President Joe Biden to award Medal of Honor to two Civil War soldiers for Great Locomotive Chase

July 3 (UPI) -- President Joe Biden will posthumously award the Medal of Honor to two Union soldiers who on Wednesday took part in a successful operation against the Confederacy behind enemy lines during the Civil War.

The honors for Union Pvt. Philip G. Shadrach and Pvt. George D. Wilson, part of what is now known by historians as the Great Locomotive Chase, have languished for years as it was unclear why they were not initially considered and a House bill passed in 2008 to honor the soldiers in 2008 did not produce any action until now.

Descendants of both men will be on hand at the White House for the ceremony.

The soldiers are credited with infiltrating the Confederacy, hijacking a train and driving it 87 miles north, destroying railroad tracks and cutting telegraph wires along the way that hampered the South.

They were a part of a group of 24 Union soldiers that caused the mayhem from Georgia to Tennessee with the Confederate military trying to track them down.

Historians said the group's bravery and ingenuity were highlighted by the fact that some had no experience in rail operation. It also rained at the start of the mission, which made it difficult for them to destroy rail tracks and burn bridges.

"That speaks to the courage and heroism of these men that they volunteered for this," Shane Makowicki, a historian with the U.S. Army Center of Military History, told The Washington Post . "Today, if we were going to send people to do this, you have months or weeks of specialized training."

The men were eventually forced to abandon the train short of Chatanooga when they ran low on wood to run the locomotive and scattered. Shadrach and Wilson were eventually captured by the Confederacy and hung. Most of the men involved in the operation would be awarded medals by the Army.