A few hours before this happened, the Southerners chasing the General had stopped long enough to telegraph ahead that the Raiders were coming Soon thousands of militia, troops mounted and on foot and local citizens were in a frenzie as they scoured the area looking for any activity involving these Northern soldiers. Just before the General's engines gave out, some of the Raiders fled the moving train to make their escape in all directions possible. The rest remained till the end and then fled for their lives. There were also about 400 troops sent northbound on another train to aid in the search. Some sources say that upwards of $100 was offered as a reward for the capture of any of the Raiders. And many used ferocious hunting dogs that were trained to hunt down runaway slaves in the search for these train thieves.
Despite all efforts of searchers some of the Raiders managed to escape. Four managed to get to Fredericksburg. two others to Maine and 2 even as far away as Mexico. But for the rest the days to come would be quite horrific. They had not eaten in days, were exhausted by the chase itself and now faced bad weather, dogs at their heals and men wanting to kill them. They were in unfamiliar territory and desperately sought union lines..in any direction. It would only be days before all but the above were eventually caught.
At Chattanooga one of the raiders, named Pittenger (who would later wright several books on the daring raid) would be caught and brought in for questioning by the local Confederate General. Refusing to give up any details he was sent to the Swaim's jail which was used primarily as a holding cell for escaping negro slaves. It was literally a hole in the ground. A building housed the jailer on the ground floor but a large trap door opened to a ladder that went down about a dozen feet into a large 13 foot square cell... nothing but a hole in the ground. It was festered with pests, held several prisoners already, had no ventilation, and the men had nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Upwards of 22 men were held in the cell at a time. Food was little more than scraps and lowered down twice a day. No bathroom facilites were provided. The heat was so intense that the men had to strip out of the rags of clothing they had left. For added security the Raiders were chained at the neck and waste three to a group, and their feet were also fastened together. The rooms was so crowded that they had to sleep leaning up against each other.
This lasted about 3 weeks.
Chattanooga was probably one of the worst places to be captured. It was a small hub of a community but many rail lines merged there. Thus they were supposed to keep an eye on the train lines etc with a close eye. When this chase happened all of the Southern brass were in trouble. The Confederate Secretary of War had clamped down not long before this event with an order that anyone caught attempting to sabotage the rail line, or bridges along it was to be summarily tried at a drum head court marshall and executed on the spot by hanging.
Early in their captivity, Jacob Parrott was singled out as one of the youngest and thus, thought to be the easiest to break to get information. So he was hauled out of the pit, stripped and held across the face of a large rock by 4 Confederate soldiers. A gun was held to his head and he was constantly asked to give up his leader. Little did they know that Andrews, the leader was already one on those held in the pit, but none of the prisoners would give him up, The soldiers repeatedly whipped the boy over 100 times. They only stopped when it was obvious that he would not reveal anything. They also feared they had just about killed him with the torturing. Rather than treating the wounds, they just threw him back into the pit with the rest of the prisoners.
Eight men were eventually tried, but allowed to say a single word in defence. Nor to hear any of the evidence against them. All were found guilty and sentenced to hang, with Andrews being the leader, being told he wound hang within 7 days. They were also told there were no avenues of appeal. (Andrews is pictured above at right, Parrott to the left.)
Union forces were getting close to Chattanooga and so other trials were not held for the rest of the men captures, and were moved to Atlanta to keep them farther away from their Union companions. Andrews was shipped out first and soon he was handed a paper that advised that he was to hanged the next day. The next day he was taken to the scaffold and in a bumbled attempt, was strangled to death. He was over 6 feet tall and the scaffold was too short so the guards simply kicked away a bit of dirt and watched him struggle till dead. The next day 7 others were taken out and hung. Or at least that was the intent. One of the men was very heavy and he broke the rope. He was revived by guards, had his blind removed, forced to watch his fellow soldiers die, and then hang on the rope for about an hour. The it was his turn. This time they were more efficient in their work.
The remaining Raiders were moved about repeatedly from jail to jail, escaped a fee times and got caught again. Several times they were told them would eventually be released only to have the story changed and a move to yet another jail.
When the six remaining Raiders were finally released, they were provided passage to Washington and were extensively interviewed with the Secretary of War.
Secretary Stanton then presented each of the six, Jacob Parrott being the youngest and thus the first with the very first ever Medals of Honor ever presented, though later others would get medals for actions before the Raiders actions.
In an interview last year with a direct descendant of Jacob Parrott I was advised that the medal Parrott got was not a normal MOH but what he had been advised by his family as being a "Jeweller's Model, but he could not remember the slight changes from it and the regular medals. Perhaps all six were prototypes, Parrott's being so described in a recent book on the subject.
So there you have it. A little bit of the history of the Medal of Honor that you probably did not know before. The Medals were of course presented to the six on March 25th, and thus each year's celebration of the day on the 25th, just a few days back... And the 150th anniversary of the day Parrott and the others got their medals.