Georgia Asks For The General

The lease of the W&ARR acquired by the L&NRR when they merged the NC&StL Ry into their system expired on December 27, 1969. The process for a new lease had begun some two years earlier, and this time there was some competition between the L&NRR and the Southern Railway. The initial bids were thrown out for a technical reason, and a second invitation extended. During a hearing of a legislative committee on February 3, 1967, at which L&N President Kendall was being questioned, he was asked when the General would be returned to Georgia. He replied that he would return the General to Georgia when it was indicated to him that the State would like to have it. He also stated that if the General was removed from L&N authority, they would want to be reassured that proper quarters were available for its future protection as a heritage of history. The proposition was confirmed by Mr. Kendall in a letter to the State of Georgia dated February 10, 1967, and he also indicated the General could be returned to the State prior to the termination of the lease.

The General Assembly of the State of Georgia responded and passed a resolution which was approved by the governor on April 5, 1967, expressing the State's desire to have the famous locomotive returned to Georgia, and designated Kennesaw as the site for it to be displayed.

During September, 1967, the General was enroute to Kennesaw from Louisville via Nashville and Chattanooga. The L&N had been asked to make the General available for trips in the Kennesaw area during a fund raising fair to be held September 14-16, 1967 at Kennesaw and sponsored by the Big Shanty Historical Society. The General was enroute to Kennesaw for this purpose when stopped in Chattanooga.

Custody Battle No.3

Plans had been made to receive the General at Kennesaw on September 12, 1967. Some of the invited guests were arriving before it was generally known that the General had been stopped at Chattanooga that morning at 1:30 AM, by a party headed by Mayor Ralph Kelly of that city. Mayor Kelly thought the General belonged in Chattanooga, and he took this action to see that it did not go to Georgia. This seizure triggered the long legal battle that ended finally when the US Supreme Court made its decision on November 9, 1970.

The City of Chattanooga contended to have ownership rights in the General and to have paramount right to its possession by virtue of the following: (1) that the General was dedicated to the City of Chattanooga and its citizens in the nature of a charitable trust which the L&NRR and its predecessor were fully empowered under the leases from the State of Georgia to do; (2) that the City of Chattanooga and its citizens had acquired a proscriptive interest in the General; (3) that the L&NRR and its predecessor had impliedly contracted that the L&NRR would permit the General to remain on permanent display in the City of Chattanooga; and (4) that the L&NRR was estopped by its conduct as alleged to permanently remove the General from the City of Chattanooga.

The City of Chattanooga further contended that the L&NRR had undertaken to deliver the General to the State of Georgia in return for Georgia's renewal of its lease of the W&ARR to the L&NRR and that the L&NRR had acted adversely to the trust imposed upon it and should be removed as trustee of the General.

The General remained in Chattanooga at Wauhatchie Yard until December 16, 1967, when it was returned to the South Louisville Shops of the L&NRR for safekeeping. This move was approved by Frank W. Wilson, US District Judge at Chattanooga, in an order filed on December 18, 1967.

In 1969, the Waterville, Ohio Historical Society became interested in placing a more suitable monument on the grave of Mark Wood, one of the Andrews Raiders who is buried in Forest Cemetery, Toledo, Ohio. In due course, negotiations were completed, and an imposing monument was created by Universal Memorial Company of Elberton, Georgia, made from Georgia blue granite and based on the drawing created by Wilbur G. Kurtz showing the General as she appeared in 1962. The monument also has data about Mark Wood and his part in The Great Locomotive Chase.

In the meantime, the legal process had begun, and on January 4, 1969, Judge Frank W. Wilson, US District Judge at Chattanooga, ruled that the L&NRR did own the General and could dispose of it as they wished. In his conclusion in July, 1969, Judge Wilson noted that the issue before his court was "not the appropriateness or inappropriateness of the display of the General either in Chattanooga, Tennessee or Kennesaw, Georgia. Nor is it for this court to decide where or how the General might be most appropriately displayed. A suggestion having merit in the eyes of the Court is that the Chickamauga Battle Field National Monument, Chickamauga, Georgia, would be an appropriate placement for the display of the General." A resolution to this effect was introduced in the Georgia General Assembly, but it did not pass.

The City of Chattanooga appealed this ruling, and the case was referred to the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth District. This Court, on May 21, 1970, upheld Judge Frank W. Wilson's ruling. Again, the City of Chattanooga appealed the ruling, and the case was referred to the US Supreme Court.

While this legal action was taking place the General remained in Louisville for safe keeping. On November 17 and 18, 1971, the General was moved into the historic Louisville Union Station and shared the place of honor with a new Seaboard Coast Line Railroad diesel locomotive No. 1776, the Spirit of '76, brightly colored in red, white, and blue paint for the forthcoming Bicentennial of the United States. Over 4,500 persons viewed the two locomotives, and this was the last occasion for such use by the L&NRR.

The United States Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal of the City of Chattanooga on November 9, 1970, and the ruling of the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth District, at Cincinnati, was upheld. This meant that Judge Wilson's initial decision was final and the L&NRR could do with the General as they wished.

While the matter of who got the General and where was involved with the judiciary, the Georgia General Assembly in its 1969 session attempted to start all over again. Even though the General Assembly had already indicated that Kennesaw was to be the future home of the General, an attempt was made in the House to have the locomotive enshrined in Chickamauga National Battle Field Park. Concurrently, a move was started in the Senate to place the General in a new state historical museum to be located in Underground Atlanta near the historic Zero Mile Post of the W&ARR. This proposal envisaged the Texas being removed from the Cyclorama and placed on display with the General. Neither effort was successful, and when the legislature adjourned, Kennesaw was still designated as the future home of the General.