NP, ACS 4/12A/1865

From the Chronicle & Sentinel (Augusta, Ga.)
 
April 12, 1865
 
Dreadful Accident on the Muscogee Railroad
   On Friday afternoon a car on a freight train on the way to Columbus, ran off the track, and five thousand pounds of powder in it exploded. The result was terrible. The Sun says:
   Five cars of the seven attached to the engine were knocked to pieces, the hard clay directly under the powder ca was torn up to the depth of four or five feet, and all the glasses in the engine cab were broken. Mr. Henry Ralston, a passenger from Macon, was instantly killed, and a negro, Bill, so terribly mangled that it is though he cannot live. The engineer, Hugh McDonald, had his hand injured, and the conductor received a blow over his nose -- the two last wounds not being at all serious Mr. Ralston had two horses on the train. One was killed and the other it is thought will not live. The two cars next to the engine were not much damaged. The engine alone came to Columbus. Two cars loaded with tobacco and molasses were also blown to pieces and their contents scattered in wild confusion over the woods. The engine was damaged by the concussion, and the telegraphic wires thrown down.

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