Joseph T. Derry , A. M. , Author of School History of the United States; Story of the Confederate War, etc., Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 6, Georgia
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

[96] uncoupled a section of the train, consisting of three empty box cars connected with the engine, which they at once managed by two experienced men detailed for that purpose. The engine pulled off rapidly and was gone before the sentinels standing near suspected the movement. William A. Fuller, conductor of the train, and Anthony Murphy, foreman of the Atlanta machine shops, who happened to be on the train, at once comprehended that the section had been stolen, and starting on foot, ran until they found a handcar, with which they pushed forward more rapidly. After a chase of many vicissitudes, the pursuing Confederates secured an engine, with which they pressed Andrews so closely that he ordered his party to abandon the road and take to the woods, but all of them were captured in a few days. Andrews and seven men who had volunteered for the expedition with knowledge of its character were tried as spies, convicted on evidence and ordered to be executed. The others who had become implicated through the orders of their superior officers were held in confinement at Atlanta. Finally some escaped and others were exchanged.

Some very absurd conjectures as to what would have been the result of the success of Andrews' scheme were indulged in by sensational writers on both sides, but a Federal officer has recorded the opinion that ‘if the raiders had succeeded in destroying every bridge on their proposed route, it would have produced no important effect upon Mitchel's military operations, and that he would not have taken, certainly would not have held, Chattanooga. . . . Hence,’ concludes the officer, ‘it is my opinion that Mitchel's bridge burners took desperate chances to accomplish objects of no substantial advantage.’

In the same month of April, the Third Georgia infantry, Col. A. R. Wright, was distinguished in the fight at South Mills, N. C., on the 19th. The regiment had been withdrawn from Roanoke island in time to escape inevitable capture, and now met the Federals as they