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

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[193] in citizens' dress, and carrying only side arms, to Chattanooga, the point of rendezvous agreed upon, where twenty-two out of the twenty-four arrived safely. Here they took passage, without attracting attention, for Marietta, which place they reached at twelve o'clock on the night of the 11th of April. The next morning, before daylight, they took the cars and went back on the same road to a place called Big Shanty, a regular stopping-place for refreshments, and where, within forty or fifty yards of the road, some twenty thousand Confederate troops were encamped, it being a general rendezvous for recruits and the organization of regiments. The train upon which the conspirators were, contained, also, a number of soldiers, as well as citizens, together with a quantity of provisions, and an iron safe containing a large amount of Confederate money, designed for the payment of the rebel troops at Corinth, Mississippi. Here, for the first time, they knew the nature of their duty, which was to destroy the track and bridges from Big Shanty, to and beyond Chattanooga, or as far as Bridgeport, Tennessee. This section of the road is built over innumerable creeks and rivers; and as General Mitchel had already cut off all communication from Corinth, by holding Huntsville, Alabama, the destruction of bridges which they were expected to effect, would have completely prevented rebel reinforcements and commissary stores from reaching Virginia, Tennessee, and Georgia.

At Big Shanty, therefore, the train stopped for breakfast, and passengers, conductor, engineer, and “hands,” all went into the saloon, and were soon engaged in enjoying their matutinal meal. The conspirators were