A Rossland, B.C., man and his uncle travelled to the White House in Washington, D.C., this week to receive the Medal of Honor from U.S. President Joe Biden on behalf of his great-great-great uncle, who died on a daring mission during the Civil War.
“It was a pretty surreal situation,” said Brian Taylor, great-great-great-nephew of Philip G. Shadrach.
“It was really humbling and made me very proud to be his relative.”
On Wednesday, Biden awarded the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry to U.S. Army Pte. Philip G. Shadrach and Pte. George D. Wilson, who stole a locomotive deep in Confederate territory during the Civil War and drove it north for 140 kilometres as they destroyed railroad tracks and telegraph lines.
They were captured by Confederates and executed by hanging. Biden recognized their courage 162 years later with the country’s highest military decoration, calling the operation they joined “one of the most dangerous missions of the entire Civil War.”
“Every soldier who joined that mission was awarded the Medal of Honor except for two. Two soldiers who died because of thatoperation and never received this recognition,” Biden said.
“Today, we right that wrong.”
Taylor travelled to Washington with his uncle, 91-year-old Gerald Taylor, who accepted the award on Shadrach’s behalf.
The president said Wednesday that Shadrach and Wilson were “fighting and even dying to preserve the union and the sacred values it was founded upon: freedom, justice, fairness, unity.”
“Phillip and George were willing to shed their blood to make these ideals real,” Biden said.
Taylor said this was an opportunity for his ancestor to be remembered as “a brave soldier who did what he thought was right.”
“I kind of feel that he was a bit adventurous, a bit of a free spirit,” Taylor said. “I think he’d be really happy and proud that he was able to do something for preserving the Union, helping to defeat slavery.”
Great Locomotive Chase
Shadrach and Wilson are being recognized for participating in what became known as the Great Locomotive Chase.
A Kentucky-born civilian spy and scout named James J. Andrews put together a group of volunteers, including Shadrach and Wilson, to degrade the railway and telegraph lines used by Confederates in Chattanooga, Tenn.
On April 12, 1862, 22 of the men in what was later called Andrews’ Raiders met up in Marietta, Ga., and hijacked a train named The General. The group tore up tracks and sliced through telegraph wires while taking the train north.
Confederate troops chased them, initially on foot and later by train. The Confederate troops eventually caught the group. Andrews and seven others were executed, while the others either escaped or remained prisoners of war.
The first Medal of Honor ever bestowed went to Pte. Jacob Parrott, who participated in the locomotive hijacking and was beaten while imprisoned by the Confederacy.
The government later recognized 18 other participants who took part in the raid with the honour, but Shadrach and Wilson were excluded. They were later authorized to receive the medal as part of the fiscal 2008 National Defense Authorization Act.
LISTEN | Brian Taylor shares his ancestor’s story
Radio West9:13Rossland resident Brian Taylor travelled to Washington, DC to receive the US Medal of Honor on behalf of his ancestor who fought and died in the American Civil War
Rossland resident Brian Taylor travelled to Washington, DC to receive the US Medal of Honor on behalf of his ancestor who fought and died in the American Civil War
Shadrach, born on Sept. 15, 1840, in Pennsylvania, was 21 years old when he volunteered for the mission. He was orphaned at a young age and left home in 1861 to enlist in an Ohio infantry regiment after the start of the Civil War.
The Walt Disney Corp. made a 1956 movie about the hijacking titled “The Great Locomotive Chase,” starring Fess Parker and Jeffrey Hunter. The 1926 silent film “The General,” starring Buster Keaton, was also based on the historic event.