OT Bonus - The First Medal of Honor Ever Recorded

[Bob Womack]

The first Medal of Honor "recorded" threw me at first. Jacob Parrott was the first to be awarded the Medal of Honor - for a mission in April 1862 behind enemy lines in Tennessee. Jacob Parrott was from Kenton Ohio, just a few minutes away from where I grew up.

FYI, the "Andrews Raid," for which Parrott was awarded the MOH, occurred in Georgia, on the rail lines between Big Shanty (Kennesaw - just northwest of Atlanta) and Ringgold, GA (18 miles south of Chattanooga, TN). The raiders stole a locomotive named "The Gerneral" and fled north, damaging rail lines as they went. Because they wore civilian clothing over their uniforms mos of them were executed after they were caught. In the 1960s, after "The General" was restored, I was among the few who had the opportunity to ride behind it before it was retired to a museum at Big Shanty.




Posed at my hometown the day I rode behind her.

Bob