Litchfield enquirer., 1853-05-12

he Boston baggage car SAme "eAss striking the pier. and settling. right side up. on top of the engine the next car was occupied by the express agent iU part, and the other half fitted up for e smoking car, and was forced half way through the baggage car. and then tipped on it's side and rested on the piles of the bridge; the express agent and eigbt pas sengers in it at the time were all savee. with but slight injuries. Next came the first passenger car, which jumped the chasm, striking the stOnewOrk, and shiv~ ering the forward end to splinters and throwing its fragments, with the dead and dying, back to the rear of the car; the second passenger car followed, being driven nearly through the former, and doing dreadful execution to those who had escaped being crushed by tue first shock. It is little remarkable that this car, which belongs to the N. H., H. & 3. Co. is the same one in which the two un- fortunate men were seated who were killed at Windsor Locks a year sinoe-the only fatal accident which ever happeced on that road. The third passenger car ran half way over the brink,- and the weight of the train behind preventing its falling, the floor and sides broke in the middle of the car, and fell on the wreck below, while the other. half and the roof, with the two last cars, remained on the track. These facts were given us by an eye witness of the accident, and are boz lieved to be true statement of the sad affair. Of the scene which followed the crashing of the cars in the river. language and imagination fail in poItrayiDg. The passengers who were uninjured. and those whose bruises were sufficiently slight to allow them to exert themselves. throngsd to the assistance of the drown ing. The poor creatures were taken out of the car windows, axes were brought to break through the sides and roofs of the cars, and as fast as any one rose to the surface. an effort to save them was made by some men, who bad put of in boats, or who had ventured into tho wa- ter as far as their own safety permitted.
 A citizen of Norwalk. who was near the bridge at the time, says:
 "'rhe whole thing is dream to me now: It does not seem real. lt passed so rapidly, amid such terrible confusion, such variety of shrieks, cries, wailings and hOwlings Of despair-iaces rising iO the surface and again disappearine-bleeding, Rhas,ly fa- ces-iaces like nightmare phaDtoms-hlSh- ing in sight for an instant, but leaving ims pressi0ns that wiIl revive again in yesrs t0 come, aud recall the terror, the cOmmOtiOn, I the grOans of the sufferers, and the anguish of bereaved SUrvivOrs-all the recollection of dead forms borne hastily away by the hands of sympalhising men, themselves haggard with awe -a!l these recOllectiOnS, all that was crowded into a few short min- u'es of unuiierable agony, or was transac. led through that day and the following, as each train brought it's crowd of moUFDers, and bore away the dead in their collins al is as dream, and nOt till the traces of the calamity are removed, and the public have haIi forgotten ii, shail be able to re- slize it in all it's tremendous force, as a reah an actual occurrence"
 At the time of the catastrophe there were only eight persons in ,he smoking car, and as the car, when pitched into the riv. CT, rested upon the piles of the bridge, it was only partially submerged, and the door being open to accommodate the smokers, escape was comparatively easy. The To. comO,ive and tender are still in inc river, so deeply embedded in .he mud that ], is believed ,o be impossible to extrica,e them without the assistance of Q. derrick.
 The scene al the drawbridge, on Satur> day, was very animated. About hundred men were employed in dragging from the river the wheels and fragments of the ru- ined cars. PeOple stood about, conversing in groups, gazing down through ihe tim. bers of the bridge at the smashed l0cOmo- iiee and tender, which were plainly visible al low tide. At the depot, the feelings ol' spectators were hourly pat 10 proof The dead had been aE decen,Iy laid in collins, purchased by the Company, and the trains, of which some extra ones were run f,r the occasion, brought, on each arrival, crowd of friends and relatives tO identify the bodies and take them home. Thus, train of collins kept moving from the depot to the cars, attended by weeping and wailing guardians. Hundreds of strangers, in6u~ enced by sympathy or curiosity, or both, Hocked in relays about the collins, opened the. lids, aud commented, many with irem" bIiEg voices and fearful eyes, upon the Iea. lures and persons of the dead. It was one of the saddest sights ever witnessed.
 Mr. Comstock, the Conductor, was in the second car which went down and escap- ed with numberless severe but not danger. ous wounds. Mrs. Dr. Griswold of New YSrk, was rescued with some slight bruises. Her dauUhiep taken out fnr dead was hrO't