Great Locomotive Chase Soldiers Receive Posthumous Medals of Honor

In 1863, the first soldiers received the newly minted U.S. Army Medal of Honor for their participation in the Civil War’s Great Locomotive Chase.

On Wednesday, the only two soldiers who had not yet been recognized in that mission were posthumously awarded medals of honor at a White House ceremony.

Pvts. George D. Wilson and Philip G. Shadrach were among 22 volunteers from the Union Army who commandeered The General, a Confederate locomotive, outside of Big Shanty (now Kennesaw) on April 12, 1862, and took it northward toward Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Their goal was to destroy as much of the railroad, telegraph wires and track switches as possible, hindering the Confederates’ ability to shuttle supplies between Atlanta and Chattanooga.

The raiders boarded the train just outside Kennesaw House off Marietta Square, which then served as a hotel and now houses the Marietta History Center.

“We know from the memoirs of one of the raiders … that they stayed in the Kennesaw House Hotel, on the second floor corner room overlooking the railroad tracks,” said Amy Reed, Marietta History Center director.

Reed said they gathered at the hotel the night before the chase, where the raid’s leader, civilian scout James Andrews, rallied the men through their doubts.

“Important decisions were made in this space,” Reed said. “... We know there was a meeting of some sort, in this room, where they finalized their plans. A couple of them wanted to back out because they knew it had been raining and the tracks were wet. Multiple obstacles were in their way, but Andrews said, ‘Nope, we’re going forward with it, we’re gonna do it.’”

Disguised as civilians, the raiders boarded the train and rode it roughly eight miles north to Big Shanty, where The General stopped for breakfast.

That’s when they commandeered the train and three of its boxcars, leaving the passenger and crew cars behind, embarking on a 90-mile pursuit.

The raiders, tailed by the Confederates in The Texas locomotive, tore up as much of the vital Western and Atlantic Railroad line as they could before running out of fuel near Ringgold and abandoning the train.

The men scattered into the woods before being captured by Confederate troops.

“Unfortunately, they ended up getting caught,” Reed said.

Andrews and seven of the raiders — Wilson and Shadrach among them — were hanged on June 18 of that year in Atlanta, while the others were held as prisoners of war and exchanged for Confederate prisoners the following year.

Six of the raiders were awarded the United States’ first Medals of Honor in March 1863, and eventually 19 were similarly honored. As a civilian, Andrews was not eligible for the award.

Wilson and Shadrach were not honored until now — recognition Reed said is long overdue.

“The fact that these men participated in the same exact event where our very first recipients participated, and yet they were never remembered, it’s important that they now are doing that,” Reed said.

Reed said the delay in recognition is likely because descendants of Wilson and Shadrach had not pushed for the medals to be given. According to Reed, Civil War historian Brad Quinlin has been working to get the men their posthumous medals for over a decade.

“It sat on multiple presidents’ desks, and for one reason or another, has not been approved before,” she said.

Descendants of both men were at the White House Wednesday to receive the Medals of Honor from President Joe Biden.

“The very first recipients of the Medals of Honor were a small band of raiders … who led one of the most daring operations of the entire Civil War,” Biden said. “Every soldier who joined that mission was awarded the Medal of Honor. Except two. Today, we right that wrong. Today, they finally receive the recognition they deserve.”

Today, The General sits inside the The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History in Kennesaw, while The Texas rests at the Atlanta History Center. And those who want to see a replica of the hotel room where the raiders finalized their plan the night before the chase can visit the Marietta History Center.