James J. Andrews Quotes in The Great Locomotive Chase (1956)

William Campbell: What do we tell the Johnny Rebs when they ask who we are and where we're from?

James J. Andrews: Tell them you're Kentuckians escaping the rule of the Yankees to join a Southern Regiment. If they press you closely, tell 'em you hail from Fleming County, Kentucky. I'm from Flemingsburg myself. No man from that county has ever joined the Southern army... As for you, Mr. Buffum, it might be wiser if you didn't speak at all. I never met a Kentuckian so plainly from Massachusetts.

William Campbell: Do we have to be better Southerners than the Johnny Rebs themselves?

James J. Andrews: I went through pretty far tonight. Let me tell you this: If you can't drink their toasts and sing their songs, love Jeff Davis and hate Abe Lincoln by next Friday, you'll never reach Marietta.

[as the raiders are climbing into the boxcar, Andrews notices that a Confederate soldier is watching them]

James J. Andrews: Come on, boys. When it's orders from Beauregard, we can't keep the General waiting.

[Confederate soldier walks away]

James J. Andrews: [shows Fuller a letter] You don't get a letter like that from Brigadier General Beauregard just for running Quinine.

William A. Fuller: No, I reckon you don't. I'd give my right arm just to serve under that man.

James J. Andrews: *You are*! This railroad is the artery that pumps fresh blood into the army of Mississippi on the left land, and to the army of Northern Virginia on the right. Beauregard and Robert E. Lee would *perish* without men like you!

[the train is about to pull into Big Shanty]

James J. Andrews: Have a good breakfast, Mr. Fuller. And don't you worry about any deserters, I'll *take care* of your train.