Biden to award two MoHs tomorrow

Andrews’ Raid aka “The Great Locomotive Chase”

On Wednesday, 3 July, two of Andrews’ Raiders will receive posthumous Medals of Honor for their role in the successful Union raid. Prior to this, Lieutenant (Brevet Lieutenant Colonel) Alonzo Cushing was the Medal of Honor recipient most divorced from the date of action (3 July 1863) and date of award (19 December 2014), at 151 years. The Andrews’ Raid, better known as The Great Locomotive Chase, happened on 12 April 1862, 162 years ago.

The two men, Privates Philip “Perry” Gephart Shadrach and George Davenport Wilson, will be honored 161 years to the day after Cushing lost his life and earned the MoH at Gettysburg. These awards are correcting an oversight essentially. Almost all of the other raiders received the Medal of Honor (with most of them being the very first recipients of the newly created award). In 2008, the awards were authorized, but due to inaction neither received the award at the time.

I’d like to explore the raid in more detail for this week’s Valor Friday piece, but since this is a breaking story and the ceremony will take place before I can do that, you’ll have to tune in on Friday (maybe Independence Day if I can get off my ass and type).

Category: Army, Army News, Breaking News, Medal of Honor, Valor