Medal of Honor

MEDAL OF HONOR AWARDED

The Civil War continued. With the exception of William Pittenger, all of the survivors of the Andrews raiding party were still in service at the end of 1863. Several had taken part in the Battle of Chickamauga and had gone through the adventure of a second capture and imprisonment by the Confederates. A few would serve until 1865, but during the months of 1864, many of them left the service; some for disabilities and others for expiration of terms of enlistment. On July 6, 1864, the Medal of Honor was awarded to James Smith, and two weeks later, on July 20, a medal was awarded to John Wollam. Thus seventeen of the participants (or their families) had been recognized.

Mark Wood, one of the eight who had made good his escape from the Fulton County Jail in October, 1862, and who survived service during the rest of the war, died a short time later on July 11, 1866 in Toledo, Ohio. A month later on August 4, 1866, the Medal of Honor was awarded to John M. Scott posthumously, and sent to his family near Findlay, Ohio. In July, 1883, a Medal of Honor was awarded to Samuel Slavens, posthumously, and forwarded to his family. This was the last Medal of Honor to be awarded the members of the Andrews raiding party – 19 in all. It appears in the records that no application was made by anyone for Medals of Honor for George D. Wilson, Samuel Llewellyn, and Charles P. Shadrach, and medals were never awarded. Andrews and Campbell, as civilians, were not eligible for the award.

In 1865 the Civil War ended, and with the end came many tasks, not the least of which was to care for the honored dead. Neither the Union Army or the Confederate Army had trained graves registration personnel found in the modern army of today. Consequently, most of the dead were left to lie where they had fallen with what little care and attention could be spared by their fellow soldiers or concerned citizens in the area. In and around Atlanta there were several thousand who remained where they had fallen, both Confederate and Union dead. Now the job was to locate and remove their remains to a more honored final resting place. In the case of the Union dead, this job fell to the Military Departments then still active in the Confederate States.