L. P. Brockett, The camp, the battlefield, and the hospital: or, lights and shadows of the great rebellion

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[192] This admirable coup daetat, the sagacity and importance of which challenged even the warmest admiration of the Confederates themselves, as being “the deepest laid scheme, and on the grandest scale, that ever emanated from the brains of any number of Yankees combined,” was planned and set on foot in April, 1862, by Mr. J. J. Andrews, a citizen of Kentucky, who had been previously engaged in the secret service of the United States Government. The plan of operations which he proposed was to reach a point on the State road, where they could seize locomotive and train of cars, and then dash back in the direction of Chattanooga, cutting the telegraph wires and burning the bridges behind them as they went, until they reached their own lines. The party, consisted of twenty-four men, who, with the exception of its leader, Mr. Andrews, and another citizen of Kentucky, William Campbell by name — who volunteered as substitute for a soldier — were selected from different companies of the Second, Twenty-first, and Twenty-third Ohio regiments, with particular reference to their known courage and discretion. These brave men were informed that the movement was to be a secret one, and doubtless comprehended something of its perils; but Mr. Andrews and one other alone seem to have known any thing of its precise direction and object. They all, however, cheerfully and voluntarily engaged in it; and before starting, Andrews divided among them seven hundred dollars of Confederate scrip, informed them that they were now venturing upon important and dangerous duty, and threatened to shoot on the spot the first man that got drunk or flinched in the least. They then made their way through the lines in parties of two and three,