Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor

Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor | Russell S. Bonds | A Must Read for Civil-War buffs

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Stealing the Gener...

	Stealing the General: The Great Locomotive Chase and the First Medal of Honor Russell S. Bonds Westholme Publishing, 2008 - 464 pages average customer review:based on 33 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Drama on the Rails

There has been such a deluge of books on the American Civil War in the past forty years - many of them thrown together with minimal research - that many readers might ask, do we really need another? Particularly a book written by a lawyer for Coca-Cola? In fact, Stealing the General is a remarkably good book that seems to escape the vicissitudes of more pedestrian efforts at Civil War history. Author Russell S. Bonds has not only carefully researched the details of the famous Andrews raid in April 1862, but he lays out the tale of train theft, capture, execution for some and escape for others in a dramatic and gripping fashion. Unlike most Civil War history, this book is a real page turner and even though most readers will know the broad details, the author displays an ability to fascinate the reader with details that are often not so well known. This book can be viewed on several levels: as a cautionary tale about one of America's first commando-style operations, as a demonstration of human resilience and ingenuity in the face of danger, and as a measuring point on a nation's attempt to quantify military valor. Stealing the General succeeds magnificently on all three levels.

Stealing the General is laid out in standard narrative format, with the opening chapters discussing the origins of the raid and the men involved on both sides. Most readers are not likely to be overly familiar with Union Brigadier General Ormsby Mitchell, an aggressive division commander in eastern Kentucky in the spring of 1862. Mitchell developed the plan with James J. Andrews, a smuggler and sometimes-Union intelligence operative that was familiar with Confederate railroad operations in Tennessee and Georgia. As the author explains, the basic plan was for Andrews to infiltrate behind enemy lines with over 20 disguised Union soldiers, steal an engine in Georgia then proceed back up the rail line toward Chattanooga, burning bridges and tearing up rails as he went. With the Confederate lines of communication disrupted, Mitchell would lead his troops to capture the isolated Chattanooga garrison in a coup de main. As the author describes it, the plan initially went well, with 22 of 24 raiders succeeding in infiltrating over 100 miles behind enemy lines and Mitchell succeeded in making a rapid advance into northern Alabama and northwestern Tennessee.

As a look at America's first real special forces operation, the Andrews raid reveals the impact of small "friction" factors that ultimately doomed the raid to failure. The well-known U.S. Army "6-P" rule was also in effect, in that Andrews failure to bring along any tools for removing rails prevented the raiders from doing much damage to the rail line. The author's narrative of the railroad chase and the capture of the raiders is well-told and first-rate drama. This part of the book, particularly the role of minor delays, reminds me of the 1945 "Hammelburg Raid" by Patton's troops, which was also doomed by minor delays. However, the military lessons of the Andrews Raid are limited by the fact that these were not specially trained soldiers and that there was a serious lack of small-unit leadership.

Readers may expect the narrative to wind down after the capture of all the readers, but the sections on the execution of Andrews and 7 raiders, then the incredible escape of 8 of the raiders from Atlanta are just as enthralling as the section on the raid itself. The final section concerns the awarding of the newly created Medal of Honor to most of the survivors, which is also quite well done. The narrative does begin to drag a bit in the final pages as the author covers some of the post-war self-serving disputes between the survivors and the role played by various individuals. One character that readers will find hard to like is William A. Fuller, the southern conductor who played a key role in apprehending the raiders. Although the author appears to paint Fuller as a fanatic, almost sadistic character at times, he then reverses himself and tries to certify that Fuller was indeed a decent man who did what he thought was right. As for myself, the author's description of Fuller's statement that "Andrews did not show much strength of character" on the scaffold, then keeping the rope that hanged PVT Samuel Slavens as a "prized possession," then expressing his condolences to Slavens' widow after the war seemed to certify him as a first-class jerk. Sometimes jerks can play a role in historical events - perhaps another lesson of this book - but it does not ennoble them.

Ultimately, the author succeeds in covering this story from start to finish and provides great drama and insight in parts. This author's style can be a bit tedious at times, with a tendency to over-describe every building along the railway. I also wish that the author had put more effort into explaining Andrews himself, who enters and exits the book as an enigma. In any event, Stealing the General provides an example of historical writing that breaks away from the drudgery of so much other contemporary Civil War historiography.

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A Must Read for Civil-War buffs

Whether you are familiar with the April 1862 theft of a rebel train or not, it was one exciting, historic day in our Civil War. The ripples created by this event reached several battlefields and directly to the White House. The narrative presented by Russell Bonds is utterly fascinating, meticulously researched and extremely well written. This book is a must read for a detailed account of soldiering and related activities of 150 years ago.

Impressive Effort

As advertised, there is much new material in this recounting of the otherwise familiar historical event, indicating considerable new research on the part of the author. Excellent!

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An Exciting Well-Written Piece of Our History

What a great American story! Russell Bonds has dug up a vast amount of information regarding a great Civil War era adventure. The Andrews Raid of April 1862 captivated newspaper readers in the North and the South at the time. Now, the author has tracked down those old newspaper articles plus sifted through reams of other sources to bring us the definitive book on what really happened. He does a nice job of laying out the military situation in the western theater and reveals why the Union authorities authorized a mysterious spy named James J. Andrews to sneak into north Georgia with twenty-four Federal soldiers to steal a Confederate train. So began the Great Locomotive Chase. Pick this book up and find out what happened when Confederate authorities caught these daring men. What followed certainly was not pretty, but it led to the design and creation of the Medal of Honor - the most hallowed of all military medals. This well-documented book is full of excellent photographs and maps to aid the reader. Whether you are a Rebel or Yankee advocate, this is a page turner that is difficult to put down until the end of the last chapter.
John Fox, author of "Red Clay to Richmond: Trail of the 35th Georgia Infantry Regiment, CSA"

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Stealing the General - The Movie?

Publisher's Weekly has announced that Paramount has purchased the movie rights to this book. That should alert anyone interested in the Civil War or history that this story is worth reading.

Because of a personal interest in this event - my great, great grandfather was a minor participant - I have read numerous accounts of this adventure. I can confidently say that "Stealing the General" is the most lively, vivid description of this daring Civil War raid that exists. It is thoroughly researched and covers the dynamic conflicts and self-promotions that emerge years after the event, themselves a cacophony of accusations and half-truths.

Russell Bonds has brought up to date one of the most audacious yet under publicized Civil War events. If you like this book, you might want to see the "General" itself and other exhibits at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw (formerly Big Shanty), Georgia, just north of Atlanta, and a few feet from where the original Andrews Raiders stole the General. And if we get a new movie, us older kids may get to enjoy this adventure again just as much as we did when Disney's movie came out!

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7

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