William Bensinger and John R. Porter joined the Andrews Raid, an effort to wreck Confederate supply lines. On April 12, 1862, the raiders captured the locomotive The General at Big Shanty, Georgia. Porter missed the locomotive chase that followed, while Bensinger was aboard when The General ran out of fuel and he was captured. Both later received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Among the Andrews Raiders, James J. Andrews, William M. Campbell, Samuel Robertson, Marion A. Ross, John M. Scott, Charles P. Shadrach, Samuel Slavens, and George D. Wilson were hanged by the Confederates in June 1862; Wilson W. Brown, Daniel A. Dorsey, Martin J. Hawkins, William J. Knight, John R. Porter, John A. Wilson, John Wollam, and Mark Wood escaped on October 16, 1862; William Bensinger, Robert Buffum, Elihu H. Mason, Jacob Parrott, William Pittenger, and William H. Reddick were paroled on March 17, 1863; and James Smith and Samuel Llewellyn were discovered before the raid.