President Joe Biden is awarding the Medal of Honor for conspicuous gallantry to two Union soldiers who stole a locomotive deep in Confederate territory during the Civil War and drove it north for 87 miles as they destroyed railroad tracks and telegraph lines. U.S. Army Pvts. Philip G. Shadrach and George D. Wilson were captured by Confederates and executed by hanging. Biden on Wednesday is recognizing their courage 162 years later with the country’s highest military decoration. Shadrach was from Pennsylvania and was 21 years old when he volunteered for the mission. Wilson was from Ohio and worked as a journeyman shoemaker before the war.
