The General at the Southern Museum in Kennesaw is the locomotive at the center of the Great Locomotive Chase of 1862. James J. Andrews and a group of Union raiders seized it at Big Shanty, today’s Kennesaw. Confederate conductor William Fuller pursued the raiders and eventually caught them. The preserved engine has a direct connection to the event and gives visitors a way to examine the scale of the equipment on which the plan depended.
The chase was an episode in a much larger struggle over railway infrastructure. Railroads could move supplies and troops over distances that were difficult to cover by road. Their bridges, stations and tracks were therefore important to the armies that used them. Seeing The General in the town where the raiders took it connects the national story of the Civil War with a specific locomotive and place. The museum’s other Civil War exhibits provide context for the campaign and the railway system involved.
The Glover Machine Works collection takes the story into locomotive manufacturing. The Marietta company built locomotives for industrial uses, and the museum presents equipment and material associated with that work in a factory setting. Look for the tools and stages of manufacture. A locomotive was assembled from parts that first had to be shaped, machined and fitted. Preserving evidence of those steps makes it possible to examine how an engine came into existence before considering the jobs it performed in service.
Georgia’s Merci Boxcar belongs to a later moment in railway history. It was part of a French gift shipment to the United States after World War II. The railway car carried personal gifts and became a physical reminder of the relationship between the two countries. Its presence expands the museum’s railway story from the movement of people and goods during war to an act of thanks after it.
Start with The General, then make time for Glover and the other displays. Their different subjects connect the railway with events, manufacturing skills and public memory across more than one period.
Visitor information
Researched November 2026.
Sources
More railroad museums in Georgia
- Georgia State Railroad Museum — Savannah: Railroad museum and historic shop complex
- Heritage Station Museum — Douglas: Depot and local history museum
- Okefenokee Heritage Center Train Museum — Waycross: Heritage museum with railroad collection
- Southeastern Railway Museum — Duluth: Railroad and transportation museum
- Thronateeska Heritage Center — Railroad Collection — Albany: Broader heritage museum with railroad collection
- All 6 railroad museums and sites in Georgia
Keep exploring
- All heritage sites — museums, stations and landmarks
- Southeast — the trains you can ride in the region