Train-Stealing Union Heroes Are Honored 162 Years Later

Two Union soldiers who paid with their lives for conducting a daring mission 162 years ago behind Confederate lines were honored Wednesday at the White House, prompting an emotional reaction from their proud descendants. "Their heroic deeds went unacknowledged for over a century, but time did not erase their valor," President Biden said at the ceremony. All of the 24 troops who took part in the mission, one of the first special forces missions in Army history, had been honored previously except Pvts. Philip Shadrach and George Wilson, the Washington Post reports. "Today, we right that wrong," Biden said.

The soldiers commandeering a train called the General close to Atlanta and drove north, destroying railroad tracks and cutting telegraph wires during the 87-mile trip while being chased by Confederates on foot and by train. They abandoned the General near Chattanooga, Tenn., per the Hill. Within two weeks, they were captured. Most of the Union forces escaped, though eight men were put to death, and several were held as prisoners of war for almost a year. Shadrach and Wilson were among those tried as spies and saboteurs and hanged. The 1926 silent film The General, starring Buster Keaton, was based on the mission, per the AP, as was the 1956 Disney film The Great Locomotive Chase.

Shadrach and Wilson, who both had enlisted, could have backed out of the mission, Biden pointed out. "Today, if we were going to send people to do this, you have months or weeks of specialized training," a military historian said. Members of Shadrach's family had sought the recognition, the nation's highest military decoration, for their ancestor since the 1970s. Theresa Chandler, Wilson's great-great-granddaughter, only learned the story four years ago. She beamed when the president presented her with the medal in a display case and became emotional talking with reporters about how the heroism was nearly lost to history, per the Post. "I would have given anything," she said, "to be able to say, 'Grandpa, tell me about it.'" (More Medal of Honor stories.)