The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-10 00:00:00

The Explosion in the City of Madison,

The following is a lengthened account of the ex-
plosion in the City of Madison :—" Wednesday last,
August 19, was the day of which we now particu-
larly speak. It was ordered that the City of Madi-
son should take aboard a certain quantity of fixed
and unfixed ammunition, together with an addi-
tional number of projectiles. The boat was lying
at the wharf immediately in front of the city, ready
to receive the cargo. In order to expedite the load-
ing a heavy detail of soldiers, numbering 160, was
made at noon from one of the regiments in the city,
the numbers of which, owing to the confusion now
raging, and the speedy departure of the boat to bear
this, I have not yet been able to learn. As a❑ aug-
mentation of this number, about 20 negroes were
also engaged in the work. During the entire
afternoon the work went on with unabating
vigour. Oae continuous train of men could be
seen, like so many industrious ants, moving to and
from the boat laden or returning unladen, as then
happened. It was early in the evening; 150 tons
of the terrific but slumbering agent were already on
board. The men were pressing their energies to
complete their task and return to the then quiet and
less laborious avocations of camp. In order to hasten
the work the party was divided into two bodies,
one of which carried the ammunition to the hatch
and the other in the hold deposited it in its proper
place. At the time of the fatal slip a negro was
standing in the hatch to receive the ammunition and
pass it to one below, the weight being too much for
one man. A. shell was being passed. The soldier
had given it into the hands of the negro and was
walking away in the train of many others preced-
ing him, who were returning to bring a fresh load.
At the same time pressing along the gangway was
a crowd of the laden hastening to deliver their loads
into the hands of those below. In the hold the men
were no less active, and quickly disposed of the
crowding and accumulation of business in store for
them. Unfortunately, the negro standing below
failed to properly secure in his hands the shell
handed to him from the one in the hatch above. It
slipped, he made an effort to regain his grasp, but
it had already struck. The shock sustained by the
fall ignited the irresistible power within. No
sooner came the flesh than followed the report.
In an instant, as if the first were merely the pre-
monitions of the great terrors to succeed,
the very city shook to its foundation, window panes
fell in by the terrible force of the concussion with
a deafening crash, the river boiled violently and
spasmodically, and its very bottom was ploughed up
by the immense rush of the element. Now fol-
lcwed all the horrors which ever mutilated the
human form and wound it in the writhings of most
painful and shocking tortures. The boat in the
explosion had _parted ; the hull fortunately was
forced immediately to the bottom of the river, going
down bow first, thus somewhat lessening the im-
mensity of power involved in the large quantity of
ammunition on board, for the rushing in of the
water in a measure checked the violence of a greater
explosion which otherwise would have followed.
As the hull of the boat went down, the cabin, texas,
pilot-house, chimneys, end everything above the
deck shot into the air, over 100 ft., in one confusion
of timber, furniture, machinery, and bodies, and
fell into the surging, hissing ruins below, with a
crash that seemed in its awful majesty of appear-
ance and sound to stop the pulsations of the heart,
to freeze the blood of life, to chain one immovably
to the earth in one wild and reeling conflict of the
fear-stricken, cowering faculties of the human
frame. The concussions and reverberations had
almost ceased their fierce notes, nothing but the
distant lingering sound, and as it was wafted far
off on the waves of the atmosphere, to tell in its
own language the tale of horror, could be heard,
and rapidly even these expiring evidences were
quieted into the serene calmness 3f evening. Now
came that most appalling of all moments of acci-
dent. As if to hide the scene from the smiling,
quiet heavens above, a dull curtain of leaden
smoke intervened the havoc below and the
placid blue above. From all parts of the city
crowds of officers, soldiers, and civilians called forth
by the terrific explosion, came crowding eagerly
down to the scene of destruction. The demarcations
of rank were all lost in the hurry and excitement of
the rush to learn the cause of the shocking sounds
that had but a few moments before shook the very
walls of the city. Officers stretched their limbs to
most unmartial lengths to keep up with the wave of
curious humanity as it poured along. Little can be
imagined of the revulsion of feeling when the
spectacle burst into view, As the waves, rush-
ing against a line of immoveable breakers
recoiled at the shock to meet the flow of the still
incoming surge, upon which it breaks with vio-
lence, checking its progress and breaking up that
uniformity and beauty of motion which the sea,
when allowed freely to act, ever pictures, so the
waves of human instinct and feeling recoiled at the
most heart-rending scene which lay in their view

Every sentiment of the human heart, every function
of the human frame received a check, the recoil of

which stunned men—veterans of many a battle
field—almost into fainting awe. The picture that
presented itself may now be briefly summed up.
The boat was a total wreck. The buildings in the
city were wrenched almost from their founda-
tions. There was an almost total absence of
window panes. The boats in the vicinity were
shattered or blackened, The steamer Edward
Walsh lay with her whole side torn from her. Men
and animals were flying scattered here and there on
the levee, dead, dying, or suffering, powder burnt.
or internally injured by the intense force of the
concussion. The water could be seen presenting
spots of earthy substance upon its surface, or here
and there small circles of blood, which plainly
marked the end of some fallen victim. Then, again,
floating bodies could ba seen amid the rubbish of
the catastrophe, occasionally one popping out of
the water, blackened and bloated remaining
poised on the surface for a moment, and then for
the last time sink to rise no more. In other

places it seemed as if some still breathing body
might be seen in its last paroxysm of death-
gasp, throw out its arms for help, and then fall
back into the watery depths, its death couch and
its grave. The scene was beyond all powers of
description. Its equal is nowhere. A comparison
cannot be found. Let us breathe a sympathetic
word with the mothers, the fathers, the wives, the
brothers, the children of the many victims of this
cruel catastrophe. It is true,, if the sacrifice were
necessary, the field of battle would have been pre-
ferable to the tortures---an inevitable death—which
awaited the victims of this disaster. Let the con-

solation, however, of the sufferers at home be, that
the prevailing intelligence that regulates and

presides over the destinies of mankind had in view

some object, so one lesson—though a dear ore, some

lesson we must yet learn."

BACON'S WAR MAP OF AMERICA.—The beauti-
ful steel-plate map now before us, published by
Bacon and Co , of Paternoster-row, will at the present
moment be found particularly acceptable. The different
Federal and Confederate States are so distinctly coloured
and particularized that any particular spot required is recog-
nised in an instant, in addition to which there is printed on
the sheet a variety of very useful information touching the
Federal navy, the position of the American forts North and
South, the population of the States, and the important
events of the war. The map is wall deserving a place in
every reading-room, library, public or private, in the
country. The cheap price at which it is published is really
wonderful.

Tom Taylor is at present engaged in writing the
life of Sir Joshua Reynolds, our great English painter, and
greatest of all the Presidents of the Royal Academy-
ENGLISH HORSES V. ARABS.—A correspondent
at Alexandria, writing on the Ist, BSISB-" Your
racing readers may be interested in hearing that the much-
vexed point as to the merits of English and Arab horses has
just again been tried in Cairo. Ali Paella, who has the
finest stud of Arabs in Egypt, maintained that no English
horse could run against an Arab for four miles. His High..
nese Ilalim Pacha offered to run Companion, a well-known
racer here, against him for any sum he liked. The match
was run from the first station on the Suez desert to Cairo.
The English horse, which was bred, I believe, by Lord
Ribblesdale, won in a canter by more than half a mile.
Such a crushing defeat has taken all courage out of the par-
tisans of Arab horses. What astonished the natives most
was that Companion, beating his adversary by so great a
distance, was perfectly fresh and quite ready to turn round
and run the distance over again, while the Arab was quite
exhawed and blown,