It started off as a normal day the crew of the General. The General pulled into the station Big Shanty. This time was the crew and the passengers to stop and get breakfast. So everyone got off the train to go eat at the hotel right across the street from the station. When everyone was off, James J. Andrews and 20 other union soldiers unhooked the General and some of its freight cars and left the station. Andrews and his men were able to steal the General from over 300 confederate soldiers and the people that were eating breakfast at the hotel.

He says, "truly nothing in the world has occupied my thoughts as much as the Self, this riddle, that I live, that I am one and am separated and different from everyone else, that I am Siddhartha" (38). This provides an enlightening interpretation of Siddhartha's quest, because it is the first time he considers the Self as a solitary unity apart from the substratum of Atman to which the ego is attached. He has sought that which unites him with all things instead of that which marks him as distinct, as Siddhartha.