![President Biden presents the Medal of Honor to Teresa Chandler, the great-granddaughter of Private First Class George D. Wilson, in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Wednesday. The medal posthumously honors the two U.S. Army privates who were part of a daring detachment of Union soldiers who stole a Confederate train during the American Civil War. U.S. Army privates Philip G. Shadrock and George D. Wilson were captured by Confederate soldiers and hanged. At left is Gerald Taylor, great-grandson of Private First Class Philip G. Shadrock.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims3/default/strip/false/crop/7842x5228+0+0/resize/1100/quality/85/format/jpeg/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Ff6%2F4a%2Fb1a185bb4d8fa2516e57abee00af%2Fap24185766009962.jpg)
President Biden presents the Medal of Honor to Teresa Chandler, the great-granddaughter of Private First Class George D. Wilson, in the East Room of the White House in Washington on Wednesday. The medal posthumously honors the two U.S. Army privates who were part of a daring detachment of Union soldiers who stole a Confederate train during the American Civil War. U.S. Army privates Philip G. Shadrock and George D. Wilson were captured by Confederate soldiers and hanged. At left is Gerald Taylor, great-grandson of Private First Class Philip G. Shadrock.
Susan Walsh/AP
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Susan Walsh/AP
WASHINGTON — President Biden awarded the Medal of Honor Wednesday to two Union soldiers for conspicuous bravery in the American Civil War after they stole a locomotive deep in Confederate territory and drove it 87 miles north, destroying railroad tracks and telegraph lines.
U.S. Army Privates Philip G. Shadrock and George D. Wilson were captured by the Confederates and hanged. Biden recognized their bravery 162 years later by awarding them the nation's highest military decoration, calling the operation they participated in “one of the most dangerous missions of the entire Civil War.”
“Every soldier who participated in that mission received the Medal of Honor, but two were exempt. The two soldiers who died in that operation did not receive this recognition,” Biden said. “Today, we are righting that wrong.”
The American Civil War killed more than 600,000 Union and Confederate soldiers between 1861 and 1865, and the tributes come as its legacy continues to shape American politics this year, with issues such as race, constitutional rights and presidential power at the forefront.
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Biden said the riot by Donald Trump supporters at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was the greatest threat to democracy since the Civil War. Meanwhile, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Trump recently trumpeted the Battle of Gettysburg and Confederate General Robert E. Lee at a rally in Pennsylvania.
The president said Wednesday that Shadrock and Wilson “fought and even risked their lives to preserve the Union and the sacred values upon which it was founded: liberty, justice, fairness and unity.”
“Philip and George were willing to shed blood to make these ideals a reality,” Biden said.
Wilson's great-granddaughter, Teresa Chandler, told the Associated Press that she saw the Union soldier speak his last words on the gallows with the noose around his neck.
She said Wilson basically told her he had come to serve his country and that he had no ill feelings toward Southerners, but that he wanted slavery to be abolished and the country to be united again.
“I got chills when I read that,” Chandler said. “We can feel it as a family, and we can feel the freedom that we have today, which is what he was trying to promote back then.”
Shadrock's great-nephew, Brian Taylor, said it was an opportunity for his ancestor to be remembered as “a brave soldier who did what he thought was right.”
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“I felt like he was a bit of an adventurous, free spirited guy,” Taylor said.
Shadrock and Wilson were recognized for their participation in a race known as the Great Engine Chase.
James J. Andrews, a private spy and scout from Kentucky, organized a group of volunteers, including Shadrock and Wilson, to destroy Confederate railroad and telegraph lines in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
On April 12, 1862, 22 men, later known as the Andrews Raiders, met in Marietta, Georgia, and hijacked a train called The General. The group drove the train north, tearing up the tracks and cutting down telegraph lines.
The Confederates pursued them, first on foot and later by train. The Confederates eventually caught up with the group. Andrews and seven others were executed, and the rest escaped or remained as prisoners of war.
The first Medal of Honor was awarded to Pvt. Jacob Parrott, who participated in a locomotive hijacking and was beaten while being held captive by the Confederates.
The government later honored the other 18 participants in the raid, but not Shadrock and Wilson, who were later authorized to receive the medal as part of the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2008.
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Shadrock was born in Pennsylvania on September 15, 1840, and volunteered for a mission at the age of 21. He was orphaned at an early age, and after the start of the Civil War, he left home in 1861 and enlisted in an Ohio infantry regiment.
Wilson was born in Belmont County, Ohio, in 1830. He worked as a journeyman shoemaker before the war and enlisted in the Ohio volunteer infantry in 1861.
The Walt Disney Corporation produced a film about the hijacking in 1956. Great Engine ChaseFess Parker and Jeffrey Hunter starred. The 1926 silent film “The General,” starring Buster Keaton, was also based on this historical event.