Richmond Rail Heist #3

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Once the three men could no longer be seen nor heard, and once James had interrogated each man's gaze, he knelt to the ground and continued, opening his dark lantern slightly and drawing in the earth with a stick as he continued. William and the other men knelt with him, as much as to hear him as to see his drawing.

"This is Chattanooga," James said, "a major rail center. The Greybacks rely on it to run supplies up to Tennessee and Virginia - especially Virginia - from the south. This is the Western and Atlantic Railroad. It is the only run into Chattanooga from the south.”

“So we are to take the railroad?” a small bespectacled man broke in.

“We are to destroy it,” said James, patiently, once the thunder and dog dissipated enough for him to be heard.

“Cut it?” pushed the bespectacled man.

“Destroy it,” James explained. “It crosses 17 bridges, and we are to burn most of them.”

“Balderdash!” said the bespectacled man. “One bridge, maybe, but even that. Since them attempted burnings last moth they’ve doubled the guard. No way it can be done.” He continued in this vein for a while until he realized that his audience was not with him, and was waiting for him to shut up already, when he fell awkwardly silent.

“Not at all,” said James, once the man was quiet again. “We catch the 5:15 train north from Marietta, as passengers, then capture the train at Halsey Junction, when the passengers and crew get off for breakfast. There is no telegraph there, and no other locomotive there to chase us.

“Once we have the train we move north, cutting telegraph wires and burning bridges as we go.”

“It’s a single track line,” protested the bespectacled man. “You’ll hit another train for sure.”

James shook his head, waited for another roll of thunder - no answering dog this time - and still in his calm, quiet voice, explained that the single track was to their advantage. They would keep to their train’s schedule, ensuring that the track was cleared for them, and no one would be the wiser until they passed. By the time anyone realized something was wrong, the telegraph wires would be cut, preventing calls to the north to intercept them. “By late afternoon we’ll be back behind Federal lines, having left Chattanooga cut-off and vulnerable to General Mitchel’s troops, who will be marching south to take it.”

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