Russell S. Bonds - Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor

Acclaim for Russell S. Bondss

STEALING THE GENERAL

The Great Locomotive Chase has been the stuff of legend and the darling of Hollywood. Now we have a solid history of the Andrews Raid. Russell S. Bondss stirring account makes clear why the raid failed and what happened to the raiders.

James M. McPherson

A major contribution to the literature of American history and Civil War history.

Railroad History

The first major study in decades, thoroughly worthy of an expedition that, had the wildness of a romance.

The New Yorker

The best study of the raid.... a tale of daring and adventure made all the more remarkable because its events are true.

Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star

Definitive.

Charlotte Observer

A solid read that is also magnificent storytelling.

Civil War Bookshelf

Excellent.

Trains Magazine

Bonds writes with flair and skill that adds to the inherent drama of the story.... It seems hardly likely that anyone will need to write a book on this episode again.

William C. Davis

In this gripping, smooth-running account of the raid and its aftermath, Bonds zooms effortlessly from broad-stroke overviews of Civil War strategy to minute-by-minute scrutiny of unfolding events on the ground. He sets up the story with a quick, punchy outline of the first year of the war. What follows is a fast-paced, extremely well-told tale of espionage, capture, trial and escape.

Publishers Weekly (starred review)

One of the Civil Wars most celebrated events has at last found its historian.

Blue and Gray

Robert Penn Warren once wrote that Americans should remember the Civil War because the stories of the men who fought it, may affirm for us the possibility of the dignity of life. Such dignity is often accompanied by great bravery, but it can also come at a tragic price. Mr. Bondss magnificent and definitive Stealing the General reminds us of the tragic dignity of the bold young men who stole a train in an attempt to win their war and of those who gave chase in an attempt to avert the loss of theirs.

The Wall Street Journal

Excellent history, and never less than gripping entertainment. The men and the times are brought vividly to light.

Bennington (Vt.) Banner

Phenomenally well written, organized, and presented.

Civil War Books and Authors

Outstanding.... A story of bravery and cowardice, brilliance and foolishness, good luck and misfortune. Climb aboard.

Hawaii Marine

Russell S. Bondss riveting, page-turning account.... brings the story back to life in superior fashion.

Tennessee Bar Journal

A very well-written and accurate account of one of the most thrilling episodes of the Civil War. Russell S. Bondss research is impeccable, and the wonderful results are within these covers.

James G. Bogle, author of The General and the Texas

Readers can use this account to benchmark the kind of effort a definitive work does so well.

Midwest Book Review

Bonds does a great job of placing the raid into the wider context of the war, describing how it was hoped the raid would impact the strategic situation.... A story of personal courage and endurance and a volume to add to your bookshelf.

Civil War News

Stealing the General

The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor

RUSSELL S. BONDS

Frontispiece: The General at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. (Colonel James G. Bogle Collection)

Westholme e-Book Copyright 2010

2007 Russell S. Bonds

Maps 2007 Westholme Publishing, LLC

Maps by Joseph John Clark

Illustrations credited to the Colonel James G. Bogle Collection may not be reproduced without permission.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

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ISBN: 978-159416-500-9 (e-Book)

e-Book prepared in the United States of America

To the memory of my father, Gary C. Bonds

... And I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.

Haggai 2:22, King James Bible

Because this was it: an interval, a space, in which the toad-squatting guns, the panting men and the trembling horses paused, amphitheatric about the embattled land, beneath the fading fury of the smoke and the puny yelling, and permitted the sorry business which had dragged on for three years now to be congealed into an irrevocable instant and put to an irrevocable gambit, not by two regiments or two batteries or even two generals, but by two locomotives.

William Faulkner, The Unvanquished

RAILROAD, n. The chief of many mechanical devices enabling us to get away from where we are to where we are no better off.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devils Dictionary

The Andrews Raiders

James J. Andrews: Civilian

Pvt. William Bensinger: Co. G, 21st Ohio Infantry

Pvt. Wilson W. Brown: Co. F, 21st Ohio Infantry

Pvt. Robert Buffum: Co. H, 21st Ohio Infantry

William Campbell: Civilian

Cpl. Daniel Dorsey: Co. H, 33rd Ohio Infantry

Cpl. Martin Jones Hawkins: Co. A, 33rd Ohio Infantry

Pvt. William Knight: Co. E, 21st Ohio Infantry

Cpl. Samuel Llewellyn: Co. F, 10th Ohio Infantry

Sgt. Elihu H. Mason: Co. K, 21st Ohio Infantry

Pvt. Jacob Parrott: Co. K, 33rd Ohio Infantry

Cpl. William Pittenger: Co. G, 33rd Ohio Infantry

Pvt. John Reed Porter: 2nd Ohio Infantry

Cpl. William Reddick: Co. G, 21st Ohio Infantry

Pvt. Samuel Robertson: Co. B, 33rd Ohio Infantry

Sgt. Maj. Marion Ross: Co. G, 33rd Ohio Infantry

Sgt. John M. Scott: 2nd Ohio Infantry

Pvt. Charles Perry Shadrach: Co. F, 21st Ohio Infantry

Pvt. Samuel Slavens: Co. K, 2nd Ohio Infantry

Pvt. James (Ovid Welford) Smith: Co. E, 33rd Ohio Infantry

Pvt. George D. Wilson: Co. I, 2nd Ohio Infantry

Pvt. J. Alfred Wilson: Co. B, 2nd Ohio Infantry

Pvt. John Wollam: Co. C, 21st Ohio Infantry

Pvt. Mark Wood: Co. C, 33rd Ohio Infantry

Names of Medal of Honor recipients appear in italics.

Overslept and missed the train at Marietta, did not participate in theft of the General

Enlisted in Confederate units near Jasper, Tennessee, to escape arrest, did not participate in theft of the General

Preface

The Boldest Adventure of the War