Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1864-12-01
Iron the ysrsey City Times, Nov.s.l
Great Railroad Disaster.

country. Yesterday morning at an ear
ly hour q very large train left Orange,
N, j., en- route for the White House,
Washington, ID. c., under the charge of
chief engineer George b. Mcclellan. 1t
was expected to make the trip through
In twelve hours. The train was very
heavily laden with merchandise shipped
by New York jew house, August Bel
mont, agent. All the copperheads In the
country were passengers, besides few
innocent people who had been deluded
into taking an excursion trip by the
offer Of dead-head tickets. Horatio
Seymour of New York was the conduc-
tor, assisted by Franklin Pierce, @. l..
Vallandigham and Joel Parker. Ben
Wood was appointed to hold all the
money received for fares, and wore
hat band marked conspicuously 4-1l-44.
For convenience and comfort the passcn-
gers were classified in the cars the TO-
gies under the charge of Robert G. Win
throp and Willard Fillmore the short
boys under John Van Buren, and Cap
tain Rynders, the mountebanks and min
strels led by Jack Rodgers and Marble,
editor Of the World, and the clergymen
marshaled by the Very Reverends G.
Chauncey Burr and J. II. Van Dyke.
There were several cars that were in
tended to be attached TO the train that
did not make the connection-one from
Canada, with George N. Sanders con-
ductor and a rOomy one from New
" friends" were both detained by the
IL A., &C.
named Benjamin F. Butler, who came
to New York last week to "stop a
SPELL" The cars were gorgeously deco
rated with such elegant notices as the
| following: - Butter has riz," "Abe
Lincoln is a gorilla" "Little Mikes the
by be .jabers," "Niggers slaves, Irish
men for our masters" I" We are coming
brother JEFF a. Let us change our base"
Here's your spaniels for you Massa
Davis" They moved out of the Orange
depot gaily to the tune of Dixie, though
the engineer hesitated, when the final
moment of departure came about step
ping on the platform, and was at last
only got on beard by little expedient
of Fernando Wood, who pulled him
into the train backwards by his coat
bdI. EuSluCCI lCSlClidu was uTtSStu
in the full rig of a Major General, for
which his Uncle Sam paid. He was
very nervous, and remarked that he
should prefer a gunboat to ride on
such locomotive. This engine was
new one, built at Chicago last August,
but on plan designed by Benedict Ar
mold, and subsequently improved by
Aaron Burr and John G. Calhoun. 1t
was built to the order Of JEFF. Davis and
bore the engaging name of Cessation"
which was adopted as slight change
from the original designation, "Seces-
sion" 1t occasioned good deal Of re-
| mark that hardly any soldiers took
| passage on the train. There were some
men named Grant, Sherman, Hooker and
Dix around, who very ungenerously ex-
pressed doubts as to the safety of the
track and the ability of the engineer,
"blue coat" boys. Besides this, the con-
ductor of the train refused to have an
American flag on the engine, and the
soldiers have stubborn feeling of
prejudice on that subject. Notwith-
standing these slight drawbacks, the
train moved off with the good wishes
and cheers Of all the rebel soldiers in
Lees army, all the British aristocrats
the pirate Semmes and his friends
From all that can be learned from the
incoherent talk of the few survivors OF
the sad catastrophe, it appears that
there was trouble from the very start
The engineer and his fireman Pendleton
quarrelled all the trip, about the method
of firing up, and the conductor and fare
taker were constantly giving contradic.
tory orders to the brakemen, and nervous
conservative old gentlemen pulled fran
tically at the bell rope, giving engineer
Mcclellan no end of trouble. Just how
the accident happened no one can tel
now but certain tbs, that before the trail
got half way through, there was shock
ing smash up. The locomotive exploded
the cars were piled up in fragments, tn
track torn up and such a multitude o
passengers fatally injured that it i
doubtful if their names can ever be as
certained. Some assert that an old Hi
nois joker, Familiarity called Cla Abe
caused the disaster by putting rail OF
the track; others, that the fireman Pen
dleton let too much water out Of tn
peace tank upon the fire in Mcclellan
boiler; others, that Vallandieham ra
the train off the track by dropping a
! 20. A. K" stick of timber under tn
wheels; still others, that the eneinee
was frightened by suddenly discoverin
"a niger in his wood pile on the ten
der and overturned the locomotive b
attempting to Change his base" to-
suddenly. Whatever the cause there i
no doubt of the complete wreck of tn
whole train, and the sad fate of the ex
cursionists. There are but slight frag
ments of the more distinguished persons
that are recognizable. Ben. Wood il
missing altogether, except his Ala
badge. Fernando was recognized by
copy of the statute of limitations in hi
trousers pocket; Horatio Seymour anC
Vallandigham were found locked in eacf
others arms and crushed under the
weight of certain "dry goods boxes
that contained bogus soldiers votes
Governor Parker was badly bruised anC
lost his eyesight So that he "couldn'
| see it" any more; PendletOn was mitch