Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 37.djvu/273

Rh and Atlantic round-house at Big Shanty. When the "General" started on its wild race, Murphy and two others started on foot in pursuit, seized a handcar later, ran it to Etowah, Ga., where the engine "Texas" was taken.

For fifty-one miles the race continued to Ringgold, Ga., where the "General" was captured as the men in charged attempted to burn a bridge. Several of the Federal officers were summarily executed. But the plan of the Union forces to cut the Confederate communications was defeated. Although the engines were of a crude type, most of the race was made at the rate of sixty miles an hour. Murphy was the engineer, and Jeff Cain the train engineer and Captain Fuller, the conductor, fired for him.

The war left Murphy penniless, but he set to work again cheerfully, and when he died had amassed a fortune of half a million dollars in the saw-mill and lumber business.