TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Julia Wilburn on Jul 3, 2024

President Joe Biden awarded posthumous Medals of Honor to two Civil War veterans whose remains are buried in Chattanooga for their role in the "Great Locomotive Chase." The Times Free Press reports that Pvt. Philip G. Shadrach and Pvt. George D. Wilson were members of Andrews' Raiders — a group that attempted a daring train hijacking behind Confederate lines in Georgia in 1862 before the participants were caught and most of them executed. Nearly all of them received the then-newly created Medal of Honor not long after. But because of what advocates say was an administrative error, Shadrach and Wilson did not. "Today's decision rectifies a historical oversight that has deprived Privates Shadrach and Wilson from receiving our nation's highest military honor for valor on the battlefield," David Currey, the executive director of Chattanooga's Medal of Honor Heritage Center, said in a statement.