On Monday night, April 7, 1862, twenty-two Union soldiers and one civilian met in secret with a Union spy who called himself James J. Andrews. Andrews' purpose was to line up volunteers for a daring mission—the seizing of a Confederate train. The Civil War was the first war in which railroads played a vital part, moving men and supplies faster than was ever before possible. To destroy an enemy's railroad was to destroy his chances of victory. Andrews' plan was hazardous, but the twenty-three men who pledged their support vowed to succeed or leave their bones to bleach in Dixie. 

The raiders set out through Confederate territory in groups of three or four to avoid arousing suspicion, and rendezvoused in Marietta on April 11, 1862. The next morning, in full sight of Confederate guards at Big Shanty, the men seized the General and began their perilous flight north. With a Confederate train in close pursuit, they hurtled toward Chattanooga at breakneck speed.

This vivid account recreates the suspense of the train chase, the manhunt that followed when the raiders were forced to abandon the General, and their capture, imprisonment, and daring attempts to regain freedom. The narrative includes firsthand reports by two of Andrews' raiders, giving the reader a sense of direct participation in this stirring chapter of history. Here is the story of the men whose courage and determination earned them the nation's highest military honor—the Congressional Medal of Honor.

From the dust jacket