Great Locomotive Chase

Dozens of trains roar through Kennesaw every day. They speed past the historic 1908 train depot in the heart of town.

The Southern Museum of Civil War & Locomotive History is gearing up to celebrate the sesquicentennial of the Great Locomotive Chase, one of the Civil War’s most thrilling episodes.

On the afternoon of April 12, 1862, a group of union spies desperately drove a stolen locomotive northward. But, their tired engine, The General, was about to give out. About two miles north of Ringgold, the Great Locomotive Chase came to an end.