I don't know if there's another Uriah Stephens in the general area or not, but I believe the Uriah referred to here is the same person who married Hannah McConnell.

But during the early days of the Civil War, there was a Uriah Stephens who was the railroad agent at the train station located at Kingston, GA in Cass Co. or Bartow Co., GA (the county changed names in abt 1861).

 The famous Andrew's Raid, also known as the Great Locomotive Chase, between the locomotives, the "General" and the "Texas" ( and also the "Yonah") occurred on April 12, 1862, in which Yankee spies led by James J. Andrews stole a train and tried to take it North behind Yankee lines.

When they had reached the station at Kingston, Andrews told Uriah Stephens a tall tale about them being on a special mission for the Confederacy, and thereby talked Uriah into giving him the keys to the railway switches which allowed him to switch the tracks around and divert rail cars one way or the other.

It seems that Andrews managed to clog up the rails with cars so that the Confederates pursuing him could not follow in their locomotive, and had to go on foot for a while until they could reach the locomotive "Yonah", which was being used by the Etowah Iron Works.

I've taken my notes from a copy of an article "The Andrews Raid", by Wilbur Kurtz, which appeared in the Dec 1968 issue of the Atlanta Historical Bulletin, Vol. XIII, No. 4, published by the Atlanta Historical Society, which is in my personal library.

It does not further identify this Uriah Stephens. Perhaps some other book on this famous incident in the War gives more detail on Uriah to determine if he's this Uriah Stephens or some other person.

Michael McKinney

Kennesaw, GA