What happened After Andrews Raid

All of the raiders were captured within a period of twelve days and placed in confinement in the little Swims Jail in Chattanooga, Tennessee, located at the corner of 5th and Lookout streets. That is, all who actually got as far south as Marietta, for some who volunteered and started did not make it all the way.

The Swims Jail located at the corner of 5th and Lookout Streets, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Drawing by Wilbur G. Kurtz.

Click on picture to see a larger version.

On Monday night, April 7, 1862, it is reasonably certain that there were 23 men who met with James J. Andrews on the outskirts of Shelbyville, Tennessee, to learn of their assignments and duties. There may have been another, but his identity has never been established. This group included one civilian besides Andrews, William Campbell, and the remaining 22 were soldiers from General Ormsby M. Mitchel's Third Division. Their meeting place was a pretty knoll on the Holland farm, a little less than two miles east of Shelbyville and not far from the banks of the Tennessee's Duck River. This location is identified today on Tennessee Highway Number 64.

Four of these 24 men did not get to participate in the actual chase of the locomotives for, before a week had passed, they found themselves in the Confederate Army. This was their instructions if things went wrong.

Two members of the party, Corporal Samuel Llewellyn, Company I, 33rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, and Private James Smith, Company I, 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry, had not reached Chattanooga before they came under suspicion and they joined a Confederate artillery unit to avoid the issue. This occurred near Jasper, Tennessee. Smith was actually confined in the Swims Jail for a short time, but was never identified as a member of the Raiders. Some weeks later, they made good their escape and returned to their own lines. In subsquent years, Smith was placed on the same footing as other members of the party. Private John Porter and Corporal Martin Hawkins, who had failed to catch the train as it left Marietta, according to instructions, joined the Confederate Army and soon found themselves at Camp McDonald at Big Shanty. It was only a matter of time before their identity was established as being of the raiding party and from then on their fate was tied to those who had made the run.

By the night of April 24th, Andrews and all 21 members of his party were Confederate prisoners, and were soon in jail in Chattanooga. Later, on Saturday, May 31, twelve of them were taken from the Swims Jail and started for Knoxville for court-martial on the charges of being spies. Andrews had been quickly tried in Chattanooga and on the same day, he was notified that he would be hanged as a spy one week later.

June 6, 1862, was a fateful day for Chattanooga as preparations were being made for the hanging of Andrews, for on that day the city came under bombardment from Union forces across the river. Brigadier General James J. Negley, leading units of General Mitchel's Third Division, bombarded the city briefly using 4-1/2 inch Parrott guns. With this happening, the Confederate authorities thought it more prudent to move Andrews, and the eight members of his party still confined in the Swims Jail, down to Atlanta. The reason there were only nine of the party then in confinement in Chattanooga is that John Wollam was at large. He and Andrews had escaped from the Swims Jail on Sunday, June 1, and Wednesday, June 4, Andrews had been recaptured and placed back in the jail. Wollam was not recaptured until the end of June and he rejoined his comrades, then in jail in Atlanta.

Andrews and the eight men were escorted under guard to an early morning train for Atlanta on June 7. They arrived at the old brick car shed about 11:00 AM. The party detrained and was turned over to a squad of the city provost guards who conducted them to the barracks, a three story building known as the "Concert Hall." This edifice stood on the site of the First National Bank building, previously the site of the Peachtree Arcade, at the northwest intersection of Peachtree Street and the railroad.

Andrews did not remain in confinement in the Concert Hall very long. Within an hour he was on his way to his execution at the point near the intersection of present day Juniper and Third streets, NE. The route taken by modern designation, was from Peachtree Street at Five Points to Baker, West Peachtree from Baker to Alexander, and right into Alexander. In front of the present St. Luke's Church, a left turn was made into Peachtree Street, then northward on Peachtree to North Avenue, where a right turn was made to Juniper, and then left or northward, to the intersection of Juniper and Third streets. Here James J. Andrews was hanged and buried, and his remains rested there until 1887. Colonel Oliver H. Jones was the Provost Marshal of the Military Post of Atlanta and was in overall charge of the execution.