1888-1889

In the August 15, 1888 issue of the Kennesaw Gazette, Joseph M. Brown published a letter from his father, Joseph E. Brown, President of the W&ARR Company, addressed to the Secretary of the General Council of the Grand Army of the Republic. In this letter, Brown stated that, "I will consent to loan the engine, the General, to the Grand Army of the Republic during the period of the encampment without any charge whatever, except the charges, if any, that may be made by the companies north of Chattanooga for carrying the engine from Chattanooga to Columbus, Ohio, and back." He went on to state that the General was still in regular service and that "the engine has been rebuilt for a time or two since the historical event to which you refer, (the Chase) but the machinery and framework are identically the same which formed part of the engine at the time of capture by Andrews' party." The General did go to Columbus, Ohio for this encampment and under her own steam. Joseph M. Brown issued a special number of the Kennesaw Gazette for this occasion. It was a reprint of the April 15, 1887 issue in which details of the Great Locomotive Chase were described. This extra issue was titled: Extra Number, Complimentary to the Grand Army of the Republic, National Encampment, Columbus, Ohio, September 11, 1888. This encampment of the GAR was a special affair for the survivors of the Andrews Raiding party. They had a special reunion of their own, and Conductor William A. Fuller accepted an invitation to join them and was on hand for the occasion. The General was very popular among the veterans present. She was placed under a 24-hour guard to discourage souvenir hunters. Three photographs were taken of the engine and the survivors of the raiding party who were present including Conductor Fuller. The latter made a very inspiring speech to the assembled veterans which was highly acclaimed.

The General, 1886 or 1887.

After the reunion, the General returned home to the W&ARR over the rails of the Cincinnati, New Orleans, Texas & Pacific RR from Columbus to Chattanooga. The return trip was more eventful than the northbound trip had been. Mr. Alex Jeffrey, later a Southern Railway engineer who handled the General from Sommerset, Kentucky to Chattanooga, told an interesting story which almost resulted in disaster for the General.

"The General was much smaller than the eight wheelers we were running at the time," Alex said, "and being much older, I naturally couldn't run her as fast as we wheeled the Class A's. However, I was running about 35 miles per hour when the accident occurred just north of Emory Gap.

"Peter Gorman was my conductor, and as it was a very hot day; he elected to ride the pilot of the the General. In those days the right-of-way wasn't kept cut as it is today, and in many places the weeds and bushes were almost like trees. When I rounded a curve, I saw over the top of some bushes, two men pumping a handcar. I couldn't see the car itself, and naturally had no idea how many men were on it, but I reached for the whistle cord as I shut off and clutched the old Johnson reverse bar. Then I saw a half dozen or more men tumble off the car and roll into the bushes, and I recognized Section Foreman Costello as I went by him with the speed of the General hardly checked.

"I didn't know what would happen to the little kettle when she struck the handcar, and I thought of Peter Gorman as I reversed her and gave her a shot of steam. We hit a terrible wallop. I saw parts of the handcar fly through the air as the old lady shuddered under the impact and the crushing of the long nosed pilot timbers.

"When everything stopped and I had time to look around," Alex chuckled, "I saw Peter Gorman crouching on the boiler behind the huge diamond stack, holding on for dear life as he peeped around it. No one was seriously hurt but Gorman lost ten years of his life the few minutes he was hugging the stack."

The Dalton (GA) Argus, September 1, 1888, took note of the movement of the General to Columbus, Ohio, and reported that the General "passed up the road this week" enroute to Columbus and the GAR Encampment. The writer went on to describe the General. "The General is getting somewhat aged now, and will not excite jealously for beauty; but while pulling the Dalton accommodation last season, she frequently picked up fifty miles an hour for the short jump and on one occasion took the neck off a wild turkey as nicely as if it had been done by a rifle ball. If Bennett Smith had been at the throttle with the Andrews party, she might have got through, even if she had to swim the Tennessee River to reach the Federal lines."

During September, 1889, the Society of the Army of the Cumberland held their annual meeting in the city of Chattanooga. Again, the W&ARR, ever willing to join with the veterans and promote the historic "Kennesaw Route" pulled the General out of service and had her on display opposite the Palace Hotel for the benefit of the attending veterans.

Occasionally, an erroneous story would surface concerning the General, and there was a good example in 1889. The Railroad Gazette of November 1, 1889 carried a story announcing that the historic locomotive General had been sold to the Empire & Dublin Railroad for use in construction work. This road was then being built from Hawkinsville to Dublin, Georgia. The Chattanooga Times newspaper also carried the same story, and this prompted Joseph M. Brown to announce clearly in the Kennesaw Gazette of December 1, 1889, that, "This is all a mistake. The W&A still owns the General and has no idea of selling her." Another instance occurred in the Railroad Gazette of January 19, 1894, which carried an announcement that the General has finally "landed at the Libby Prison War Museum in Chicago, where it will doubtless remain permanently." At that time the General was in storage in Nashville, Tennessee.