On April 12, 1862, Union spies led by James Andrews hijacked the locomotive General in Kennesaw, Georgia, then ran north on the Georgia-owned W&A Railroad hoping to burn bridges, rip up rails, and cut telegraph wires, preventing Confederate reinforcements from Atlanta and giving Union General Ormsby Mitchel time to attack Chattanooga. Pursued by conductor William Fuller, engineer Jeff Cain, and foreman Anthony Murphy, the chase crossed five counties before the General ran out of steam north of Ringgold. Bartow County held much of the action: all three chase engines, Yonah, Smith, and Texas, were acquired there, the greatest track distance was covered there, and the General was sidetracked for an hour in Kingston, where depot agent Uriah Stephens challenged Andrews' story. The event came to be regarded as America's greatest railroad adventure, led to the awarding of the nation's first Medals of Honor, and was made into the 1956 Walt Disney film The Great Locomotive Chase.