James J. Andrews
| James J. Andrews | |
|---|---|
James J. Andrews
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| Born | c. 1829 Holiday's Cove, Virginia (now Weirton, West Virginia) |
| Died | June 7, 1862 (aged 32–33) Atlanta |
| Buried at | Chattanooga National Cemetery |
| Allegiance |
 United States
|
| Service/branch | Union Army |
| Rank | Civilian |
| Battles/wars | |
James J. Andrews (c. 1829 – June 7, 1862) was a Kentucky civilian who worked for the Union Army during the early years of the American Civil War. He led a daring raid behind enemy lines on the Western and Atlantic Railroad, known as the Great Locomotive Chase. The mission failed and Andrews and seven fellow raiders were executed by the Confederates on the charge of spying.
Andrews was born in Holiday's Cove, Virginia (now Weirton, West Virginia). He moved to Kentucky, where he found employment as a house painter and singing coach. During the Civil War, he was engaged in buying contraband merchandise (including quinine) and smuggling it between the military lines. While serving as a secret agent and scout in Nashville, Tennessee, for Major General Don Carlos Buell in the spring of 1862, he devised a plan to take eight men to steal a train in Atlanta, Georgia, and drive it north. They would disrupt Confederate communications in western Tennessee and burn the long railroad bridge over the Tennessee River at Bridgeport. The mission failed when the required engineer failed to show up at the designated meeting place.
In April, Andrews proposed a new scheme to Major General Ormsby M. Mitchel to seize a locomotive in northern Georgia and drive it to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he would rendezvous with Mitchel's attacking Union Army. On April 12, 1862, Andrews, another civilian, William "Bill" Campbell, and 22 volunteers from three Ohio infantry regiments garbed in civilian clothes, stole a locomotive known as The General at Big Shanty, near Kennesaw, Georgia. They headed north, destroying tracks and telegraph wires along the way in an effort to discourage pursuers and render the railroad useless for supplying the Confederate troops in Tennessee. William Allen Fuller, the conductor of the stolen train pursued the train hijackers on foot, by handcar, and in a variety of other locomotives, most notably the "Texas", in which he gave chase for 51 miles (82 km) in reverse. After an 87 miles (140 km) chase, the General lost power just north of Ringgold, Georgia, and Andrews and his raiders scattered. He was captured soon afterwards and identified as the leader.
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