The Texas, made famous in a 1950s Disney movie, was one of the players in the war's Great Locomotive Chase in April 1862. Its crew, running the locomotive backward, caught up with Union raiders who tried to destroy track between Big Shanty (now Kennesaw) and Chattanooga, Tennessee.

The raiders achieved little success, and eight of the nearly two dozen captured participants, disguised as civilians, were later hanged in Atlanta as spies. 

"We want to show it as the hard-working engine that it was, not just as one of the engines in the Great Locomotive Chase," Gordon Jones, the history center's senior military historian, said in a statement.

Read the full story here:

Do the locomotion: Famous Civil War engine taking ride on highway

by General Herman Haupt.

I made the following report on how to destroy bridges and locomotive engines expeditiously:

Washington, D. C, November 1, 1862.

A simple and expeditious mode of destroying bridges, and rendering locomotive engines useless to an enemy, is often a desideratum. Cavalry may penetrate far into an enemy’s country, may reach bridges forming viaducts on important lines of communication, which, it may be desirable to break effectually; or, in retreat, the destruction of a bridge may be essential to the safety of an army, and yet time may not be sufficient to gather combustibles, or they may not be accessible, or the fire may be extinguished, or the damage may be so slight as to be easily repaired.

What is required is the means of certainly and effectually throwing down a bridge in a period of time not exceeding five minutes, and with apparatus so simple and portable that it can be carried in the pocket or a saddle-bag.

“That man Haupt has built a bridge across Potomac Creek, about 400 feet long and nearly 100 feet high, over which loaded trains are running every hour,” declared President Abraham Lincoln on May 23, 1862, “and, upon my word, gentlemen, there is nothing in it but beanpoles and cornstalks!”

Read more at: The New York Times

Ironic, isn't it??? Along with two car loads of Rebel prisoners, Federal troops prepare to evacuate Atlanta with a brand new fire pumping wagon, a hose wagon and a hand pumping unit. Oh, how these could have been used to save the city! George N. Barnard, official photographer of the Chief Engineer's Office captured many scenes US Army activities in the city before it was destroyed.

From the Center for Civil War Photography, on Face Book

Atlanta, Georgia… Sherman’s Men Tearing Up Railroad Track. Photographed in 1864 by Barnard, George N. Sherman’s 62,000 men marched out of Atlanta “into the fat fields of Georgia like locusts devouring the land”, Sherman tore up every mile of railroad track and almost every station.

Civil War Parlor

Union Pacific, Shiloh troop train makes a Run by in Chester, Illinois on the way to the 150 anniversary of the battle of Shiloh, Tn. Video by Steve Wheat from the Sons of Union Veterans, Hecker Camp.

By Richard Burkhart 

The Central of Georgia Railroad and Banking Company brought economic growth to Savannah by transporting cotton from the heart of the state to be shipped from the Port of Savannah.

Continue reading at SavannahNow