Ormsby MacKnight Mitchel was an American astronomer, polymath, and major general in the American Civil War.
Ormsby M. Mitchel
Ormsby Mitchel
The Great Locomotive Chase was a military raid that occurred April 12, 1862, in northern Georgia during the American Civil War. Volunteers from the Union Army, led by civilian scout James J. Andrews, commandeered a train, The General, and took it northward toward Chattanooga, Tennessee, doing as much damage as possible to the vital Western and Atlantic Railroad (W&A) line from Atlanta to Chattanooga as they went. They were pursued by Confederate forces at first on foot, and later on a succession of locomotives, including The Texas, for 87 miles (140 km).
The Andrews Raiders set a train car on fire to try to ignite a covered railway bridge and thwart Confederate pursuit.
James J. Andrews
This section of the Norfolk Southern Railway was originally part of the Memphis & Charleston Railroad
Illustration of nineteen men involved in the Great Locomotive Chase—seventeen Union soldiers and two railroad employees who chased them