According to the time-table, of which Andrews had secured a copy, there
were two trains to be met. These presented no serious hindrance to our
attaining high speed, for we could tell just where to expect them. There
was also a local freight not down on the time-table, but which could not
be far distant. Any danger of collision with it could be avoided by
running according to the schedule of the captured train until it was
passed; then at the highest possible speed we could run to the
Oostenaula and Chickamauga bridges, lay them in ashes, and pass on
through Chattanooga to Mitchel at Huntsville, or wherever eastward of
that point he might be found, arriving long before the close of the day.
It was a brilliant prospect, and so far as human estimates can determine
it would have been realized had the day been Friday instead of Saturday.
Friday every train had been on time, the day dry, the road in perfect
order. Now the road was in disorder, every train far behind time, and
two "extras" were approaching us. But of these unfavorable conditions
we knew nothing, and pressed confidently forward.

We stopped frequently, and at one point tore up the track, cut telegraph
wires, and loaded on cross-ties to be used in bridge-burning. Wood and
water were taken without difficulty, Andrews very coolly telling the
story to which he adhered throughout the run--namely, that he was one of
General Beauregard's officers, running an impressed powder-train through
to that commander at Corinth. We had no good instruments for
track-raising, as we had intended rather to depend upon fire; but the
amount of time spent in taking up a rail was not material at this stage
of our journey, as we easily kept on the time of our captured train.
There was a wonderful exhilaration in passing swiftly by towns and
stations through the heart of an enemy's country in this manner. It
possessed just enough of the spice of danger, in this part of the run,