Two army captains had been assigned to set up a recruitment office at the town's community
center, the Locust Grove Methodist Church. Reddick and his friends went there to enlist and that same evening were sent to camp at Portsmouth. Reddick became a private in Company B of the 33rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His regiment left on September 13th to join General Nelson and other troops in Maysville, Kentucky, and then headed south toward Atlanta.

Early on, William Reddick proved himself a capable and eager soldier as his unit became engaged in several military advances and occupations. He happened to overhear a discussion of a plan in which a select group of men would steal a train in Georgia, drive it north to Tennessee while burning bridges and destroying communication lines along the way. The railroad line was the Western & Atlantic. It was called “the backbone of the rebellion.” Only eight months after his enlistment Reddick volunteered and was quickly approved to join the special detachment.

The final plan, which was far from being complete, was presented to the soldiers at a midnight meeting at Shelbyville, Tennessee. Mrs. Brickey's writings continue the story: “He was to get to Big Shanty, six miles from Marietta, Georgia, the best way he could without being caught. Once he arrived there he would be joined by a group of hand-picked men who were to help him capture a train and bring it back to the Union lines, burning the bridges behind them. This capture would stop many shipments of supplies and many troop trains of the Confederacy, thus ending the war sooner.”

They were first taken to Chattanooga for imprisonment and later transferred to Atlanta.  Andrews and seven of the men were tried in court and executed. The other fourteen remained prisoners in Fulton County until October 16,1862, when the desperate prisoners overpowered their jailer and guards to flee. Six of them eventually reached safety behind Union lines. Two other escapees made it to the Gulf of Mexico and a U.S. gunboat. The remaining six prisoners, including Reddick, were recaptured in a matter of minutes and were re-jailed until they were transferred to Libby Prison in Richmond, Virginia, on December 3, 1862.

They spent eleven months there before an exchange for Confederate prisoners was arranged. Their release was eventually negotiated with the assistance of Joseph Holt who had been appointed by President Lincoln as Judge Advocate General of the United States Army. He reported the six were “shut up in a room... where they shivered through the winter, without fire, thinly clad, and with but two small blankets, which they had saved with their
clothes, to cover the whole party.” The trade occurred on March 17, 1863. The six were then taken to Washington D.C. on March 25, 1863, for a meeting with Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. They told him of their experiences during the assignment and the terrors of their imprisonment. Stanton also questioned them about their feelings on the South and the war. 

Stanton admitted he had heard about the mission, but after the reports ended, he had assumed they had all perished. But once he heard that some of the Raiders were still alive, he worked for their release.  Stanton excused himself from the meeting, but returned after a short time with six of the newly minted Medals of Honor. The award for distinguished
members of the Army had been established in July, 1862. One by one, Stanton pinned a medal on each soldier's uniform, the first ones to be presented.

He sat and waited in another room to see Lincoln, not knowing that his son was in Lincoln's office. After the short ceremony, the soldiers left by another door. Once with the president, Mr. Reddick was told if he hurried he might catch them at the train station. He immediately left, found the six at the station, arranged and paid for their transport and needs as they traveled to their homes.

The ladies of the church and community had organized a group early in the war to support the troops. “The Locust Grove Relief Society” provided food, bedding, clothing, toiletries, first aid supplies and other necessities for the Union soldiers fighting in the fields of battle.

Admirers and friends joined with the society to provide a sword that had cost $20, for presentation to Reddick.

On one side it was engraved, “Presented to Lt. William H, Reddick by his friends in Locust Grove, Ohio, May 15, 1863.” The other side is inscribed:  “Reward of Valor, Thirty-third Regiment, Ohio Volunteers.” The newspaper article also said, “Reddick gracefully acknowledged the gift and requested that public acknowledgment be made in the press.”

After the ceremonies in Washington, one of the soldiers went home. He went on to serve again in the army. The other five, including Reddick, went on furloughs to their homes, then rejoined their units in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, to fulfill their enlistment terms. William was one of the soldiers who went on to fight in the battle of Chickamauga.

The steam locomotive, Western & Atlantic Railroad #3, The General, traveled throughout the United States after the war and was placed on display in many locations including the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, the 1939 New York's World Fair, the Chicago Railroad Fair in 1948, the American Civil War Centennial and the 1964 New York World's Fair.