The Andrews Raiders at Kingston
Kingston, Bartow County, Georgia
Marker Inscription
The Andrews Raiders at Kingston. Apr. 12, 1862. James J. Andrews with 18 Ohio soldiers (Federal) in disguise, and 1 civilian, having seized the locomotive "GENERAL" at Big Shanty (KENNESAW) intending to wreck the State R.R., were forced to side-track and wait for the S. bound freights. After long delay, the "GENERAL" continued N. Pursuing from Big Shanty, Capt. W. A. Fuller (Conductor), Jeff Cain (Engineer), & Anthony Murphy ( Confederate), -- using a push-car -- reached the Etowah, where the engine "YONAH" brought them to Kingston; pursuit was resumed on the Rome R.R. locomotive "Wm. R. SMITH." 008-34 GEORGIA HISTORICAL COMMISSION 1953
Erected by Georgia Historical Commission
The Story
On April 12, 1862, a Union raiding party led by civilian scout James J. Andrews commandeered the locomotive "General" at Big Shanty in a daring bid to cripple the Western & Atlantic Railroad and sever the Confederacy's supply line to Chattanooga. Forced to lose time waiting out southbound traffic on the single-track line, the raiders pressed north—while conductor William A. Fuller and his crew gave relentless chase, first on foot and a push-car, then aboard the engines "Yonah" and "Wm. R. Smith." Kingston was a critical bottleneck in what became known as the Great Locomotive Chase.
Why it matters
The chase became one of the Civil War's most storied episodes of cunning and pursuit, and it produced the first recipients of the newly created Medal of Honor—linking a Georgia rail junction to the birth of America's highest military decoration.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
In the spring of 1862, the war in the West turned on railroads. The Confederacy's Western & Atlantic line was a vital artery, carrying men and supplies between Atlanta and the crucial rail hub at Chattanooga, and Union strategists understood that cutting it could unhinge the whole region. In an age before highways and trucks, a single-track rail line was a nation's lifeline — and its greatest vulnerability.
North Georgia in April of that year was still largely behind Confederate lines, its depots and water tanks and telegraph wires humming with the ordinary business of a country at war. Into that ordinary morning a band of men in disguise set out to do something extraordinary: to steal a locomotive and turn the South's own railroad into a weapon against it.
What followed became known as the Great Locomotive Chase, and one of its critical chapters played out at the busy junction of Kingston, in Bartow County — a place where the single track and its crossing traffic could either speed a raider along or trap him in place.
People & events
On April 12, 1862, a civilian scout named James J. Andrews led eighteen Ohio soldiers in disguise, plus one other civilian, in seizing the locomotive General at Big Shanty — the place known today as Kennesaw. Their plan was to run north up the state railroad, wrecking track, burning bridges, and cutting telegraph lines behind them, crippling the line that fed Chattanooga.
But a stolen train on a single track is a prisoner of the schedule. The raiders were forced to side-track and wait for southbound freights, and the long delay bled away the time their plan depended on. When the way finally cleared, the General pushed on north — but by then the chase was on.
Behind them came men who would not let go. Conductor Capt. William A. Fuller, engineer Jeff Cain, and Anthony Murphy took up the pursuit from Big Shanty, first with nothing better than a push-car. Reaching the Etowah, they pressed the engine Yonah into service and drove on to Kingston, where they switched again — resuming the chase aboard the Rome Railroad locomotive Wm. R. Smith. The marker freezes the pursuit at exactly this pivot: Kingston, where the tangle of a busy junction made every lost minute count and where the hunters kept finding one more engine to carry them forward.
Its place in the American story
The Great Locomotive Chase became one of the most storied episodes of the entire Civil War — a tale of daring, disguise, and relentless pursuit that has been retold for generations. Part of its hold on the imagination is how modern it feels: a raid whose weapon was a machine, whose battlefield was a timetable, and whose outcome turned on the raw new power of the railroad and the telegraph.
It also left a permanent mark on how America honors valor. Members of the raiding party became among the first recipients of the Medal of Honor, then newly created — a fact that links this stretch of Georgia track to the origins of the nation's highest military decoration.
And it dramatized a truth the whole war would confirm: that in an industrial conflict, logistics could matter as much as courage under fire. The men who chased a stolen train up a single track understood that a railroad was worth fighting for as fiercely as any hill or river crossing.
If you visit
Kingston is a small Bartow County community, and the marker asks you to see an ordinary rail town as the stage for an extraordinary morning. Stand near the tracks if you can, and picture the chaos the raiders counted on and the pursuers had to fight through: a single line, southbound freights backing up, and precious minutes ticking away.
Read the marker slowly, because it's really a relay race told in locomotive names — the stolen General running north, and the hunters switching from a push-car to the Yonah and then, right here at Kingston, to the Wm. R. Smith. Let those names do their work; each one marks a moment the chase could have ended and didn't.
This is a spot best appreciated as one stop on a longer route. The chase unfolded across a whole corridor of North Georgia, and Kingston is one of its hinges. If you're driving the region, follow the geography the way the raiders and their pursuers did — north along the old rail line — and this quiet junction becomes a vivid piece of a much larger, faster-moving story.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · James J. Andrews
- · William A. Fuller
- · Jeff Cain
- · Anthony Murphy
Related events
- · Great Locomotive Chase
- · American Civil War
Themes & tags
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The General
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On April 12, 1862, a party of Union soldiers and civilians led by James J. Andrews seized this locomotive at Big Shanty (now Kennesaw) and steamed north, tearing up track and cutting telegraph wires in a daring bid to cripple the Western & Atlantic Railroad linking Atlanta to Chattanooga. Confederate crewmen gave chase — first on foot, then by handcar and other engines — in what became known as the Great Locomotive Chase, running the raiders down before they could do lasting damage. The General survived the war and became one of the most celebrated relics of the conflict, later preserved and displayed as a monument to that famous railroad pursuit.
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