Jacob Parrott

Jacob Parrott. United States Army. , Jacob Parrott, a cabinet maker from Fairfield County, Ohio was a Union soldier with 33rd Ohio Infantry., The April 1862 mission, led by civilian spy James Andrews, was designed to cut off Confederate supply lines by destroying rail tracks and telegraph communications along a route between Marietta, Georgia and Chattanooga, Tennessee. On April 12, 1862, that train stopped at Big Shanty, Ga., and when the passengers and crew got off for breakfast, Parrott and his raiders stayed on, uncoupled the engine, fuel car and three boxcars, and stole the train. Initially successful, when the fuel for the steam engine ran out and the locomotive stopped, they were captured and imprisoned. One of the youngest of the raiders, after his capture 19-year-old Parrott was severely beaten in interrogations. Despite his severe treatment, he remained silent., He was later 'exchanged' with five other soldiers and taken to Washington, D.C. meeting President Abraham Lincoln., [Photo caption reads] Jacob Parrott, At that time the Medal of Honor was a new award to be presented by the United States Department of War. The six Union Army soldiers who participated in the Great Locomotive Chase in 1862 were the first recipients. Jacob Parrott was THE FIRST recipient of the Medal of Honor, from Secretary of War, Edward Stanton., Parrott served with the Union Army for the remainder of the war. At war's end he returned home to his career as a cabinetmaker and operator of a stone quarry. He remained friends with fellow raider Wilson Brown. Parrott's only son John Marion Parrott subsequently married Edith Gertrude Brown, one of Wilson Brown's 8 children. He died in 1908 at the age of 65 and is buried in Kenton, Ohio., [Group photo caption reads] , Postcard image of surviving Andrew's Raiders, 1908, posing in front of the Ohio Monument erected to the men and their feat. Card mislabels Daniel A. Dorsey as "D.A. Dorset." , [Names on postcard, left to right, read] , D.A. [Dorsey], J.R. Porter, Jacob Parrott, W.J. Knight, Wm. Bensinger, Jno. A. Wilson, W.W. Brown, INSPIRING BOOKS and FILM [not transcribed], CITATION, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , One of the 19 of 22 men (including two civilians) who, by direction of Gen. Ormsby M. Mitchell, penetrated nearly 200 miles south into enemy territory and captured a railroad train at Big Shanty, Ga., in an attempt to destroy the bridges and track between Chattanooga and Atlanta., CONFLICT/ERA: U.S. Civil War , RANK: Private , UNIT/COMMAND: Company K, 33rd Ohio Infantry , ENLISTED FROM: Kenton, OH, United States , BORN: July 17, 1844, Fairfield County, OH, United States , ACTION PLACE: Georgia, United States , ACTION DATE: April [?], 1862 , PRESENTATION DETAILS: Presented by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton , PRESENTATION DATE: March 25, 1863 , DIED: December 22, 1908 , BURIED: Grove Cemetery (MH), Kenton, OH, United States