Written and produced by Lawrence Edward Watkin and directed by Francis D. Lyon, the 85-minute full-color film also features Jeffrey Hunter, John Lupton, Kenneth Tobey, Don Megowan, and Slim Pickens.

Filmed in Georgia and North Carolina, along the now abandoned Tallulah Falls Railway, it was released in U.S. theaters by Buena Vista Distribution Company on June 8, 1956, and capitalized on Parker's growing fame as an actor from his portrayal of Davy Crockett.

Andrews rides in to speak to Mitchell, who assigns him the mission of hijacking a train behind Confederate lines and destroying the bridges along the Western and Atlantic Railroad in order to delay reinforcements against Mitchell's planned attack on Chattanooga, as well as cripple the Confederate army's supply lines, possibly putting an end to the war.

Andrews and the men continue on, pulling up track to block any trains from the south and cutting telegraph wires to stop any towns ahead of them from being alerted.

Andrews disguises their mission from the suspicious station staff by claiming that he is running an extra ammunition supply train to Beauregard.

Fuller and Murphy then wave down Pete Bracken and his southbound express freight and continue the chase with his engine, the Texas running in reverse.

Stanton says that their perished comrades will also receive the Medal of Honor posthumously, with the exception of Andrews who is ineligible due to being a civilian operative (also excluding William Campbell).

By the 1950s the Western and Atlantic Railroad tracks where the Chase took place in 1862 were a modernized main line of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway (now CSX), and unsuitable as background for a Civil War era film.

The Disney studios looked about fifty miles (80.5 km) east to the Tallulah Falls Railway,[3] a somewhat decrepit, but scenic shortline with photogenic curves and several wooden trestles.

It would have been too costly to make them safely operational, but fortunately Disney had access to two working 4-4-0's of nearly identical appearance, both movie veterans: the William Mason and Inyo.

[7] Variety wrote: "It varies between good and fair entertainment values, with enough exciting passages to promise okay prospects at the box office.

"[8] Harrison's Reports declared: "This Walt Disney historical melodrama should give fairly good satisfaction to the general run of audiences ...

"[9] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote: "Despite the lack of inventive incident, the story has a number of tense sequences, without, perhaps, rivalling the pace and gusto of Davy Crockett.

The attempt to present both pursuer and pursued as equally attractive figures is highly successful, but this inevitably weakens the drama of the situation.