held in Knoxville and their subsequent execution in Atlanta in a semi-botched hanging. An argument over the roles played by rival engineers William Knight and Wilson Brown over who had contributed most to running the captured locomotive General also brewed openly. The Confederates were not free from their own contentiousness as Conductor Fuller and Foreman Murphy vied over leadership of the pursuit in their own postwar writings. Author Bond does an excellent job confronting these various and often competing narratives to determine the most likely course of events and sort the sheep from the goats.

Of course the Andrews (also known, especially at the time and later in the Nineteenth Century as the Mitchel) Raid is probably best known today as the incident garnering the very first issue of the Medal of Honor to American servicemen and the inception and creation of the award is examined in the penultimate chapter. The final section of the book looks briefly at the lives of the surviving raiders, their reunions, and even the fate as of time of publication (2007) of the locomotives General and Texas who might be called the real heroines of the story! (Since then, Texas has been restored to reflect a slightly later post-war period and moved from her home in the old Atlanta Cyclorama building to the Atlanta Historical Society.) In short, no aspect of this famous episode in Civil War history appears to have been left out of this book - highly recommended!
 
Last edited:
View attachment 294632

Stealing the General - The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor
by Russel S. Bonds
Pub. 2007 by Westholm Publishing LLC, Yardley, PA
444 pp. total; 374 of narrative, the rest semi-readable notes, sources, and index
Paperback Ed. 2008, $18.95
ISBN 978-1-59416-078-3

It's been a long time since I've read anything as satisfactory and enjoyable overall as Russell S. Bonds' Stealing the General. Many of the members of the forums will recognize that the Andrews Railroad Raid or The Great Locomotive Chase as one of my favorite subjects and this book brings it all back to life and adds much to the overall story. In most of the much shorter secondary accounts I've previously read the story is confined to the action of April 12, 1862 and the relatively few hours in which the so-called "chase" occurred, with only a brief summary of subsequent events. Not so here, in which the raid itself and its background make up perhaps half of the narrative - the remainder tells in full their eventual fates of the raiders following their capture and the executions of some and prisoner exchanges and escapes of the others, following them into their postwar lives.

For those unaware of this incident, it was the product of the imagination of civilian "scout" and spy James J. Andrews of Kentucky who persuaded Union Brig. Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel to allow him to lead an expedition consisting of another civilian and twenty-two of Mitchel's soldiers deep into Confederate territory to seize a locomotive, burn bridges, and generally disrupt rail traffic on Georgia's Western & Atlantic RR from Atlanta, Georgia to Chattanooga, Tennessee. The raid occurred pretty much as planned, but with several critical discrepancies that doomed it to failure and the eventual capture of all twenty-four of the men, all but two of whom were volunteers from Mitchel's brigade of Ohioans. Eight including Andrews himself were quickly tried and condemned to be hanged as spies and saboteurs and were executed in Atlanta; the remainder suffered various vicissitudes including harsh imprisonment, starvation, cold, and in one case even flogging before finally escaping or being exchanged as prisoners of war.

Although the entirety of the book is well-written and enlightening, it is in the accounts of the fates of the prisoners that I found it the most informative. This is usually reduced to a few notes in passing to usual accounts of the raid; here the full impact of the months of uncertainty while in various Confederate jails is made clear and is a major part of the story. The most incredible incident during this time was the escape of ten of the remaining prisoners, eight of whom actually made it back to Union-held territory several hundred miles from their Atlanta prison. In pairs these men went west to the Tennessee River all the way to Corinth, Miss.; overland by two separate northern routes through the mountains of western North Carolina and Tennessee to Kentucky; and even south via the Chattahoochee River through the panhandle of Florida and all the way to the Gulf of Mexico and rescue by the U. S. Navy blockading squadron!

Of course, their Confederate opponents, notably the civilian employees of the W&ARR led by Foreman Anthony Murphy and Conductor William A. Fuller, receive their fair share of attention, especially during the chase itself. There are also "biographies" of notable places involved such as Knoxville and Eastern Tennessee, but especially the terminus's of the raid, Atlanta and Chattanooga. Most helpful to the understanding of the raid in the context of the war overall is the simultaneous account of the maneuvering of the Western field armies under A.S. Johnston, P.G.T. Beauregard, U.S. Grant, D.C. Buell, and especially Buell's subordinate Mitchel, whose decision set the affair in motion. I had no idea of the size and importance of Mitchel's move which ultimately captured Huntsville, Decatur, and Stevenson, Alabama and all the Memphis & Charleston RR between those points, disrupting not only Confederate rail traffic but fatally compromising Andrews' mission as well. The role and importance of railroads to the conduct of the war is also fully explained in an early chapter.

It would be nice to report a happy eventual outcome to the story of the Andrews Raiders and their travail, but unfortunately their post-war experiences were marred by dissention among survivors, particularly the principal - but not only - chronicler of the raid, Rev. William Pittenger and his enemy and detractor Daniel Dorsey. Controversy lingers over the degree Pittenger may have turned states evidence and "betrayed" the seven of his companions who were condemned at a court-martial held in Knoxville and their subsequent execution in Atlanta in a semi-botched hanging. An argument over the roles played by rival engineers William Knight and Wilson Brown over who had contributed most to running the captured locomotive General also brewed openly. The Confederates were not free from their own contentiousness as Conductor Fuller and Foreman Murphy vied over leadership of the pursuit in their own postwar writings. Author Bond does an excellent job confronting these various and often competing narratives to determine the most likely course of events and sort the sheep from the goats.

Of course the Andrews (also known, especially at the time and later in the Nineteenth Century as the Mitchel) Raid is probably best known today as the incident garnering the very first issue of the Medal of Honor to American servicemen and the inception and creation of the award is examined in the penultimate chapter. The final section of the book looks briefly at the lives of the surviving raiders, their reunions, and even the fate as of time of publication (2007) of the locomotives General and Texas who might be called the real heroines of the story! (Since then, Texas has been restored to reflect a slightly later post-war period and moved from her home in the old Atlanta Cyclorama building to the Atlanta Historical Society.) In short, no aspect of this famous episode in Civil War history appears to have been left out of this book - highly recommended!
Great review James N. I knew about the escapes, but not about the post-War issues. Very informative.
 
Every author likes to think he or she is writing the definitive work on their topic, and they almost never do. Stealing the General is a rare exception to that rule.

Go read it, y'all, right now.
 
Back
Top