150 years ago: 7 Andrews raiders hanged

Ten days after their ringleader was hanged, seven participants in the Andrews Raid (also known as the Great Locomotive Chase) were executed in Atlanta on June 18, 1862.

The hangings of soldiers Marion A. Ross, George D. Wilson, Charles P. Shadrach, John M. Scott, Samuel Slavens, Samuel Robertson and civilian William Campbell, occurred near Oakland Cemetery.

After the Civil War, their remains were removed from a trench and reinterred at the national cemetery in Chattanooga.

James Andrews and his band of commandos tried to destroy much of the Western & Atlantic Railroad as they rushed northward from Kennesaw, Ga., on April 12, 1862. They achieved little success and eight of the nearly two dozen participants, disguised as civilians, were tried and hanged as spies.

• Recap of the Great Locomotive Chase