The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1864-11-29
From the Jersey City Daily Times, Nov. o.
Great Railroad Disaster.


We have to record the most cxten
sive and fatal casualty ever known il
this country. Yesterday morning al
an early hour very large train left Or
angc, 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 mer.
chandize shipped by New York Jew
house, August Belmont agent. All the
copperheads in the country were pas
sengers, besides few innocent people
who had been deluded into taking an ex-
cursion trip by the offer of dead-head
tickets. Horatio Seymour of New York
was the conductor assisted by Franklin
Pierce, G. l.. Vallandigham and Joel
Parker. Ben Wood vas appointed to
hold all the money received for fares
and wore a hat hand marked conspicu-
ously 4ll-44. For convenience and
comfort the passengers were classified
in the cars; the fogies under the charge
of Robert &. Winthrop, and Mllard
Fillmore the short boys under John
Van Buren, and Captain Rynders, the
mountebanks and minstrels led by Jack
Rodgers and Marble, editor of the
World, and the clergymen marshaled
the Very Reverends &. Chauncey Burr
and Ii. j. Vandyke. There were sew
eral cars that were intended to be at
tached to the train that did not make
the connection--one from Canada, with
George n. Sanders conductor, and
roomy one from New York, filled with
Gov. SeyTour's g friends" were both
detained by the unwarrantable interfe-
renee of man named Benjamin +. But
Ter, who came to New York last week
to sop spell" The cars were gor-
geously decorated with such elegant
notices as the following: Butter has
riz." /" Abe Lincoln is a gorilla" slit
tie Mikes the by be jabers," "Niggcrs
for slaves, Irishmen for our masters"
+" We are coming brother jeff" "Let
us change our basc," I" Here's your
spanels for you Massa Davis" They
moved out Of the Orange depot gaiy
to the tune of Dixie, though the engin-
eer hesitated, when the final moment of
departure came, about stepping OH the
platform, and was at last only got on
board by little expedient Of Fernando
Wood, who pulled him into the train
backwards by his coat tail. Engineer
Mcclellan was dressed in the full rig of
Major General, for which his Uncle
Sam paid. He was very nervous, and
remarked that he should prefer gun
boat to a ride on such locomotive
This engine was new one, built at
Chicago last August, but on plan de-
signed by Benedict Arnold, and subse-
qucntly improved by Aaron Burr and
John {. Calhoun. 1t was built to the
order of jeff. Davis and bore the enga-
ging name of Cessation" which was
adopted rs Il slight change from the
original designation Secession" 1t
occasioned good deal of remark that
hardly any soldiers took passage OH the
train. There were soma men named
Grant, Sherman, Hooker and Dix
around, who very ungencrously oxpres-
scd doubts rs to the safety Of the track
and the ability of the engineer, and it
is supposed this prejudiccd the "blue
coat" boys. Besides this the conduct
or of the ain refused to have an Amer
lean flag on the engine, and the soldiers
have stubborn feeling of prejudice on
that subject. Notwithstanding 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 there was trouble from the very
start. The engineer and his fireman
Pendleton quarreled all the trip, about
the method of firing up, and the con-
ductor and fare takcr were constantly
giving contradictory orders to the
brakemen, and nervous conservative
old gentlemen pulled frantically at the
bell rope, giving engineer Mcclellan no
end Of trouble. Just how the accident
happened no one can tell now, but GER
tain it is, that before the train got half
way through, there was shocking
smash up. The locomotive exploded,
the cars were piled up in fragments, the
track torn up and such n multitude of
passengers fatally injured that it is
doubtful if their names can ever be as
ccrtained. Some assert that an old H.
linois joker, familiarly called Old Abe,
caused the disaster by putting a rail on
the track others, that the fireman Pen
dleton let too much water out OF the
peace tank upon the fire in McClellan's
boiler; others, that Vallandigham ran
the train off the track by dropping an
60. A. X" stick of timber under the
wheels; still others, that the engineer
was frightened by suddenly discover
ing "nigger in his wood pile' on the
tender and overturned the locomotive
by attempting to " "change his base" too
suddenly. Whatever the cause, there
is no doubt of the complete wreck of the
whole train, and the sad fate of the ex-
cursiopists, There arc but slight irag-
ments of the more distinguished per-
sons that are recognizable, Ben, Wood
is missing altogether, except his f-li-
"A badge. Fernando Wood was recog-
nized by copy of the statute Of lmi-
itations in his trousers pocket; Hora-
ito Seymour and Vallandigham were
found locked in each others arms and
crushed under the weight of certain
{" dry goods boxes" that contained boz
gus soldiers votes. Governor Parker
was badly bruised and lost his eyesipht