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

[ssgross]

I wonder why the C130 didn't hose the area?

The quick reaction team had not yet verified the location of Chapman's original team that had slid down the mountain. One of the most plausible hypotheses as to how he was left behind is that, once they began to retreat down the slope, they passed over Robert's dead body (seen clearly in the video), and mistook it for Chapman, who was inside the bunker. However, there were multiple contradicting stories by eyewitnesses (even by the same people contradicting themselves) in the intervening years between 2002 and 2018.
I won't spoil the read for you - but suffice to say that the book goes in to great detail to put together what actually happened, and reports of a deliberate effort of some officers to bury the truth. They all get named in the book. Very sad, really.
The terrain details are much more apparent in the video after reading the book. The reason the team lead seems to linger before going up the mountain with Chapman is that he stumbled getting out the helo - falling through the thigh deep snow, and face planted with his NVG's on. As soon as he cleared them out and reoriented, he took off after Chapman.
https://www.amazon.com/Alone-Dawn-Re.../dp/1538729660

[Surpmil]

So that's where Buster Keaton got the idea.

[Bob Womack]

By the way, the other locomotive involved in the chase, the Texas, operated by Confederates to catch the General, also survived the war. In 1907 she was dontaed to the City of Atlanta and since 1927 she has been housed in the basement of the Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama , a large, city-owned, cylindrical painting coupled with a layout of the battle containing hundreds of figures on scenery in the foreground, that lives in Atlanta. I visited in the '60s. By the end of the century, the building that housed the cyclorama was damaged by a storm and developed leaks that threatened the display, so actions were undertaken to rehouse the whole she-bangy. The first action in 2015 was to move the locomotive to the North Carolina Transportation Museum at the former Southern Railway's historic Spencer Shops. There a private contractor lovingly restored her to her 1880s appearance.


The locomotive and the cyclorama have been reunited at the new Atlanta History Center in Buckhead. I'm going to assume she's stuffed and mounted as well.



Bob

[Flying10uk]

Thanks Bob, fascinating.