SHAKO: Two Civil War Soldiers Awarded the Medal of Honor for a Daring Raid

By John M. Doyle on July 7, 2024

BRAVERY RECOGNIZED, 162 YEARS LATER.

Two Union soldiers who participated in a daring raid deep into Confederate territory during the American Civil War were awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously by President Joe Biden on July 3.

Private Philip Shadrach and Private George Wilson, members of the 2nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Regiment, were honored more than 100 years after 19 of their comrades received the Medal of Honor for what is known as the "Great Locomotive Chase." Both Shadrach and Wilson were captured by Confederate troops within days of the 1862 raid. They and six other imprisoned raiders were hanged two months later.

President Joe Biden posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor to Civil War Army Private George D. Wilson during a ceremony at the White House, July 3, 2024. Wilson's great-great granddaughter Theresa Chandler, center, received the medal on his behalf. To the left is Gerald Taylor, the great-great nephew of Army Private Philip G. Shadrach, who also received the medal. (Photo By: Defense Dept. Screen Capture)

Shadrach and Wilson's descendants received the Medal of Honor on their behalf during a White House ceremony with President Joe Biden, the Washington Post reported.

"Every soldier who joined that mission was awarded the Medal of Honor, except for two soldiers who died because of that operation, but never received this recognition," Biden told the gathering, adding "Today we right that wrong. Today, they finally receive the recognition they deserve."

The Mission.

In early April, 1862, the pair joined 20 other Union soldiers -- all from Ohio regiments -- and two civilians, James Andrews and William Hunter Campbell, in a mission to infiltrate nearly 200 miles into Confederate territory, commandeer a train in Georgia, and drive it north to meet advancing Union troops at Chattanooga, Tennessee, while demolishing Confederate railroad tracks, bridges and telegraph lines along the way.

Andrews, a civilian scout and spy who regularly operated behind Confederate lines gathering information for Major General Ormsby Mitchel, Union commander in middle Tennessee, led the raiders as they made their way south in small groups, posing as sympathizers traveling to enlist in the rebel army. (For decades after the raid, the participants were known as the Mitchel Raiders, father than the Andrews Raiders, because the general authorized the mission.)

On the morning of April 12, 1862, the volunteers grabbed a locomotive named "The General" outside of Big Shanty, (now known as Kennesaw, Georgia) while the passengers and crew were having breakfast at a nearby hotel.

The Mitchel Raiders set a train car on fire in an attempt to set a covered railway bridge ablaze and thwart pursuit, from "Deeds of valor; how America's heroes won the Medal of Honor," published in 1901. (Via wikipedia)

Rain made it nearly impossible to burn the bridges and the raiders lacked the proper tools to dismantle the tracks of the Western and Atlantic Railroad line on their race north. Unexpected southbound trains on the single-line track, forced the General to wait on sidings until they passed, eating up the time for the raiders to make their getaway.

Meanwhile, Confederate forces were in hot pursuit, at first on foot, later on a manpowered handcar, then a succession of locomotives, led by William Allen Fuller, the outraged conductor of the hijacked train.

The Aftermath.

After evading pursuit for seven hours, just 18 miles from Chattanooga, the wood-burning General ran out of fuel. Andrews and his men abandoned the locomotive and scattered into the woods but they were all tracked down by Confederate troops within two weeks. All were put on trial. The soldiers were convicted for "acts of unlawful belligerency" while the two civilians, Andrews and Campbell, were found guilty of being unlawful combatants and spies. Andrews, Campbell and six of the Raiders, including Shadrach and Wilson, were executed by hanging in June 1862. The remaining 14 were held as prisoners of war. They tried to to escape and eight succeeded on September 16, 1862. The last six were exchanged for Confederate prisoners on March 17, 1863.

For their acts of valor in "The Great Locomotive Chase," six members of Andrews' Raiders were awarded the first Medals of Honor in U.S. history on March 25, 1863. Ultimately, 19 of the 24 members of Andrews' Raiders would receive the Medal of Honor for their incredible acts of valor, according to the Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center.

As civilians, neither Andrews nor Campbell were eligible for the Medal of Honor, although there have been efforts made to get them the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. In addition to Shadrach and Wilson, who were overlooked for unknown reasons until 2008, another soldier, Samuel Llewellyn, who was stopped before reaching the rendezvous point, and did not participate in the locomotive chase, declined the award because he felt he didn't deserve it.

A Final Note

While almost forgotten for decades, the daring of the raiders and the persistence of the train conductor who thwarted them, have been the subject of two 20th century motion pictures.

A 1926 silent film comedy directed by and starring silent screen legend Buster Keaton was a fictionalized account of the train conductor's hapless but relentless effort to get his train back. In 1956, Walt Disney released a live action, color adventure/drama "The Great Locomotive Chase" starring Fess Parker (best known for playing Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone on television in the 1950s and 1960s) as Andrews, the raid leader and Jeffrey Hunter as the conductor, Fuller. A Hollywood leading man in the 1950s and 60s, Hunter is known for his 1965 role as Captain Christopher Pike in the original pilot episode of Star Trek.