Clothed in cheap homespun and ill-fitting work clothes, the men gathered before James J. Andrews looked less like Union soldiers and more like field hands. That was intentional; Andrews was not a soldier, but a "civilian scout" -- the Civil War euphemism for spy.
Marion R. Ross was one of the men Major Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel had ordered Andrews to gather in the early spring of 1862. Nine of the men were from the 21st Ohio, and Ross was their regimental sergeant major. The men, who came to be known as "Andrews' Raiders," were to proceed to the old War Trace Road near Chattanooga. Traveling alone or in pairs, they would make their way to Atlanta with the cover story that they were Kentucky boys going to join the Confederate Army. (Two were so convincing that they were mustered into a Georgia volunteer brigade.) Once in Atlanta, Ross and the others learned that they were going to hijack a Confederate train, "The General," and use it to burn bridges, tunnels and tracks along the Western and Atlantic Railroad north of Atlanta. This would presumably disrupt communications between Atlanta and Chattanooga, Tenn.
The ensuing railroad chase began with high spirits as the raiders successfully boarded and took "The General." However, they began to attract local curiosity at the railyard in Kingston. There, the train's conductor, William Fuller, began chasing the Yankees. Even when the Union group scuttled and burned its last boxcar, Fuller kept chase until the locomotive ran out of fuel.
The raiders scattered into the nearby woods, but all were captured within a few days. The ranking soldier in the party, Marion Ross, was one of the first to be hanged in an Atlanta prison courtyard, charged as a "bridge burner." He was also one of the first to receive a new award on March 6, 1863, when Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton presented the raiders -- some, like Ross, posthumously -- the very first Medals of Honor. Ross was thus the first noncommissioned officer to receive our nation's highest honor.
