In the early 1860s, Georgia's Western & Atlantic Railroad was a vital supply line for the Southern Army in the American Civil War. In an effort to disrupt that supply line and facilitate military actions that might shorten the war, a group of 24 Federal Army Raiders, led by a civilian named James J. Andrews, infiltrated Georgia in civilian clothing and boarded a morning mixed train in Marietta, GA, on April 12th of 1862. The power that day was the 4-4-0 wood-burner called the "General." Locomotives of that era typically were named like ships rather than being numbered. At a breakfast stop north of Marietta, known as "Big Shanty", in what is now Kennesaw, GA, the raiders made their move, stealing the locomotive and 3 box cars while the crew and passengers dined inside a nearby hotel. They raced north toward Chattanooga, cutting telegraph lines and tearing up rails. Their mission was to destroy the railroad, including several key covered bridges. Were it not for the tenacious efforts of the W&A Conductor, William Fuller, to chase them down, and a number of tactical errors, they might well have succeeded. Unfortunately for Andrews, his raiding party ran out of fuel (and luck) just 18 miles from their destination, having failed to really destroy anything of value. They abandoned the "General" and scattered into the Georgia countryside. In the ensuing days, all of the raiders were caught. Andrews and 7 of his men were later hanged as spies. The rest of the raiders survived the war, some escaping Confederate custody, while others were exchanged as prisoners. Although the raid had little military value, other than to remind the Confederates of the importance and vulnerability of their railroads, it became the subject of numerous books and eventually a few Hollywood Movies. Disney's "The Great Locomotive Chase" remains a classic among Civil War and railroad buffs.