. The great locomotive chase; a history of the Andrews railroad raid into Georgia in 1862 . n a flat car pointed diagonally ahead on eachside of the locomotive and were at least formidable in appearance. When every preparation had been completed, long after dark,^ thetrain, with 2000 men on board, and Mitchel himself stationed with t:\engineer, moved silently from Huntsville on its perilous way. No othersuch advance over an enemys railroad directly into an enemys countrywas ever made during this or any other war. It was a perilousnovelty. The progress was necessarily very slow. With a clear tr
. The great locomotive chase; a history of the Andrews railroad raid into Georgia in 1862 . n a flat car pointed diagonally ahead on eachside of the locomotive and were at least formidable in appearance. When every preparation had been completed, long after dark,^ thetrain, with 2000 men on board, and Mitchel himself stationed with t:\engineer, moved silently from Huntsville on its perilous way. No othersuch advance over an enemys railroad directly into an enemys countrywas ever made during this or any other war. It was a perilousnovelty. The progress was necessarily very slow. With a clear trackthe seventy miles to Stevenson might easily be made in two hours; butnearly five times that long was required. At every bend an ambushmight be found, or an armed train, sent out by the rebels to learn why no War Records, Series I.,Vol. X., Part i, page 631. ^ Ibid. 3 There is a great apparent discrepancy in the date of this expedition, some accountsplacing it on the nth, others on the 12th. Probably it started near midnight, Fridayevening or Saturday morning. 94 Daring and Gen. Mitchels Armed Train. The Bloodtess Victories of MttcheL 95 trains or telegrams came from Huntsville, might bear down upon them,and cause a frightful accident. The Andrews party might yet come, fol-lowed by a rebel train—in short the unknown road before them was fullof alarming possibilities. A timid General would never have undertakensuch a run. He would have preferred to advance on foot, or at least tokeep cavalry guards ahead of the train, and in consequence would have en-countered far more real danger. On the of April 12, the little division of Mitchel presented,—had an eye been able to look over all the military field—an imposing spec-tacle, such as no equal body of men afforded during the war. They we-ir»-spread over more than two hundred miles of railroad. The Andrewsparty had captured their train and were running northward toward Chatta-nooga; another portion were f
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