In Kennesaw, Georgia, the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History is a mid-size museum whose long name sweeps together its three distinct focuses: the Civil War seen through the lens of how the railroads played a crucial part and how they did, followed by a fascinating piece of post-war Southern industrial history, and—first in the museum’s history but last as you walk through—the famous locomotive General, famed for its role in the Great Locomotive Chase.
That might seem all tenuously connected, but the museum, which is a Smithsonian regional affiliate, does a good job of tying it all together.
Not bad for a museum that started out only with the mission of preserving the General, the engine seized by Union raiders on a mission to sabotage Confederate operations on the railroads leading from Atlanta. Big Shanty, now Kennesaw, is where the chase ended; the museum was originally the Big Shanty Museum.
The museum’s exhibits make clear that not only did railroads, relatively new but rapidly growing add a new dimension to wartime operations, but that the two sides were wildly mis-matched in the railroad field. Southern railroads were generally lightly-built, their rails not meant for heavy industrial traffic; the opposite was true in the north, which also had well over 70% of the nation’s mileage as well.
Northern railroads were quickly put under command of Gen. Herman Haupt, whose engineering and transport troops rapidly built connections and established supply bases; the bridge and barge operation above, built to connect northern to southern railroads across the Potomac, were repeated elsewhere with a fleet of 90 steamers, tugs and barges capable of moving entire trains.
Where bridges and roadways didn’t exist, Haupt’s troops quickly built them; the truss just above was designed to be assembled quickly from pre-cut parts. While Haupt frequently fought with other Union generals over priorities and supplies, the Union army relied heavily on his work to move both troops and supplies. After Haupt quit in a dispute with the Secretary of War, his successor, E.M. Dodge and 8,000 men rebuilt track damaged by Confederate raiders and opened a new line from Nashville to the Union supply depot at Stevenson, Alabama—in only 40 days, including 102 miles of track and 182 bridges and culverts.
The story on the southern side was quite different. Confederate president Jefferson Davis refused, until 1865, to put the railroads under a single command. Tredegar, at Richmond, was the south’s only significant iron foundry, and it did not have the capacity to keep up with the demand for tracks, cannon and other military needs; by the end of the war, overuse and decay had done almost as much damage as the enemy.
The war over, the museum shifts its focus to the period of recovery—of rebuilding railroads and agriculture, restarting industries such as logging—that follows. While it’s not the main focus, the museum doesn’t shy from the fact that southern leaders calling for a “New South” were also calling for new ways in which whites, and especially wealthy ones, would still hold power and dominate formerly enslaved people.
Among the industries that grew in that period were mining and metal working. Birmingham and other cities became centers of iron and steel-making, and local businesses in many southern cities increased their role in machine-building for industry. One of those was the Glover Machine Works, conveniently located in Kennesaw. Glover’s operations shut down in the 1950s, and in 1995 the abandoned factory, parts and equipment, still owned by the family, became the Museum’s next big collection.
At the Museum, key parts of Glover’s operation were reconstructed to give us an idea of what a complex but visible operation it was. The pattern shop, above, is where craftsmen created prototypes and designs for parts to be replicated and assembled into a variety of machines and engines, including more than 200 locomotives, mostly smaller ones used by coal and wood companies to haul their products, although others were for railroads, and one was even for passenger service.
Glover was one of the area’s biggest employers; the model above shows the complex around 1904. Some of its products, including a number of locomotives, were shipped to South America and Asia, but the biggest customers were growing industries in central Georgia.
The main erecting hall at Glover was 400′ long and had 4,000 panes of glass, and track of three different gauges to move locomotives along.
The last Glover locomotive, built in 1930 for Splint Jellico, was delivered and then repossessed for non-payment months later. It spent over 60 years in the Glover factory complex, unused until the museum took over. Below, the company office was also recreated by the museum.
Below, scenes from the reconstructed erecting shop.
A nostalgia piece for us older folk, who remember the days before FedEx and hundreds of UPS and Amazon trucks everywhere… the Railway Express Agency was owned by a consortium of railroads, and allowed freight and package system all through the then-extensive U.S. rail network.
And now, we pass through a replica of a historic pre-Civil War railroad tunnel, to the museum’s final (and also first) exhibit: the locomotive General, seized by a team of Union raiders near Atlanta, with a plan to head north, tearing up rail and burning bridges as they went. At the end of the so-called Great Locomotive Chase, Confederate pursuers captured the General; the raiders were captured and several were executed.
The General, a 1926 movie starring Buster Keaton, helped keep interest in the story alive, and the 1956 drama version by Disney gave the story another spur, and may have helped lead to the opening of the Big Shanty Museum on the raid’s 110th anniversary in 1972.
The museum has an unusual collection of General-themed souvenirs as well, including an elaborate clock with a crudely-carved label, an Avon cologne bottle, and perhaps the most bizarre: a cookie jar produced by model-train maker Lionel! George G was the solver of our One-Clue Mystery from the clock clue.
Nuts and Bolts
2829 Cherokee Street, NW, Kennesaw, Georgia
Kennesaw is about 30 miles northeast of Atlanta on I-75
Open Tuesday – Saturday: 9:30am – 5pm, closed some holidays
Closed New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day
Adults: $10, Seniors: $8, Military, Students and 3-17: $5
Parking on museum lot is free
I’m not familiar with the film, but that locomotive looks great!
Very interesting article!