Revisting the Great Locomotive Chase

 

A few years ago, I wrote briefly about the 1956 Disney film The Great Locomotive Chase, comparing it to Buster Keaton's comedy The General, since both were based on the same historical incident. 

I hadn't known the Disney film had been novelized until I ran across that novelization in a used bookstore. Naturally, I was obligated by Law and Nature to buy it. Written by MacLennan Roberts, the book uses both the film and historical documents to bring the story of the Andrews Raid to life.

Andrews--a spy for the Union during the Civil War--led a team of twenty men behind enemy lines and captured a train. Their intent was to burn key bridges as they rode north. They were foiled by the incredible persistance of the train's conductor, who relentless pursued them on foot, by hand car and by other trains he commandeered along the way. At one point, he was following them on a train that was running in reverse. 

It's an exciting piece of real-life history. The Disney film is a relatively accurate recreation of the event. The book retains and perhaps even expands this historical verisimilitude, with excellent prose and story construction. The action is exciting and the various characters all given their own personalities. 

There is one interesting thing to note about the novelization. The movie did not directly discuss the causes of the Civil War. Nor did it need to do so, just as a novel set in World War II doesn't necessarily need to discuss the politics and morality of the overall war. 

The book was also under no obligation to discuss the war's causes either. But it includes a very well-written scene in which some of the Union spies, posing as Confederates before the raid begins, stay with a Southern family. At first, at least one of the spies is beginning to feel guilty about lying to a nice family. Then word arrives about an escaped slave. The head of the family takes his dogs out to hunt down the slave, while the inate hatred of the slaves among the rest of the family becomes palpable. Even the otherwise genial matriarch casually expresses this hatred both in speech and mannerisms. 

There is no hint of the "Lost Cause" myth here. The book makes it very clear that slavery and the evils it generates are the main reasons the war is being fought. I found this very interesting--in 1956, the Lost Cause myth was still pretty prevelant in pop culture. We still end up respecting the train conductor for his tenacity and courage in chasing down the stolen train, but this passage makes it clear that there was no moral equivalency betwen the Union and the Rebs. 

So The Great Locomotive Chase is yet another item to keep an eye out for when you visit used bookstores.