Western and Atlantic 3 “General”, Steam locomotive at the Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, United States

The Western and Atlantic 3 General is a steam locomotive in Kennesaw, Georgia, built in 1855 by Rogers Locomotive Works with a 4-4-0 wheel arrangement. The machine shows typical features of American locomotives from this period, including a large smokestack and visible cab.

Built in Paterson, New Jersey, in December 1855 by Rogers, Ketchum & Grosvenor, the General ran freight and passenger trains between Atlanta and Chattanooga. On April 12, 1862, James J. Andrews and about 20 Union raiders seized it at Big Shanty while its crew ate at the station café, aiming to burn bridges behind them. Pursued by William Allen Fuller aboard the Texas, the raiders ran low on water and wood and abandoned the engine two miles north of Ringgold.

Before the Civil War the Western and Atlantic named its engines rather than numbering them; the General kept its name, and only after the war did it receive number 39, changed to 3 in 1880 as the road's third-oldest engine. The number 3 and the word CINCINNATI on the boiler plate are what visitors read on the preserved machine.

The museum displays the locomotive in a covered hall accessible on foot. Information panels around the exhibit explain technical details and historical context.

The General's bell was displayed in a cinema lobby for the February 5, 1927 premiere of The General, a film by and starring Buster Keaton. The engine had been found in 1892 on a siding in Vinings by photographer E. Warren Clark, who proposed restoring it for the World's Columbian Exposition.