| From the New Orleans Daily Crescent |
| |
| July 3, 1861 |
| |
| Collision of Trains on the Mobile &
Ohio Railroad |
| Two Men Killed and
Twenty-five Wounded |
| We
extract the following particulars of a fatal accident which occurred
on the Mobile & Ohio Railroad, from the Mobile Register and
Advertiser of the 30th ult.: |
| The
non-arrival of the passenger train, due yesterday morning at 5 1/2
o'clock, eased some anxiety in the city, which became intensified as
the day wore away without tidings of the train, and grave fears of
accident were entertained. At bout 6 P. M. the train finally arrived
and made certain what was before supposition and dread. It brought
tidings of a serious accident which occurred on the upper division of
the road, resulting in considerable damage to the Company, and what is
of far greater consequence, loss of life and serious injury to many
who survived the disaster. And then the fact that this deplorable
accident was the result of gross negligence or worse on the part of
the engineer and conductor of the train made the disaster more
terrible. We hope the culprits, who have sought to escape, will be
apprehended and made to suffer the severest penalties known to the
laws for their outrageous conduct in thus trifling with the lives of a
military company entrusted to their care. |
| We
subjoin such particulars as we have been able, after diligent inquiry,
to obtain, and doubt not the information is reliable as far as it
goes. |
| It
appears that on Thursday night a special train with a company of
cavalry, comprising sixty men and their horses, bound North, came in
collision with a regular freight train, southward bound. This
collision occurred near Trenton, Tenn. Twenty-five of the soldiers
were wounded; two so badly that it is thought they cannot possibly
recover. Only one horse was killed. The damage to the company, it is
estimated, is not less than $5000. |
| The
locomotives were stove against each other, or, as our informant
expresses it, "the smoke stacks stood hugging," defying all
efforts at a separation. Several of the cars were materially damaged.
The conductor and engineer of the up train, seeing the terrible
disaster inevitable; took to the woods. The soldiers on the train
became indignant and excited at the carelessness of these officials,
and would have administered summary punishment upon them, had they
been overtaken. But, during the confusion attendant upon the disaster,
the fugitives got too much the start and eluded pursuit. |
| The
above are all the facts we could obtain, which are meagre and
imperfect, necessarily so, as our informant was not at the scene of
the catastrophe, and received his information second-hand at Corinth.
We shall doubtless get the full particulars in a day or two. There
seems to be no doubt that the disaster was the result of criminal
negligence or recklessness on the part of the engineer and conductor. |
|