Jacob Parrott

Jacob Wilson Parrott (July 17, 1843–December 22, 1908) was the first recipient of the Medal of Honor, a new military award first presented by the United States Department of War to six Union Army soldiers who participated in the Great Locomotive Chase in 1862 during the American Civil War (1861–1865).

Parrott was a native of Fairfield County, Ohio. He joined the United States Army in 1861 as a private in Company K, 33rd Ohio Infantry and first saw combat in the Battle of Ivy Mountain. In April 1862, he volunteered to take part in a daring raid with twenty-one others (later known as "Andrews' Raiders" because they operated under the command of James J. Andrews). After infiltrating Confederate lines and hijacking the locomotive "General," they were captured and imprisoned. Parrott was severely beaten 110 times in an attempt to make him talk. Parrott and fourteen others managed to escape, but only six of them reached friendly lines. He was later exchanged and taken to Washington, D.C. meeting President Abraham Lincoln and was presented with the Medal of Honor by Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. He served with the Union Army for the rest of the war. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1863 after the Battle of Stones River and as a first lieutenant in 1864.