Fredericksburg.com - THIS DAY IN CIVIL WAR HISTORY: President Lincoln presents the Emancipation Proclamation to his Cabinet. Announced one week after a Union victory at the Battle of Antietam, the edict redefines the Union's war aim from reunification to the abolition of slavery. Saying that all slaves in territory still in rebellion as of Jan. 1, 1863, will be free, it is one of the most important acts in American history, and sabotages Confederate attempts to gain recognition by foreign governments. STEALING THE GENERAL By RUSSELL S. BONDS WESTHOLME PUBLISHING, Yardley, Pa., 464 pages, $29.95

FEW EVENTS in the American Civil War have achieved the iconic status of the Andrews Raid. The Raid, also known as the Great Locomotive Chase, has become part of American folklore, a tale of daring and adventure made all the more remarkable because its events are true.

In April 1862, contraband trader and sometime Union informant James J. Andrews led a group of 20-odd Union soldiers, Ohio boys mostly, on a secret mission to steal a train and disrupt Confederate rail operations in northern Georgia. By damaging the state-owned Western & Atlantic Railroad line between Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tenn., the raiders hoped to prevent Confederate forces in Georgia from sending supplies and soldiers north to Tennessee.

A Union force led by Gen. O.M. Mitchell was thrashing about in northern Alabama, accomplishing little in the way of long-term strategic value. But Mitchell aimed to move eastward and liberate the largely pro-Union territory of eastern Tennessee, a long-held Union objective. Mitchell hoped that by neutralizing the rail line, he could move on eastern Tennessee without having to worry about Confederate reinforcements.

On the morning of April 12, Andrews and his party, dressed as civilians, boarded a northbound train at Marietta, Ga. When the train made a regularly scheduled breakfast stop at a railroad eating house at Big Shanty (now Kennesaw), Andrews and his men quietly stole forward, uncoupled the locomotive and three boxcars, and steamed north before anyone knew what was happening.

As they sped away, the raiders cut telegraph wires and tried to dislodge rails. One thing the raiders discovered, as would many a cavalryman during the war, was that rails are not easily loosened from their moorings. Even with many hands straining at the effort, the raiders managed to dislodge only one rail before resuming their flight north.

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