| From the Mobile Advertiser & Record |
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| April 18, 1862 |
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| The Engine Stealing Mystery |
| This mystery has been cleared up, and the
development shows that there are fellows among our invaders daring and
enterprising enough to attempt anything which calls for the exercise
of those qualities. The engine stealers were members of an Ohio
regiment, who thus penetrated far into Georgia to capture locomotives
and burn bridges on our lines of communication. At last previous
accounts, elsewhere published, an engine manned by Confederates was in
full pursuit of the enemy {on the Western &
Atlantic RR}, and we find in the Atlanta Commonwealth of
the 14th the issue of this novel chase. The engine our men obtained at
Etowah in place of their hand car proved too slow, and at Kingston they
got another and a fast one, with which they dashed on at the rate of
sixty miles an hour. |
| At Dalton they had gained much on the
fugitives and were on a hot scent, and soon after hove in sight of the
chase. Then a Yankee trick was played on the pursuers, for the box
cars which were stolen with the engine were loaded with cross ties,
and the thieves knocked a hole in the back of the rear car and tumbled
out cross ties upon the track as they went. When they had emptied the
car they detached it and left it on the track. Coming up to it the pursuers
hitched on and pushed it ahead of their engine which was running
backwards itself all the time. Gaining again on the runaways they
kindled a fire in another box car and left it on the track, but the
fire was extinguished and this car, too, pushed ahead of the pursuing
locomotive. The thieves now began to run short of fuel, and finding
the game was about up, reversed their engine, jumped off and took to
the woods, where three of them were captured. Altogether this is among
the most curious incidents of the war, and the locomotive race must
have been an exciting experience to the parties engaged. |
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Later -- The Atlanta Intelligencer of the 15th has the
following: |
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Just before going to press we learn that four more of the rascals were
captured beyond the Tennessee line, by Col. Phillips and his party,
and have been brought to Marietta, and are now lodged in the jail
there. |
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Two more were arrested at Camp McDonald; and it is reported that two
others also have been caught. |
| The captured scoundrels have made "a
clean breast of it." Twenty-three in number compose the band. The
leader, or captain as they term their chief, has not yet been caught.
Their mission, as we stated above, was to spy out the land, to burn
and destroy, especially the bridges of the State Road. |
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