Thundering out of one of history's most thrilling chapters comes this hair-raising tale of a courageous band of Union soldiers who stole a Confederate railroad train. The twenty men who boarded the Chattanooga-bound mail on April 6, 1862 at Marietta looked inconspicuous enough. It wasn't until the train steamed out of Big Shanty, Georgia, while its crew and conductor ate breakfast in the station, that Southern authorities realized what was happening.

Through the eyes of young Johnnie Adams, whose job it was to cut the telegraph lines, this desperate race of a locomotive named The General, comes alive with breathless reality. Such thrilling moments as the near capture of the train by Confederate forces at Big Shanty, refusal of the switchman to allow the train onto the main line at Kingston and the harrowing chase given by The Texas, a locomotive manned by Confederate troops, fills this book with all the flash and roar of wartime adventure.

From the dust jacket