Fuller in Pursuit

The unexpected departure of the General and the three freight cars set all into commotion at Big Shanty. Fuller first supposed that the train had been taken by some deserting conscripts from Camp McDonald who would abandon it a short distance away. With this thought in mind, he set out on foot to recapture his train. Engineer Jeff Cain gave chase, too. Anthony Murphy dispatched a rider to Marietta with instructions to telegraph the superintendent of the W&ARR that something was amiss at Big Shanty. Then Murphy ran after Cain and Fuller.

At Moon's Station, Fuller encountered Jackson Bond and his section crew. From them, Fuller learned that the captors of the General had stopped to ask for tools and were given a crow bar. This was an indication that perhaps they were not deserters from Camp McDonald, but rather men with more devious motives. At any rate, Fuller borrowed the crew's platform car and, with Cain and Murphy, proceeded to kick and pole the vehicle down the big grade towards the Etowah River. Conductor Fuller knew the Yonah should be there, and he hoped to arrive before it left for its morning run to Cooper's Iron Works.

Beyond Acworth, Fuller, Cain, and Murphy came across the place where the Raiders had torn up the track. The puffing pursuers did not see the missing rail in time to stop and were thrown pell-mell into a ditch as the platform car overturned. Within a few minutes they had the car back on the track, and only badly shaken, were on their way again to the Etowah. Arriving at the river before the Yonah had departed, they seized the locomotive and quickly switched onto the main line and headed north toward Kingston, 14 miles distant, at full steam.

Western & Atlantic bridge over the Etowah River looking east from Federal lines, 1864.

Fuller wrote later that they made these 14 miles in 15 minutes with the old Yonah, thus indicating a speed of over 55 m.p.h. If Andrews had taken Knight's advice to burn the Etowah bridge, the Raiders would have prevented Fuller from continuing his pursuit on such even terms. Strange to relate, even with a locomotive standing under steam at the Etowah, the Raiders did no damage to the tracks between the Etowah and Kingston. Removal of another rail might will have prevented Conductor Fuller from continuing his pursuit.