During the Civil War

The General was handled well during the great chase and suffered only minor damage at the conclusion some two miles north of Ringgold. As soon as the chase ended, Anthony Murphy, foreman of Machinery and Motive Power at the State Road Shops and who was with Conductor William A. Fuller in the pursuing party, went aboard the General to check the water level in the boiler. He found it low. The Texas then pushed the General northward to Graysville where a more thorough examination was made and wood and water taken on. It was found that the brass journal bearing on the left side of the front axle on the leading truck had been damaged and would require replacement. The Texas then pulled the General to Ringgold where she remained until Tuesday, April 15, 1862, when Daniel Fleck, a machinist in the State Road Shops at Atlanta arrived with a new brass journal bearing. Fleck replaced the bearing, and the General was ready to go back to service.

On May 2, 1862, the General again pulled a train with the Andrews Raiders aboard, hardly three weeks after the famous chase. All members of the Federal Raiding party were apprehended within a week of the Raid and were imprisoned in the Swims Jail in Chattanooga. The Confederate authorities, for reasons of security, decided to move the Raiders south to Georgia. They were placed aboard the southbound passenger train, pulled by the General, early on the morning of May 2, moved to Atlanta and thence over the Georgia Railroad to Madison were they were imprisoned in the old stone County Jail for a period of three days; then they were returned to Chattanooga.

The General continued in regular service, and the next record available indicates that she was almost under fire of the Federal batteries during the battle of Kennesaw Mountain on June 27, 1864. "When the battle began during the early morning, General Johnston sent up a train load of ammunition, etc. to the Confederate lines at the eastern base of Kennesaw Mountain. The ammunition, etc., was unloaded and carried to the front as quickly as possible, but the engine and train were detained at that point, by order of General Johnston, to carry back the wounded at the close of the battle. During the entire morning the General and her train stood at the point where now is station Elizabeth, and some of the Federal bombshells, flying over the Confederate entrenchments, exploded almost in her neighborhood. In the afternoon wounded soldiers from Featherstone's Division, and others in that portion of the field, were placed aboard the train, and the General brought them down to Marietta, and thence on to Atlanta."

By the end of August, it was apparent to General Hood that Atlanta would have to be abandoned to the advancing Federal forces under General Sherman. Every effort had been made by Superintendent George D. Phillips and his staff of the W&A RR to move locomotives and rolling stock south over the Macon & Western RR and thus save this equipment from the Federals. The act of "refugeeing" equipment was also carried out by the other railroads that served Atlanta.

This photo of the General was taken by George Barnard in Atlanta in 1864.

- National Archives Collection

Around noon on Sept. 1, 1864, the General and the Missouri left Atlanta on the M&W RR, each pulling a train of military supplies picked up in the East Point Yards, namely ammunition, guns and Quartermaster supplies. Atlanta was beset from the direction of Jonesboro, but no one in Atlanta knew exactly where the Federal forces were. The trains came to a halt near Rough & Ready (present day Mountain View) when artillery of the 23rd Corps opened up, and both trains were backed to the car shed in Atlanta. They were then moved to the Georgia Railroad yards between Oakland Cemetery and the Schofield and Markham Rolling Mill. The supplies could not be removed, so the authorities decided to destroy them for the city was to be abandoned that night. Dave Young was the engineer assigned to the General at this time, and he was ordered to damage the engine sufficiently to render it useless to the Federals. This was hardly necessary in view of the damage incurred by the later burning of the car loads of ammunition and other supplies. The Missouri was run backward into a line of cars, and the General was run backward into the Missouri and the the cars were set ablaze. The Missouri was reported to have been the last locomotive shipped south of the Mason & Dixon line before the Civil War. A third engine, the Etowah, was also involved in this movement as was the engine N.C. Munroe of the M&W RR and the E.Y. Hill of the Atlanta & West Point Railroad. A total of five engines and 81 cars of ammunition and other supplies went up in flames the evening of Sept. 1, 1864, as General Hood's Confederate forces left Atlanta.

The scene was vividly portrayed may years later by David O. Selznick in his production of Gone With the Wind with the burning of Atlanta. The five locomotives were badly damaged, and all the cars were destroyed.

Sept. 1, 1864 – General Hood and his Confederate forces, as they left Atlanta, destroyed ammunition and supply trains, including five locomotives, one of which was the General.

- Drawing from Harper's Weekly

Aftermath of the destruction of the Schofield & Markham Rolling Mill. The General was involved and located just out of the picture in the lower right hand corner.

- National Archives