Saturday morning before daylight the party was seated in one passenger car, moving north. In this and other coaches there were several hundred passengers.( 3) At sunrise, when eight miles from Marietta, the train stopped, and the trainmen shouted: "Big Shanty —twenty minutes for breakfast." At this, conductor, engineer, fireman, and train-hands, with most of the passengers, left the train. Thus the desired opportunity of Andrews and his party was presented. They did not hesitate. Three cars back from the tender, including only box-cars, the coupling-pin was drawn, and the passenger cars cut off. Andrews mounted the engine, with Brown and Knight as engineers and Wilson as fireman. Others took places as brakemen, or as helpers and guards, and, to the amazement of the bystanders, the locomotive moved rapidly north. The conductor, engineer, and train-men were dazed. The capture was accomplished, but how were the trains and the stations to be passed on the long journey to Chattanooga; and how was that place to be passed, and still a run of a hundred miles made over the Memphis and Charleston Railroad before they were within the Union lines at Huntsville? The train proceeded only a short distance when it was stopped and the telegraph wires cut, then it moved on again, stopping now and then long enough to enable Andrews and his men to tear up the track behind them. They reached Kingston, thirty-two miles north, where a stop had to be made, but by claiming their train was a powder train hastening to Beauregard's army, they were allowed to pass on; so the flight continued until Dalton and the tunnel north of it were passed. The conductor, Fuller, started from Big Shanty with a small party on foot, then procured a hand-car and at Dalton a locomotive. His pursuit was both energetic and intelligent. At Dalton he succeeded in getting a telegram through to Chattanooga giving notice of the coming of the raiders. The locomotive seized, known as General, proved a poor one, and fuel soon gave out, and finally the pursuers came in sight. Cars were dropped and bridges were fired, but the pursuers pushed the cars ahead and put out the flames. At last, not far from Chattanooga, the General was abandoned, and the raiders scattered to the woods and, generally singly, sought to evade capture; but as the whole country was aroused and Confederate soldiers were at hand, most of the party were soon captured; one or two evaded discovery by going boldly to recruiting stations and enlisting in the Confederate Army. The history of the suffering, trials, and fate of this daring band is one of the most thrilling and tragic of the war. It is too long to be here told. The captured were imprisoned at Chattanooga, and Andrews, the leader (after making one attempt to escape), was heavily ironed, and a scaffold was prepared at Chattanooga for his execution, but for some reason he and his companions were transferred to Atlanta, where, on the day of their arrival, he was taken to a scaffold and hung, and his body buried in an unmarked and still unknown grave.( 3) He died bravely, resigned to his fate. He was a man of quiet demeanor, of extraordinary resolution, and more than ordinary ability. He was tried and sentenced by a sort of drum- head court-martial, charged with being disloyal to the Confederacy and hanged as a spy.( 3) Other men of more fame have died on the gallows, and others of less merit have occupied high positions.
Seven of the band were taken to Knoxville, and in June, 1862, tried by court-martial and condemned to be hanged as spies. Campbell, Wilson, Ross, Shadrack, Slaven, Robinson, and Scott were hanged June 18th, by order of General E. Kirby Smith, at Atlanta.( 3) Their bodies were buried in a rude trench at the foot of the scaffold. A grateful government has caused this trench to be opened and the mortal remains of these unfortunate heroes of cruel war to be removed to the beautiful National Cemetery near Chattanooga and buried amidst the heroes of Chickamauga, there to rest until the Grand Army of Soldier-dead shall be summoned to rise on the resurrection morn.
Eight others, Brown, Knight, Porter, Wood, Wilson, Hawkins, Wallam, and Dorsey, after suffering more than the pangs of death in prison, in various ways and at different times escaped; and after like suffering, six others, Parrot, Buffem, Bensinger, Reddick, Mason, and Pittenger were (March, 1863) exchanged. These fourteen were, save Wood and Buffem, living in 1881, honored and upright citizens. Pittenger was a member of the New Jersey Methodist Episcopal Conference, and the author of Capturing a Locomotive, in which is given the story of the tragic affair in all its painful details.
Mitchel's division resumed its march southward April 9th, and reached Fayetteville the next day; two brigades—Turchin's and Sill's—continued the march towards Huntsville on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. At Fayetteville the inhabitants seemed to be wholly disloyal, and extended no welcome. Huntsville was surprised and captured before daylight on April 11th. A large number of cars and fifteen locomotives were taken.( 4) One train was found at the depot loaded with recruits for Beauregard's army at Corinth. Many Confederates who had been wounded at Shiloh were captured and paroled. The next day, at Stevenson, five more locomotives and a large amount of rolling stock were taken.( 4)
The only instance witnessed by me during the war of a body of soldiers refusing to obey orders was of the 10th Ohio when it was ordered at Fayetteville to prepare to march, each man carrying his knapsack. On some occasions prior to this time the company wagons carried the knapsacks of the men. Colonel Wm. H. Lytle (then commanding a brigade), being greatly chagrined and enraged at the insubordination of his regiment, ordered a section of a battery pointed on it, took out his watch, and gave the men two minutes to take up their knapsacks and be ready to march. The order was obeyed complainingly, and the incident was not again repeated. This regiment was a good one, and later it was distinguished for valor and good soldierly conduct.
As we proceeded south into the cotton regions, the slaves were more numerous and still flocked to the roadsides, seeking and desiring to follow the army. All believed the "Yankee army" had come solely to free them.
Colonel John Beatty was made Provost-Marshal and President of a
Board of Administration for Huntsville.
Huntsville was a beautiful, aristocratic little Southern city. A feature of it was a large spring near its centre which furnished an abundant supply of water for the men and animals of a large army. It was the home of the Alabama Clays, all disloyal; of ex- Senator Jerry Clemens, who had early been a Union man, but later was disposed to accept secession as an accomplished fact; then, on the Union occupancy of Northern Alabama, he boldly advocated a restoration of the State to the Union. Colonel Nick Davis, likewise an original Union man, at first opposed secession; then, after Bull run, accepted a colonelcy in an Alabama rebel regiment; then declined it, and thereafter tried to remain loyal to the Union. The conduct of such strong men as Clemens and Davis is not to be wondered at when their surroundings are considered. There were many who, feeling bound to continue their residence in the South, and believing, after Bull Run, that the Confederacy was established, yielded their opposition to it.
Reverend Frederick A. Ross, a distinguished Presbyterian minister, who preached the divinity of slavery, resided here.( 5) Reverend Ross was arrested by General Rousseau and sent north to prison for publicly praying in his church at Huntsville (while occupied by the Union Army) for the success of the Confederacy, the overthrow of the Union, and the defeat of its armies.
There were some men, among whom were Hon. George W. Lane (later appointed a United States Judge), who adhered firmly to the Union. That part of Alabama north of the Tennessee had opposed secession.