Yesterday, Privates Philip G. Shadrach and George D. Wilson bestowed with the Medal of Honor for their participation in the “The Great Locomotive Chase” which involved 21 Union soldiers and a civilian in capturing “The General”, a locomotive and tearing up tracks as they escaped. After an 87 mile chase they were captured. Shadrach and Wilson and others were executed by the Confederates.
Nineteen of the men who participated in the raid were awarded the Medal of Honor previously. Yesterday, President Biden said “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. Today, we right that wrong.”
Wilson, Biden said. was “always was ready to persuade, argue, and as one family member put it, dress anyone down if the need be.” Shadrach, the president said, “was a free spirit, always searching for adventure, excitement, intrigue.”
According to the Washington Post:
Maj. Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchel, assigned by the Union to its Tennessee campaign, mulled how to best attack Chattanooga, a well-defended Confederate citadel located along vital water and rail lines. If invaded head on, the rebels could flood the area with reinforcements on train cars from the south and overwhelm U.S. forces, he concluded.
James J. Andrews, a civilian spy for the North, crafted a novel solution. A small team of volunteers would travel 200 miles into Confederate territory dressed as civilians, steal a train engine, and then destroy tracks and burn bridges to strangle the secessionists’ logistical lines.
The plan faced setbacks from the start, said Shane Makowicki, a historian with the U.S. Army Center of Military History. It had rained ahead of the mission, making it difficult to ignite the bridges. The soldiers lacked tools and had to improvise, he said. And while some had experience with trains, there were little if any preparations undertaken beforehand.
“That speaks to the courage and heroism of these men that they volunteered for this,” Makowicki said. “Today, if we were going to send people to do this, you have months or weeks of specialized training.”
The mission, lead by Andrews, began with an arduous movement on foot in small groups, often at night through mud and rain, convincing civilians along the way that they were looking to enlist in the Confederacy. They assembled north of Atlanta in present day Kennesaw, Ga., where the team seized a locomotive named the General and its three boxcars. The conductor, William Fuller, gathered a party and gave chase on foot before taking over a hand car and eventually several other locomotives to catch up with the Union soldiers.
