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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class from house

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Speaker 1: works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast by

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Speaker 1: Tracy Vie Wilson. And I'm Molly Frying. So normally when

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Speaker 1: I put together an outline, I kind of sketch out

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Speaker 1: when I'm gonna say at the beginning at the top

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Speaker 1: of it. Um. Today it just says, trains, y'all, we

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Speaker 1: have a request. It's from John. It's about trains. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And it's the story of Andrew's Raid, which is also

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Speaker 1: known as the Great Locomotive Chase that later became the

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Speaker 1: subject of a silent film starring Buster Keaton called The General.

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Speaker 1: It's about a very daring but also very failed plot

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Speaker 1: to commander a train and destroy a crucial stretch of

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Speaker 1: railroad during the Civil War. And the story is so

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Speaker 1: awesome and full of excitement that we're going to tell

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Speaker 1: it in two parts. It starts outside of Shelbyville, Tennessee,

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Speaker 1: which is kind of in the middle ish part of

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Speaker 1: that state. From there it goes east to Chattanooga, which

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Speaker 1: is in Tennessee southeast corner, and then it goes south

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Speaker 1: to Marietta, which is a suburb of Atlanta today and

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Speaker 1: very approximately From there it follows the path of north

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Speaker 1: northwest out of Atlanta back towards Chattanooga. Again, it is

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Speaker 1: a rollicking adventure and UH to kind of set it up.

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Speaker 1: The railroad was still relatively new to the US at

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Speaker 1: the start of the Civil War. The first U s

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Speaker 1: railroads were built in the eighteen twenties and eighteen thirties,

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Speaker 1: and even so by the start of the Civil War

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Speaker 1: in eighteen sixty one, they were already absolutely critical to

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Speaker 1: logistics and strategy for both the North and the South.

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Speaker 1: Bridges and trestles especially were prime targets not only for

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Speaker 1: attack but for destruction by fleeing armies that the other

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Speaker 1: side wouldn't have access to them when they got there.

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Speaker 1: And the South rail network was by far the less

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Speaker 1: developed of the two, and this out also had fewer

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Speaker 1: engines and rolling stock, and so this meant that a

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Speaker 1: strategic strike against Southern rail had the potential to really

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Speaker 1: devastate its ability to move men and supplies. A particularly

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Speaker 1: critical stretch of this rail network was the Western and

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Speaker 1: Atlantic Railroad, and that connected Chattanooga in Tennessee with the

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Speaker 1: city of Atlanta. Chattanooga was a railway hub and so

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Speaker 1: severing it from Atlanta would have been a serious loss,

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Speaker 1: and in addition, the eastern portion of Tennessee was home

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Speaker 1: to many people who were loyal to the Union. Tennessee

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Speaker 1: had been the last state to seceed, and Eastern Tennessee

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Speaker 1: in particular continued to have a lot of pro Union sentiment.

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Speaker 1: Strategists theorized that by severing the artery connecting Chattanooga in Atlanta,

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Speaker 1: the Union could take Eastern Tennessee with ease and then

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Speaker 1: isolate much of the Deep South from the rest of

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Speaker 1: the Southern states. This brings us to James Andrews, who

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Speaker 1: was from Kentucky. We don't really know much else about

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Speaker 1: him at all, except that he had a fiance named

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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Layton. He had worked as a music teacher and

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Speaker 1: a house painter, and uh had done other random odd

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Speaker 1: jobs as well. And Andrews was really intelligent and extremely charismatic.

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Speaker 1: One of the other raiders, Alf Wilson, described him as

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Speaker 1: quote a noble specimen of manhood, nearly six feet in height,

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Speaker 1: powerful build, long, raven, black hair, black silken beard Roman

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Speaker 1: features a high, expansive forehead, yet with a soft voice

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Speaker 1: and gentle as that of a woman. Alf Wilson was

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Speaker 1: one of like I don't know five raiders. A lot

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Speaker 1: of raiders wrote books about this afterwards. Some of them

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Speaker 1: are very colorful and not necessarily in line with what

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Speaker 1: really happened. So when the war started, Andrews turned his

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Speaker 1: attention to smuggling. He took Quinine south through the northern

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Speaker 1: Black Hade. He claimed that this was so he could

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Speaker 1: earn the trust of the rebels and bring information back

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Speaker 1: to the North with him, because that's where his loyalties

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Speaker 1: purportedly lay. However, since malaria was still really prevalent in

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Speaker 1: the South at this point and Quinine was used to

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Speaker 1: treat malaria, this smuggling operation was probably also extremely profitable

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Speaker 1: for Andrews, and it is also possible that his loyalties

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Speaker 1: were negotiable as well for the right price. In my hand,

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Speaker 1: he just became Han Solo. He is very like Han Solo.

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Speaker 1: That is a great comparison. His plan was to take

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Speaker 1: a rating team of twenty two men to commandeer a

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Speaker 1: train outside of Atlanta and ride it north towards Chattanooga,

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Speaker 1: destroying the critically important Western and Atlantic railroad track behind

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Speaker 1: them as they went. He was definitely going to be

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Speaker 1: paid for this effort, but it is not entirely clear

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Speaker 1: exactly how much. Accounts of that part differ wildly, and

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Speaker 1: I'm guessing there's probably not a lot of documentation of

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Speaker 1: such a plan. No, there's really not for many reasons.

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Speaker 1: UM also motivating this raid where the plan ends of

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Speaker 1: General ormsby Mitchell, and he was planning to evade invade Huntsville, Alabama.

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Speaker 1: If the w n A track was destroyed, that would

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Speaker 1: slow down reinforcements that were coming to the battle. And

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Speaker 1: as we talked about earlier, UM, they'll severing the line

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Speaker 1: between Atlanta and Chattanooga would probably make it a lot

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Speaker 1: easier for him to take eastern Tennessee as well. Andrews

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Speaker 1: had actually tried this raid idea once before, and the

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Speaker 1: first time around he hoped to accomplish it with a

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Speaker 1: small crew of eight men, but he'd had to abort

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Speaker 1: it at the last minute because his co conspirator, a

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Speaker 1: Georgia engineer who had turned trader, never showed up at

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Speaker 1: their rendezvous point. It really never got off the ground.

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Speaker 1: They had to abandon it basically the last minute. This time, though,

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Speaker 1: he did get to go ahead to assemble a team

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Speaker 1: of twenty two soldiers. Volunteers were basically hand picked from

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Speaker 1: the second one and thirty third Ohio Infantry Regiments. They

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Speaker 1: took very special care this time to select some men

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Speaker 1: who had experience with trains, because they didn't want to

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Speaker 1: repeat their experience of relying on a civilian turncoat who

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Speaker 1: may or may not actually turn Some of the volunteers

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Speaker 1: were also given money and sent to nearby Shelbyville to

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Speaker 1: buy civilian clothes and supplies. Others basically scrounged civilian costumes

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Speaker 1: from camp. So they turned into a very ragtag looking

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Speaker 1: assortment of guys. And these twenty two soldiers plus one

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Speaker 1: other civilian named William Campbell, met up with Andrews in

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Speaker 1: Shelbyville on April seventh. They walked through the entire plan

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Speaker 1: very carefully and talked about the risks involved, which were

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Speaker 1: absolutely extreme. Uh, they were going deep into enemy territory,

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Speaker 1: and since they had addressed as civilians, they would probably

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Speaker 1: be treated as spies and not as enemy soldiers if

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Speaker 1: something happened, and that would have meant that they would

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Speaker 1: be hanged versus imprisoned. So it really was very very

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Speaker 1: dangerous and uh, this case of you know, the stakes

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Speaker 1: being that they were going to be hung was dubly true.

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Speaker 1: Is the South had already made a show of hanging

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Speaker 1: railroad saboteurs and leaving their bodies on display, so there

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Speaker 1: was precedent for the level of danger that they were

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Speaker 1: walking into. From Shelbyville. All of them were going to

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Speaker 1: go to Chattanooga by whatever means they could, and they

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Speaker 1: were going to go in small groups to try to

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Speaker 1: draw less attention from there. They would take a train

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Speaker 1: south to Marietta on April tenth and spend a night

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Speaker 1: in a hotel before returning north again. Almost all of

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Speaker 1: this journey was going to take place in Southern territory,

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Speaker 1: and their cover story was that they were from Kentucky

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Speaker 1: and they were going to Atlanta to enlist. And now

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Speaker 1: we will get back to the exciting and daredevil adventures

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Speaker 1: of this train chase. The weather for their entire trek

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Speaker 1: to Chattanooga was dismal. It poured mercilessly, sometimes there were thunderstorms.

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Speaker 1: Most of them were going on but the whole way

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Speaker 1: and they just got absolutely drenched. Andrews was able to

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Speaker 1: get a horse for part of it, but otherwise they

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Speaker 1: were mostly just hungry exhausted and completely soaked to the

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Speaker 1: bone because people were suspicious and on edge. Many of

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Speaker 1: the men did indeed have to try out their cover story,

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Speaker 1: and they had varying levels of success with it. And

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Speaker 1: as a side note, uh, some of their methods in

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Speaker 1: doing this actually show that the stereotype of Southern people

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Speaker 1: as being ignorant really goes quite a waste back Uh.

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Speaker 1: Surviving raiders wrote a part of their disguise being to

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Speaker 1: act as uneducated as possible. This might be why two

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Speaker 1: of them, instead of being allowed to continue on their

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Speaker 1: way to Atlanta as they said they were going, did

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Speaker 1: not fare so well with their excuses. Sam Lleuwellen and

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Speaker 1: James Smith met some Confederates, some Confederate guards outside of Jasper, Tennessee.

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Speaker 1: These guards saw some of the kind of obvious flaws

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Speaker 1: and their story, like if you were from Kentucky, why

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Speaker 1: would you go all the way to Atlantis? Who would list?

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Speaker 1: When there were plenty of other Southern places where you

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Speaker 1: could enlist on the way? Um, this could have been

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Speaker 1: where they tried out there, I'm so stupid act Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I don't know. That may have been why the ones

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Speaker 1: who were acting stupid well Clearly, these guys are dumb

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Speaker 1: enough to think they need to go all the way

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Speaker 1: to Atlanta to get into the army. Um. So what

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Speaker 1: what happens to Llewellen and Smith instead was that they

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Speaker 1: were pressed into military service, where the Confederacy immediately on

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Speaker 1: the spot, and they ironically wound up defending Chattanooga in

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Speaker 1: later action. H Lluellen, though, did dessert as is at

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Speaker 1: his earliest opportunity, which was also sort of part of

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Speaker 1: the plan, Like if you tell them that you're gonna

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Speaker 1: enlist and they make you enlist, that's fine. Just dessert

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Speaker 1: when you have a chance to do so. Eventually, as

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Speaker 1: the weather did as we mentioned earlier, really hampered their

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Speaker 1: efforts to get to Chattanooga, Andrews concluded that the same

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Speaker 1: thing must be happening to Mitchell's advance into Huntsville, Alabama.

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Speaker 1: So he decided to move the raid from April eleventh,

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Speaker 1: which was the original plan date, to April twelve, uh

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Speaker 1: in an effort to give the rest of the men

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Speaker 1: extra time to arrive at their rendezvous, and apart from

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Speaker 1: the two who were now Confederate soldiers, all of the

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Speaker 1: men made it to Chattanooga. This was a huge accomplishment.

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Speaker 1: I don't want to overlook that fact. They had managed

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Speaker 1: to travel more than a hundred miles into enemy territory

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Speaker 1: more or less without being noticed and with no casualties. Uh,

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Speaker 1: very little went really wrong along the way for this

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Speaker 1: part of the story. And once they got to Marietta,

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Speaker 1: some of them stayed in the Marietta Hotel, which was

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Speaker 1: owned by Henry green Cole, who was a transplanted New

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Speaker 1: Yorker who was also acting as a Union spy. Evidence

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Speaker 1: of whether this was deliberate is entirely circumstantial. The rest

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Speaker 1: stayed at another nearby hotel called Fletcher House, which was

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Speaker 1: the same hotel where Sherman later staged his campaign to Atlanta.

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Speaker 1: Once they arrived, they found out that the weather had

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Speaker 1: not actually delayed Mitchell's at Hack at all. He had

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Speaker 1: already taken Huntsville while they were on the way. And

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Speaker 1: while some of the men wanted to just abandon the

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Speaker 1: plot right at that moment, they argued pretty articulately that

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Speaker 1: the people in Chattanooga were going to panic and increase

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Speaker 1: the rail traffic coming south. Um Andrews decided to press on,

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Speaker 1: and reportedly Andrew said boys tried this once before and failed.

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Speaker 1: Now I will succeed or leave my bones in Dixie.

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Speaker 1: So the next morning, the raiders boarded the train with

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Speaker 1: two exceptions. Martin Hawkins, who was one of the engineers

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Speaker 1: who had been tapped for this, and John Reid Porter,

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Speaker 1: who was traveling with him, either did not make arrangements

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Speaker 1: with the hotel to be woken up in the morning,

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Speaker 1: or they did make arrangements but the hotel didn't do it. Uh,

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Speaker 1: because you know, we didn't really have portable alarm clocks

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Speaker 1: at this point in history. Uh. Either way, they both

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Speaker 1: got to the train platform just in time to see

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Speaker 1: pull away without them, so they missed the raid, which

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Speaker 1: was unfortunate because um Hawkins had more engineering experience than

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Speaker 1: the other two men who had similarly been picked, because

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Speaker 1: they knew how to work with trains. I just can't

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Speaker 1: help but feel that I would be the person that

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Speaker 1: would oversleep and missed the rate because I have a

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Speaker 1: little oversleeping problem. The rest of the men had purchased

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Speaker 1: tickets to various destinations north and they all sat near

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Speaker 1: each other in the same car. And this train was

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Speaker 1: pulled by an engine which was called the General. The

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Speaker 1: conductor William A. Fuller was twenty five, and he was deeply,

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Speaker 1: deeply loyal to the Confederacy, and he also had an

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Speaker 1: ironclad work ethic, and he was pretty fit because he

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Speaker 1: had previously before becoming a conductor, it worked as a

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Speaker 1: train hand, and being a train hand involved, among other things,

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Speaker 1: running ahead of a train carrying a flag that during

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Speaker 1: when it was in treacherous track territory, so sometimes he

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Speaker 1: would have to run ahead of a train for miles.

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Speaker 1: He had also joined the local militia after the start

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Speaker 1: of the war, before the South had decided that experienced

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Speaker 1: train workers would be a better service to the South

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Speaker 1: at their jobs than in the military. And as the

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Speaker 1: men boarded uh Fuller noticed them. He and other conductors

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Speaker 1: had been told to keep an eye out for large

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Speaker 1: groups of men who could be deserting, but the train

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Speaker 1: was headed towards several Confederate encampments, so it seemed unlikely

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Speaker 1: that the men who boarded the train were trying to

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Speaker 1: go A wall needn't really become concerned that they were

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Speaker 1: up to anything until a little bit later. As we

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Speaker 1: talked about in our episode on the Brotherhood of Sleeping

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Speaker 1: Car Borders, train travel at this point was still very

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Speaker 1: very far from luxurious. In the United States, trains didn't

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Speaker 1: generally have any kind of dining or restroom facilities, so

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Speaker 1: instead they had regularly, regularly scheduled stops for people to

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Speaker 1: get off the train and eat and refresh themselves. This train,

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Speaker 1: in particular, was going to stop for twenty minutes in

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Speaker 1: Big Shanty, which is al Cannasaw, and its passengers were

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Speaker 1: going to get to have breakfast at the Lacey Hotel,

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Speaker 1: which was across the street from the train depot, and

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Speaker 1: aside from the enormous Confederate encampment that was directly inside

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Speaker 1: of the depot, it was the perfect place to take

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Speaker 1: the train. Uh In addition to a twenty minute window

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Speaker 1: when the train would be completely empty, the station at

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Speaker 1: Big Shanty had no telegraphs, so they would be unable

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Speaker 1: to call for help. So the train stopped in Big

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Speaker 1: Shanty at about six am and the passengers got off.

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Speaker 1: Andrews and his men casually decoupled the mail car and

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Speaker 1: the passenger cars and cut the bell cable that ran

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Speaker 1: through to the passenger cars. This left them with the engine,

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Speaker 1: the tender, and three empty box cars at their disposal.

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Speaker 1: Andrews then got into the engine with his engine crew,

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Speaker 1: which were two million two men named William Knight and

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Speaker 1: Wilson Brown, and they, as we said earlier, both had

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Speaker 1: trained experience. The rest of the men clambered into the

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Speaker 1: last empty box car, and as sat at his breakfast table,

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Speaker 1: Fuller saw them pull away, and he and two of

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Speaker 1: his crew, uh Anthony Murphy, who was a foreman with

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Speaker 1: the railroad who was on the way to Alatoona to

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Speaker 1: inspect machinery, and E. Jefferson Caine, the engineer, gave chase

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Speaker 1: with him, all of them on foot. The Confederate soldiers,

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Speaker 1: though right there next to the train tracks, did not

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Speaker 1: really get involved at this point. They left it to

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Speaker 1: Fuller and his men. Well they didn't. They didn't exactly

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Speaker 1: know what was happening. Fullerler probably identified the problem quickly,

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Speaker 1: whereas they would not recognize what was happening. Yeah, he

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Speaker 1: was absolutely sure that what was happening was was something

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Speaker 1: that was up to no good. And so he's, uh,

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Speaker 1: he's the kind of guy who um like, when you

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Speaker 1: see someone have a medical emergency, there needs to be

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Speaker 1: somebody off on hand. It's like you call an ambulance,

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Speaker 1: you do CPR right, Fuller was that guy. He directed

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Speaker 1: someone to go to the telegraph station and call for help,

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Speaker 1: and he directed someone else to go for a horse

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Speaker 1: and get like. He was very on top of tell

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Speaker 1: people what to do to get this situation under control.

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Speaker 1: While he was and this is the part that makes

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Speaker 1: this just delightful, he was running in a full classic

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Speaker 1: conductor's uniform, complete with a gold watch with a chain

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Speaker 1: across the front of his vest and and and his

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Speaker 1: hat and running as fast as a train, running as

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Speaker 1: fast as he could have the train. Um, because I

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Speaker 1: because I'm a jerk, We're gonna leave it here with

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Speaker 1: this cliffhanger, uh, which is one of the moments in

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Speaker 1: this story that makes you see how perfect it is

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Speaker 1: for a silent movie starring Buster Keaton. Yes, um, which

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Speaker 1: I have watched and it is also delightful, and it

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Speaker 1: is on Netflix if you are into that. So, yes,

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Speaker 1: we are going to pick up the second half of

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Speaker 1: the story with everyone either on the train or chasing

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Speaker 1: the train in our next episode. And for now, we

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Speaker 1: will have some listener mail. Helay. So this listener mail

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Speaker 1: I have us from Elise, and Elie says, hey, ladies,

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Speaker 1: I'm an amateur historian myself with a bachelor's degree in

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Speaker 1: history from University of Oklahoma, having studied the Tulsa Race

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Speaker 1: riot a bit in my program and leisure, I have

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Speaker 1: to say your time constrained presentation was very informative and accurate. However,

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Speaker 1: regarding the aftermath, there's one thing that wasn't taken into

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Speaker 1: account in your admonition of the state's report Slash Commission.

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Speaker 1: And currently, there were thirty eight federally recognized American Indian

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Speaker 1: tribes that claimed Oklahoma for their tribal government headquarters. I

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Speaker 1: am a member of the Muskogee. These thirty eight tribes,

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Speaker 1: plus many more across the country have fought for reparations

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Speaker 1: for centuries, not merely eighty years. Failing the victims of

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Speaker 1: the race right is a horrible state in our states history,

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Speaker 1: but so is the treatment of sovereign nations then and now. Unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: if the Report Slash Commission determined that direct reparations were

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Speaker 1: to be paid immediately or even over a number of years,

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Speaker 1: then they would have said a precedent that would lead

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Speaker 1: to payments being made to every person and the sendate

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Speaker 1: within its tribes. While morally the right thing to do,

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Speaker 1: it would bankrupt the state. The report Slash Commission couldn't

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Speaker 1: risk that. Again, unfortunate and heartbreaking, but this is the

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Speaker 1: reality of our history and our present at least um

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Speaker 1: So I wanted to read this for two reasons. One

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Speaker 1: is that we talked a little bit about reparations in

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Speaker 1: the controversy surrounding reparations, and this is really what I

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Speaker 1: was referring to. That there are lots and lots and

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Speaker 1: lots of different peoples within the United States who could

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Speaker 1: make a pretty compelling case for reparations. Right there's the

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Speaker 1: entirety of the Native American population up there are many

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Speaker 1: many African Americans who can directly tie their ancestry to

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Speaker 1: people who were brought over as slaves. There are a

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Speaker 1: lot of people that can make a compelling case for that.

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Speaker 1: So what we were talking about was not really, from

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Speaker 1: my point of view, an admonition. It was more shock

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Speaker 1: that this was a time when repper rations were not granted.

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Speaker 1: And the reason for that is that the state of

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Speaker 1: Florida granted reparations to the people who were involved in

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Speaker 1: the Rosewood Massacre, which was a very similar incident of

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Speaker 1: racial violence that was a couple of years before the

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Speaker 1: Tulsa race riot. UM. The state of North Carolina also

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Speaker 1: paid direct reparations to people who were affected by the

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Speaker 1: eugenics movement. So there is precedent for states uh giving

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Speaker 1: direct reparations to people who had been directly affected by

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Speaker 1: the state, and we're still living um so in my mind,

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Speaker 1: and this could maybe be more of an admonition than

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Speaker 1: what was in the prior episode, UH that the idea

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Speaker 1: of setting precedent is not Actually that's more of an

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Speaker 1: excuse than a reason in my mind for having um

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Speaker 1: not uh not agreed to pay the reparations that the

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Speaker 1: commission recommended. UM. You can read the entire commission's report online.

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Speaker 1: It's posted in a couple of places, UM, and it's

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Speaker 1: a it's a hugely distressing read. I read the whole

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Speaker 1: thing as part of the research for the podcast. But

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Speaker 1: UM that what I was trying to express in the

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Speaker 1: previous episode was really shocked because their argument is so

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Speaker 1: compelling and the way it's articulated is so profoundly uh moving,

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Speaker 1: that I was surprised that people were unmoved to then

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Speaker 1: pay the record reparations that were recommended. So yes, I

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Speaker 1: am definitely aware that there are many many, many people

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Speaker 1: who have centuries of history that could make a compelling

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Speaker 1: case for reparations in additions to people who were affected

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Speaker 1: by Um this particular event in history. So thank you

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Speaker 1: very much, Elise Um. We also got lots of other

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Speaker 1: emails and letters and Facebook messages from people from Tulsa

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Speaker 1: or from other places in Oklahoma who either didn't know

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Speaker 1: much at all about the race right it, or they

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Speaker 1: knew about it but only a little bit, or they

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Speaker 1: knew about pretty well. And the common theme in all

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Speaker 1: of this is the sense that this particular event and

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Speaker 1: it's aftermath continue to have a profound and negative effect

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Speaker 1: on race for relations in Tulsa, UM and farther into

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Speaker 1: Oklahoma as well, which is part of why we do

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Speaker 1: episodes about things like this to understand why things in

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Speaker 1: today's world are the way they are in today's world. Yeah, so,

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Speaker 1: if you would like to write to us, we are

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Speaker 1: at History Podcasts at how Stuff Works dot com. We're

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Speaker 1: also on Facebook at Facebook dot com slash miss in

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Speaker 1: history and on Twitter at miss in History. Are tumblers

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Speaker 1: missed in History dot tumbler dot com, and we are

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00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:45,760
Speaker 1: on Pinterest at pinterest dot com slash miss in history.

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Speaker 1: We have a brand news spread Shirts store full of

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00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:53,040
Speaker 1: T shirts and other goodies that you can purchase. It

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00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:56,560
Speaker 1: is at missed in History dot spreadshirt dot com. He

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Speaker 1: would like to learn more about another interesting and exciting

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Speaker 1: and fun train story, You can come to our parent

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00:22:03,920 --> 00:22:06,280
Speaker 1: company's website and you can put the word train robbery

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00:22:06,400 --> 00:22:08,800
Speaker 1: in the search bar and you will find how the

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00:22:08,880 --> 00:22:11,959
Speaker 1: great train robbery worked. You can also come to our website,

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00:22:11,960 --> 00:22:14,040
Speaker 1: which has missed in history dot com to find show

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Speaker 1: notes and interesting tidbits and all kinds of other stuff.

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00:22:17,480 --> 00:22:19,200
Speaker 1: Uh So, you can do all that and a whole

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Speaker 1: lot more at how stuff works dot com or missed

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Speaker 1: in History dot com. For more on this and thousands

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Speaker 1: of other topics, is it how stuff works dot com