Private Philip G. Shadrach (US Army) and Private George D. Wilson (US Army) were awarded the Medal of Honor on Wednesday.
The awards were posthumous, as the action they were involved in took place about 162 years ago.
Private Shadrach and Private Wilson were involved in the Great Locomotive Chase.
In the spring of 1862, a small group of Union Army saboteurs came up with a daring idea to cut off Confederate supply lines near Chattanooga by stealing a train, tearing up railroad tracks, burning bridges and cutting down telegraph wires — which would have denied means of travel and communication to enemy forces in the area.
Dressed in plain clothes, they launched their mission in April, sneaking behind enemy lines in Georgia, taking over a locomotive near Marietta and wreaking havoc for seven hours along miles of railway in an effort to help take the battle deep into Tennessee.But the stolen train, called “the General,” ran out of fuel 18 miles from Chattanooga, according to a U.S. Army account of the heist, which became known as the Great Locomotive Chase. The Union soldiers and civilians who took part in the mission fled, but all were captured after less than two weeks on the run.
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In 1863, six survivors of the raid were the first American soldiers awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for valor in combat, which had been authorized by President Abraham Lincoln the year before.
In all, 19 of the men received the Medal of Honor in the years that followed. But two soldiers who were executed by Confederates soon after the mission were never recognized.
Private Shadrach and Private Wilson were those two soldiers.
Private Shadrach’s page at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website. The citation is listed as “coming soon”.
Private Wilson’s page at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website. Ditto on the citation.