John W . Sprague John Wilson Sprague ( April 4 , 1817 – December 27 , 1894 ) was an American soldier and railroad executive . He served as a general in the Union Army in the Western Theater of operations during the American Civil War . He received the Medal of Honor for gallantry at the Battle of Decatur during the Atlanta Campaign . After the war , he was a railroad executive and later co - founded the city of Tacoma , Washington , serving as its first mayor . Early life and career . John W . Sprague was born in White Creek , New York , on April 4 , 1817 , the son of Otis and Polly ( Peck ) Sprague . He was educated in the district school of his neighborhood and at the age of thirteen entered the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy , New York . He left school before graduation to engage in the grocery business , and in 1845 removed to Milan , Ohio , where he continued the business of a merchant in the shipping and commission sales businesses . He afterward settled in Sandusky and was for one term ( 1851 – 52 ) the treasurer of Erie County , Ohio . He was married to Lucy Wright , daughter of a judge of Huron County , Ohio . However , she died in Troy , New York , in May 1844 , not long after giving birth to a daughter . He was remarried to Julia Frances Choate of Milan ; the couple had five children of their own . In the late 1850s he organized and equipped a line of sailboats and steamers for traffic on Lake Erie and was engaged in that business when war erupted . Civil War service . With the outbreak of the Civil War and President Abraham Lincoln ' s call for 100 , 000 volunteers to put down the rebellion , Sprague raised a company of infantry and was sent to Camp Dennison near Cincinnati . Upon being mustered into Federal service , he became the captain of Company E of the 7th Ohio Infantry . While returning home on furlough in August 1861 , he and a small party of fellow Buckeyes were captured in West Virginia and held as prisoners of war . Sprague was exchanged in January 1862 and returned to his regiment . Later that month , Sprague was appointed as the colonel of the newly designated 63rd Ohio Infantry , The regiment was organized on January 23 by consolidating partially filled battalions from the 22nd Ohio Infantry and the 63rd Ohio regiments . After brief training and drilling , Sprague and his men took the field , traveled via train to the South , and joined Major General John Pope in Missouri . Sprague led the regiment at the Siege of Corinth , Mississippi , and then was in charge of the Ohio Brigade during the Battle of Iuka in 1862 . For the next several months , Sprague took part in the army ' s general operations in northern Alabama and Mississippi , extending sometimes into Tennessee . He participated in the Vicksburg Campaign in early and mid - 1863 . In the fall of 1863 , as part of the forces under Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman , he moved with his regiment eastward toward Chattanooga , Tennessee . He regiment was part of the force under command of General Grenville M . Dodge that was detached to secure the railroad to Decatur , Alabama . During the 1864 Atlanta Campaign , Sprague was in command of the 2nd Brigade , 4th Division of the Sixteenth Army Corps . During the Battle of Atlanta on July 22 , 1864 , at a subaction near Decatur , Georgia , he masterfully conducted a delaying action under heavy enemy fire and received praise from his superiors . With only a small command , he defeated an overwhelming Confederate force and saved the entire ordnance and supply trains of the XV , XVI , XVII , and XX corps . Sprague was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on July 30 , 1864 . He moved with Sherman on the March to the Sea and then northward during the Carolinas Campaign . He commanded the brigade on its march from Raleigh , North Carolina , through Richmond to Washington , D . C . , and participated in the Grand Review of the Armies in May . At the end of the war , he received the brevet rank of major general . From April 1865 until September 1866 , Sprague was the assistant commissioner of the Freedmen ' s Bureau for the district of Arkansas , serving under Maj . Gen . Oliver O . Howard . He was in charge of operations in Missouri , Kansas , and subsequently the Indian Territory . In September 1865 , he declined a lieutenant - colonelcy in the Regular Army and mustered out of the service . He was succeeded by Edward O . C . Ord . Postbellum career . He was appointed as the manager of the Winona & St . Paul Railway in Minnesota . In 1870 he became the general manager of the Western Division of the Northern Pacific Railway and co - established the city of Tacoma , Washington , on Puget Sound . He was instrumental in selecting the route for the railroad ' s Pacific Division , from what later became Kalama , Washington , to Tacoma . In 1883 he had the honor of driving the golden spike on the completion of his division . However , he suffered from poor health and was forced to resign a few months later . He was active in building up the new city of Tacoma and was president of the board of trade and of various banks and corporations . He served as the town ' s first mayor , became prominent in its financial circles , and was president of the National Bank , Tacoma Chamber of Commerce , and the Tacoma Steam Navigation Company . His second wife Julia died in 1886 . He later married Abigail Choate . The town of Sprague , Washington , founded in 1880 , was named for General Sprague . Lincoln County , Washington , was originally named for Sprague , until opposition from political enemy ( and former Union colonel ) Joseph H . Houghton , a Washington Territory legislator . After suffering for several years from heart disease and chronic cystitis , Sprague died at his home in Tacoma on December 27 , 1893 , and was buried in the city ' s cemetery . In 1894 the United States Congress awarded the Medal of Honor to General John W . Sprague for distinguished gallantry during the Battle of Decatur . However , Sprague never saw his medal , having died several weeks before it arrived . The John W . Sprague Camp of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War was named in his honor . Medal of Honor citation . SPRAGUE , JOHN W . Rank and Organization : Colonel , 63d Ohio Infantry . Place and Date : At Decatur , Ga . , 22 July 1862 . Entered Service At : Sandusky , Ohio Born : 4 April 1817 , White Creek , N . Y . Date of Issue : 18 January 1894 . Citation : With a small command defeated an overwhelming force of the enemy and saved the trains of the corps .