Stealing the General

A thoroughly entertaining history of one of the most daring raids of the American Civil War. On April 12th 1862, during the American Civil War, a group of Union volunteers infiltrated the Confederate stronghold of Georgia and stole a steam engine named ‘General’. Once in control of the locomotive, they raced back towards friendly territory - destroying Confederate supply routes as they went and opening up the south to Union forces. If James J. Andrews’ plan had worked, it could have dramatically altered the course of the war, but the General’s young conductor had other ideas. At first he gave chase to the stolen locomotive on foot, then on a handcar, and finally on board another train until he forced the Unionists to abandon their plan as they ran out of fuel. Out of the original group of twenty volunteers, six of the survivors were awarded the very first American Medal of Honor by Abraham Lincoln. Stealing the General is the first and most complete account of this momentous episode in American history.