LOCOMOTIVE "THE GENERAL"
Atlanta GA
1864
The locomotive Texas, like the General, was built in, Paterson, New Jersey, but not by the same builder. The Texas was built by Danforth, Cooke & Company and placed in service on the Western & Atlantic Railroad in October, 1856. The original cost of the Texas was $9,050. At the time, the gauge of the Western & Atlantic RR was five feet, and the Texas was built to that gauge. The drivers were 60 inches in diameter, and there were four, together with four leading truck wheels, making the locomotive of the well known American type with a 4-4-0 wheel arrangement. Her cylinders were fifteen inches in diameter, and the stroke was 22 inches. The Texas was of the same power and approximately the same size as the General. The engine was shipped from New Jersey by water to Savannah and there put on the rails of the Central Railway of Georgia to Macon and thence over the rails of the Macon & Western RR to Atlanta. One of the first modifications made to the engine in the shops of the Western & Atlantic RR was to replace the pilot or cow catcher with one of horizontal pieces of strap iron. This type of cow catcher was a mark of engines of the Western & Atlantic RR in those days, and all pilots were of this type. The man who made them was Richard A. "Uncle Dick" Saye, who died in 1910.
During the Civil War period, it was customary to assign a locomotive to assign a locomotive to an engineer and to a special run. In April, 1862, the Texas was assigned to Peter James Bracken, engineer, and his fireman was Henry P. Haney. Braken was a man of 28 years while Haney was a mere lad of fifteen years. They were assigned to a regular freight run between Dalton and Atlanta. At Dalton, the Western & Atlantic RR was connected with the East Tennessee & Georgia Railroad which served east Tennessee and had connections to the north and east. On April 11, 1862, the Texas ran north leaving Atlanta about 10:00 AM, and arriving in Dalton around 6:00 PM. On the morning of April 12, 1862, Bracken left Dalton with the Texas and 21 loaded cars bound for Atlanta. About two miles south of Adairsville, he was flagged by Conductor William A. Fuller and Anthony Murphy, foreman of the Machinery and Motive Power at the State Road Shops in Atlanta. These two were afoot at this point seeking to overcome their train pulled by the General, which had been stolen that morning by the Union raiding party led by James J. Andrews, spy and contraband merchant. Bracken knew both Fuller and Murphy, and he stopped his train and took them aboard. They proceeded to tell Bracken what had happened, and Bracken backed his train to Adairsville. Just a few minutes before, the General, with its three cars, had passed him at Adairsville, and he was curious then about the train speeding through with no one aboard who was familiar to him. They reached Adairsville within a few minutes, and the 21 cars were set aside on the fly. Then The Great Locomotive Chase was on more even terms, even though the Texas was running in reverse.
The pursuit of the General by the Texas continued northward for some 51 miles before the General was abandoned by the Andrews Raiders about two miles north of Ringgold. Certainly the Texas was the hero of this run, but through the years, the General has received most of the credit and notoriety. Captain Fuller was inclined towards the Texas, as he stated in an interview in 1895, "The question as to whether the General or the Texas should have the honors has been discussed. I am rather inclined to the Texas, but at the same time I never could have availed myself of the service of the Texas if I had not succeeded in getting the William R. Smith at Kingston; nor could I have got to the Smith if the Yonah had been out of reach at Etowah. And if I had not had the use of the old handcar from Moon's Station to Etowah, I never could have reached the Yonah in time. So all of these came in for a share." Along with the Texas should be honored those men who were running her. At the top of the list is Peter James Bracken, the engineer; Henry P Haney, the fireman; Alonzo Martin, wood passer; and Fleming Cox, brakeman, together with Conductor William A. Fuller, and foreman Anthony Murphy.
As the chase ended and the raiders abandoned the General and fled into the woods, each man for himself, Braken eased the Texas to within a few feet of the General. He then directed young Haney to go aboard and see if anything was wrong. Haney found the firebox door open and very little fire in the firebox. He then tried the water cocks and found little or no water in the boiler. After a wait of 20 or 30 minutes, the Texas took the General in tow and moved her back to Ringgold. Here the General was left, and Bracken and Haney with the Texas went on down to Adairsville where they picked up their freight cars and proceeded to Atlanta, just as though nothing had happened.
In October, 1895, Peter J. Bracken summed up his experience in running the Texas on April 12, 1862 in a letter to William A. Fuller as follows: "I was running the Texas on the day that Andrews stole the General. If I had not been running myself, I would not have rode on her with anyone else running, as I would not (have) taken the chances or run the risk we run that day with any one else handling the engine. It makes me nervous now when I think of the X-ties on the track. I do not want any unnecessary notoriety about the chase and would not answer or pay any attention to those questions from any one else but on account of old times and old friendship, I will answer them to the best of my recollection and ability. My recollections are that no one else touched the throttle of my engine from the time I saw you coming down the hill east of Adairsville until we run up on the General about three miles above Ringgold."
Original Medal of Honor
