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

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[Flying10uk]

a museum at Big Shanty.

Is the engine still in running order at the museum?

[Bob Womack]

Is the engine still in running order at the museum?

If you let a steam engine stand there are lots of things that just immediately begin to decay and it has been fifty-five years since she ran. Alongside that is the issue of certification of her boiler, which would have to be done. She was brought up to modern Westinghouse brake standards in the 1960s refit but I'm afraid she's stuffed and mounted at this point. They'd have to demolish part of the building in order to pull her out.

Bob