A movie was shown in my American History class last year in which a handful of Union agents destroyed the lifeline of Richmond Virginia. Some things I remember about the movie were that the agents were given the congressional medal of honor at the end of the mission, at one point they had stolen a train and its engineer persued them until he got it back, and at one point, they were incarcerated in a confederate jail, but managed to break out. It's also a little old. Does anyone know the title of this movie?
2007-02-19 12:36:41 · 2 answers · asked by Anonymous in Entertainment & Music ➔ Movies
The Great Locomotive Chase,staring Fess Parker. The story of Union spies who escape jail and are chased by the train conductor, on foot and by train.
2007-02-19 12:46:27 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
airbob's answer should get the points. Here's a little more information:
The Great Locomotive Chase was made by the Disney studios and released in 1957--it has had an alternate title when shown on tv, The Andrews Raiders.
The movie was based on a real incident, that took place in 1862. Although the mission actually was failure, and didn't accomplish the destruction of the railroad, or the splitting of the Confederacy's transportation lifeline, it did disrupt all the territory around for some weeks and gave the Union a very needed boost in morale. For this reason, and the daring and bravery shown by its participants, the first Congressional Medals of Honor were made and awarded to the survivors.
There have been two other movie versions of this story--one was made in 1912, running only about 15 minutes, called Railroad Raiders of '62; the other was a classic silent comedy, "The General", made by and starring Buster Keaton.
2007-02-19 23:42:24 · answer #2 · answered by Palmerpath 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋