| From the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph |
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| September 5, 1864 |
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| The Railroad Catastrophe {Macon
& Western RR} |
| A friend was on the engine of
the down passenger train a second or two before the collision of
Friday. It occurred about half past one o'clock in the afternoon. The
two trains approached each other round a curve and were within two or
three hundred yards when the alarm was given. The down train was
moving at a speed of twenty-five miles an hour, and the up train about
eighteen. The speed on neither was perceptibly affected by the breaks
before they struck. Just before the collision all jumped off of the engines
and sustained no harm. Our informant was tumbled head over heals a few
times and finally brought up in a ditch. Upon recovering himself he
went back to the train and saw the most frightful sight of his life.
Five of the cars were utterly demolished. The tender of one engine was
driven bodily through a grain car behind it, compressing the grain
into a solid mass. The other tender was turned up on end and driven
through the car behind it. A human liver, yet palpitating, was visible
along side of the track. Many soldiers who sat upon the tops of the
cars and suspended their legs between, lost them. Twenty three were
reported dead on Friday night, and bout fifty wounded. Some
thirty-five Yankee prisoners on the rear car of the down train,
rendered the most efficient service in extricating the unfortunate victims. |
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