Since 1863, when the first Medals of Honor were presented on March 25 to six members of Andrews' Raiders, nearly 3,500 medals have been awarded. Twenty-three volunteers from Ohio followed James J. Andrews, a Virginian and Union spy, on a mission to disrupt transportation and communication lines between Atlanta and Chattanooga by burning bridges. The mission was only partly successful, and all of the Raiders were captured by Confederate troops. Andrews and seven others were hanged, and fourteen were sent to prison camps. The six men who received the first medals were exchanged for Southern prisoners held in the North. Shortly after their release from prison, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton heard their story and presented medals, recently authorized by Congress, to Jacob Parrott, William Bensinger, Robert Buffum, Elihu Mason, William Pittinger, and William H. Reddick. Including those first six, 319 Medal of Honor recipients are accredited to Ohio. Of those, twenty-three served in the Navy, one in the Air Force, three in the Army Air Corps, seventeen in the Marine Corps, and the remaining 275 served in the Army. One hundred forty-four were born in Ohio and their medals are accredited to the state, 107 were not native Ohioans but their medals are accredited to Ohio, and sixty-eight men were born in Ohio but their medals are accredited to other states. More than half of Ohio's recipients fought in the Civil War.