The General On Display

The question has often been raised as to when the General was placed on display in the Union Depot in Chattanooga. For some time it was thought that the time was in late 1893 after the General's return from the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This question arose again and became important in the case when the City of Chattanooga was trying to obtain a legal judgment to force the L&NRR to keep the General on display in that city. Richard M. Jahn, one of the attorneys for the City of Chattanooga, filed an affidavit dated January 31, 1969, with the court in support of a motion for a new trial. One of the points made in support of the motion for a new trial had to do with the date the General was placed on display in the Union Depot in Chattanooga. By careful search, Mr. Jahn found an article in the Chattanooga News of May 17, 1901, which carried the following account of the arrival of the General in Chattanooga the previous evening. “The General is in town. It arrived last night. This is the famous engine which the Andrews Raiders captured during the Civil War and in which fight a large number of them were killed. A handsome monument now stands to their memory in the National Cemetery in this city.” Thus it was established that the General arrived in Chattanooga on May 16, 1901, for permanent display in the Union Depot of the city. The Chattanooga Press of May 31, 1901, carried a similar story as did the Chattanooga Times of May 27, 1901. Mr. Jahn went on to introduce several other news articles to support the theory that there was a need for the railroads serving Chattanooga to curry favor with the citizens of Chattanooga, and that may have been the reason why it was decided to place the General on display as was done. If this be true, it relates to a critical time in 1967 when the General was again used in this manner to curry favor with the citizens of Georgia.

In Mid-September, 1906, the last reunion of participants in the Andrews Raid was held in Chattanooga, Tennessee. It was sponsored by the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway and held in conjunction with the reunion of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland. This photo was taken on Sept. 19, 9:15 AM in front of the Ohio Memorial to the Andrews Raiders. Left, in front: John R. Porter (who overslept and missed the entire event), Mrs. Knight, William J. Knight, Jacob Parrott, Mrs. Parrott, Daniel A. Dorsey, Henry Haney (as a 15 yr. old boy served on the crew of the Texas as a fireman). Back row: William Bensinger, William A. Fuller, Charles Bensinger, and Anthony J. Murphy (one of the pursuers). (William Allen Fuller, the conductor of the General had died the previous year. Wilson W. Brown and Peter Bracken were still living at the time, but did not attend. Porter was the last survivor of the Raid, dying in 1923. Haney was the last Confederate survivor, also dying in 1923.)

In 1906 the GAR Annual Encampment was held in Chattanooga, and the NC&StL Ry sponsored a special reunion of the survivors of the Andrews Raid. This reunion was held from September 18 to 20 and was attended by six survivors of the Andrews Raiders and two members of the pursuing party. The group was photographed near the Ohio Monument to the Raiders in the National Cemetery and also in front of the General in the Union Depot. The NC&StL Ry issued a handsome pamphlet on this occasion in honor of the reunion of survivors of the Andrews Raiders. It was well that they were treated so generously for this was their last reunion as death took its toll during the following years.

The year 1927 marked the 100th birthday of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, one of the pioneer railroads of the country. The B&ORR decided to commemorate the event with "The Fair of the Iron Horse," a Centenary Exposition of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad held at Halethorpe, Maryland, near Baltimore. Elaborate facilities were built to present the pageant and to display the many examples of locomotives and rolling stock made available for the occasion. Among the many historic locomotives on hand for the fair was the General. The General left Chattanooga on August 12, 1927, and this time she did not travel under her own steam. She was loaded aboard a flat car with her stack removed to reduce clearance problems, and moved to Nashville in regular freight service over the NC&StL Ry, thence to the L&NRR to Louisville, where it was turned over to the B&ORR for movement on to Halethorpe, Maryland. A few weeks later, the General was returned to her berth in the Union Depot in Chattanooga.

The General at the B&O Centennial in 1927.

In late 1931, there was a move afoot in Atlanta to remove the Texas from the Cyclorama at Grant Park and allow the NC&StL Ry to recondition the engine for display at the Union Station in Atlanta. Governor Richard B. Russell agreed that this could be done as long as the Texas was not taken out of the boundaries of Georgia. He also agreed that it would be necessary for the railroad to obtain permission from the City of Atlanta to do this. Subsequently, the City of Atlanta refused, and the Texas was not moved. This action was well received by the press, and it was not long before the mayor of Chattanooga, Ed Bass, heard of the proposal. He came up with an even better idea. He proposed to the the mayor of Atlanta, James L. Key, that the Texas and the General repeat the epic race of the Civil War between Atlanta and Chattanooga. News of this proposal was distributed by the wire services, and soon Joseph W. Parrott of Lima, Ohio, a grandson of two of the Andrews Raiders, was in touch with Mayor Bass of Chattanooga, seeking permission to ride the General during this great chase. The race did not take place. A reenactment of this historic event was not to be for another 30 years, but it did make good copy for the newspapers of the time.

In 1933 the General was again removed from the Union Depot in Chattanooga and loaded aboard a flat car for another trip to Chicago. This time she attended the Century of Progress Exposition. Again, the balloon stack was removed for shipment, and when it was placed back on in Chicago, it was put on backwards. The famous rooster comb was to the front of the stack rather than to the rear as it should have been.