Jacob Parrott

Jacob Parrott, a cabinet maker from Fairfield County, Ohio, served as a Union soldier in the 33rd Ohio Infantry and took part in the April 1862 mission led by civilian spy James Andrews to cut Confederate supply lines by destroying rail tracks and telegraph communications between Marietta, Georgia, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. On April 12, 1862, when a train stopped at Big Shanty, Georgia, and its passengers and crew left for breakfast, Parrott and the raiders stayed on board, uncoupled the engine, fuel car, and three boxcars, and stole the train. Although the raid was initially successful, the steam engine ran out of fuel, the locomotive stopped, and the raiders were captured and imprisoned. One of the youngest participants, the 19-year-old Parrott was severely beaten during interrogations after his capture, but he remained silent. Later exchanged with five other soldiers, he was taken to Washington, D.C., and met President Abraham Lincoln. The six Union Army soldiers who participated in the Great Locomotive Chase in 1862 became the first recipients of the Medal of Honor, and Parrott was the first to receive it, presented by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. He served in the Union Army for the rest of the war, then returned home to work as a cabinetmaker and operator of a stone quarry, remained friends with fellow raider Wilson Brown, and died in 1908 at age 65, buried in Kenton, Ohio.

Pennsylvania · United States