MEDAL OF HONOR: A LONG AND EPIC HISTORY
May 26, 2023Matt Fratus
Navy SEAL Michael Monsoor was awarded the Medal of Honor for actions in Iraq in 2006. He is one of seven Navy SEAL Medal of Honor recipients in history. Wikimedia Commons photo.
The United States Congress established the Medal of Honor during the early months of the American Civil War. The award’s first recipients were a group of six Union Army soldiers who earned it for carrying out a daring mission to sabotage a strategic Confederate rail line deep in enemy territory.
As the story goes, the so-called “Great Locomotive Chase” began on April 12, 1862, when a detachment of Union Army soldiers disguised in plain clothes boarded a passenger locomotive in Marietta, Georgia. Accompanied by a pair of civilian spies, including their leader, James Andrews, the men settled themselves at the rear of the train as it moved out of the station and headed north toward Tennessee.
All 20 members of the detachment who boarded the train (there were four others who didn't make it) were volunteers. Their mission was to destroy as many bridges as possible along the Western and Atlantic Railroad — a vital Confederate supply line connecting Atlanta with Chattanooga.
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