THE LOCOMOTIVE CHASE IN GEORGIA.

712

PLAN Of' THE BLOCKADE ATKINGSTON STATION.

of there.” He was asked by Andrews topull his train a long way down the trackout of the way, and promptly obeyed.

It seemed an exceedingly long time be-fore the expected “ extra ” arrived ; andwhen it did come it bore another red flag!

The reason given was that the “local,”being too great for one engine, had beenmade up in two sections, and the secondsection would doubtless be along in ashort time. This was terribly vexatious;yet there seemed nothing to do but wait.

To start out between the sections of anextra train would be to court destruction.

There were already three trains aroundus, and their many passengers, and others,were growing very curious about the mys-terious train which had arrived on thetime of the morning mail, manned by strangers.For an hour and five minutes from the time of arrivalat Kingston, we remained in this most criticalposition. The sixteen of us who were shut uptightly in a box car, personating Beauregard’s am-munition,— hearing sounds outside, but unable todistinguish words,— had perhaps the most tryingposition. Andrews sent us, by one. of the engi-neers, a cautious warning to be ready to fight inease the uneasiness of the crowd around led themto make any investigation, while he himself keptnear the station to prevent the sending off of anyalarming telegram. So intolerable was our sus-pense that the order for a deadly conflict wouldhave been felt as a relief. But the assurance ofAndrews quieted the crowd until the whistle ofthe expected train from the north was heard; then,as it glided up to the depot, past the end of ourside track, we were off without more words.

But unexpected danger had arisen behind us.Out of the panic at Big Shanty two men emerged,determined, if possible, to foil the unknown captorsof their train. There was no telegraph station,and no locomotive at hand with which to follow;but the conductor of the train, W. A. Fuller, and

CAPTAIN WM. A. PULLER, C. S. A., LEADER OP THEPURSUIT. FROM AN AMBROTYPE.

Anthony Murphy, foremanof the Atlanta railway ma-chine shops, who happenedto be on board of Fuller’strain, started on foot afterus as hard as they couldrun!

Finding a hand-car theymounted it and pushed for-ward till they neared Eto-wah, where they ran on thebreak we had made in theroad and were precipitateddown the embankment intothe ditch. Continuing withmore caution, they reachedEtowah and found the “ Yo-nah,” which was at oncepressed into service, loadedwith soldiers who were athand, and hurried with fly-ing wheels toward Kingston. Fuller prepared tofight at that point, for he knew of the tangle of extratrains, and of the lateness of the regular trains, anddid not think we would be able to pass. We hadbeen gone only four minutes when he arrived andfound himself stopped by three long, heavy trainsof cars headed in the wrong direction. To movethem out of the way so as to pass would cause adelay he was little inclined to afford — would in-deed have almost certainly given us the victory.So, abandoning his engine, he, with Murphy, ranacross to the Koine train, and, uncoupling the en-gine and one car, pushed forward with about fortyarmed men. As the Rome branch connected withthe main road above the depot, he encountered nohindrance, and it was now a fair race. We werenot many minutes ahead.

Four miles from Kingston we again stopped andcut the telegraph. While trying to take up a railat this point, we were greatly startled. One endof the rail was loosened and eight of us were pull-ing at it, when distant, but distinct, we heard thewhistle of a pursuing engine! With a frantic pullwe broke the rail and all tumbled over the embank-ment with the effort. We moved on, and at Adairs-ville we found a mixed train (freight and passenger)waiting, but there was an express on the road thathad not yet arrived. We could afford no more