This book of the month is dedicated to eight-year-old me, sitting enthralled on the living room floor, glued to the screen while Fess Parker battled to change the course of the War Between the States by wrecking a Confederate railroad in The Great Locomotive Chase. That movie intersected two of my great loves: trains and warfare. I recommend it to all of you who haven't seen it. And if you watch it and want to know more about what really happened, you should pick up this book.
It nearly worked, but the train's conductor, William Fuller, refused to admit defeat and chased the train; first on foot and then with a series of locomotives. He raised the alarm and prevented the raiders from doing much damage until the army caught up with them. The Yankees were imprisoned, but even there the story didn't end--there were two spectacular prison breaks, a hanging, and enough newspaper headlines and panic to drive up the price of ink. When the surviving raiders finally made it back to the north, they were awarded the very first Medals of Honor--still the nation's highest military decoration.
Bonds writes well and easily, and he evaluates the various first- and second-hand sources with a clear eye. Rather than simply accepting some of the famous accounts of the time, he compares them--both to the terrain and to other primary sources. The result is an insightful work that picks apart both the Disney version and some of the laudatory news myths of the time to show what happened, why it happened, and how the participants told it in their own words.
This is, quite simply, good history. And if you have an interest in trains, the Civil War, spying, guerilla warfare, trains, the Medal of Honor, perspective, or trains, you should find a copy and enjoy the chase.
