On this site began the wild adventure known as the "Great Locomotive Chase." The Civil War had been under way for a year on April 12, 1862, when Union spy James J. Andrews and a group of 21 Northern soldiers disguised as civilians boarded a locomotive called the General in Marietta, buying tickets for diverse destinations to avert suspicion. When the train made a breakfast stop at the Lacy Hotel in Big Shanty, they seized the locomotive and several boxcars and fled northward to Chattanooga. The goal of these daring raiders was to destroy tracks, telegraph wires, and bridges behind them, thus cutting off the Confederate supply route between Virginia and Mississippi.

Conductor William A. Fuller, his breakfast interrupted by the sound of the General chugging out of the station, gave chase on foot, then grabbed a platform car and poled along the tracks. With him were a railroad superintendent and the General's engineer. At the Etowah River, Fuller and crew commandeered a small locomotive called the Yonah and made better progress. Meanwhile, the raiders tore up track behind them, and when the pursuers got close, the raiders slowed them down by throwing ties and firewood onto the tracks. Andrews, a very smooth talker, managed to convince station attendants en route that he was on an emergency mission running ammunition to Confederate general Beauregard in Mississippi.

Fuller's chances of catching the General improved when he seized the southbound Texas and began running it backward toward the raiders, picking up reinforcements along the way and eventually managing to get a telegraph message through to Gen. Danville Leadbetter, commander at Chattanooga. The chase went on, with Andrews sending uncoupled boxcars careening back toward Fuller as obstructions. Fuller, however, who was running in reverse, merely attached the rolling boxcars to his engine and kept on. At the covered Oostanaula Bridge, the raiders detached a boxcar and set it on fire in hopes of finally creating an impassable obstacle--a burning bridge behind them. But the Texas was able to push the flaming car off the bridge. It soon burned out, and Fuller tossed it off the track and continued.

By this time the General was running low on fuel and water, the Texas was hot on its heels, and the raiders realized that all was lost. Andrews gave his final command: "Jump off and scatter! Every man for himself!" All were captured and imprisoned within a few days. Some escaped, others were exchanged for Confederate prisoners of war, and the rest were hanged in Atlanta, most of them at a site near Oakland Cemetery. Though the mission failed, the raiders, some of them posthumously, received the newly created Medal of Honor for their valor.

The museum, occupying a building that was once the Frey cotton gin, houses the General (still in running condition, but don't get any ideas), a walk-through caboose, exhibits of Civil War artifacts, memorabilia, and photographs relating to the chase and its participants. You can view a 20-minute narrated video about the chase, but if you really want the full story, rent the Disney movie, The Great Locomotive Chase, starring Fess Parker as the dashing Andrews. (You can also buy a copy in the museum gift shop.)

The museum is 3 miles from Kennesaw Mountain/National Battlefield Park (details below), so consider visiting both of these Civil War-related sights the same day.