culty, Andrews very coolly telling the
story to which he adhered throughout the run--namely, that he was one of
General Beauregard's officers, running an impressed powder-train through
to that commander at Corinth. We had no good instruments for
track-raising, as we had intended rather to depend upon fire; but the
amount of time spent in taking up a rail was not material at this stage
of our journey, as we easily kept on the time of our captured train.
There was a wonderful exhilaration in passing swiftly by towns and
stations through the heart of an enemy's country in this manner. It
possessed just enough of the spice of danger, in this part of the run,
to render it thoroughly enjoyable. The slightest accident to our engine,
however, or a miscarriage in any part of our program, would have
completely changed the conditions.

At Etowah we found the "Yonah," an old locomotive owned by an iron
company, standing with steam up; but not wishing to alarm the enemy till
the local freight had been safely met, we left it unharmed. Kingston,
thirty miles from the starting-point, was safely reached. A train from
Rome, Georgia, on a branch road, had just arrived and was waiting for
the morning mail--our train. We learned that the local freight would
soon come also, and, taking the side-track, waited for it. When it
arrived, however, Andrews saw, to his surprise and chagrin, that it
bore a red flag, indicating another train not far behind. Stepping over
to the conductor, he boldly asked: "What does it mean that the road is
blocked in this manner when I have orders to take this powder to
Beauregard without a minute's delay?" The answer was interesting, but
not reassuring: "Mitchel has captured Huntsville, and is said to be
coming to Chattanooga, and we are getting everything out of there." He
was asked by Andrews to pull his train a long way down the track out of
the way, and promptly obeyed.

It seemed an exceedingly long time before the expected "extra" arrived,
and when it did come it bore another red flag. The reason given was that
the "local," being too great for one engine, had been made up in two
sections, and the second section would doubtless be along in a short
time. This was terribly vexatious; yet there seemed nothing to do but to
wait. To start out between the sections of an extra train would be to
court destruction. There were already three trains around us, and their
many passengers and others were all growing very cur