The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1870-03-05
TERRIBLE RAILROAD ACCT.
DENT.
Fire Cars Preeipttated into the Buckner
TreSHe.
Tt0e'ltY-foltr Lioes Lost
From Fifty to Sixty Wounded.

The Inflated train attempted to pass over
the trestle at four o'clock D. m on Friday,
the 25th ultimo 1t consisted of the engine,
the mail and baggage cars and three passen-
ger coaches. The engine passed over with
out even shaking the trestle, in like man ner
the mail and baggage cars. The second;
class is Immediately on the trestle. the two
frst-class coaches being behind Atthis in
slant the engineer looks back, and sees
dust, he blows on the brakes, and clapping
his hands to his head exclaimed, 1--WE arc
lost :" In an second he rsopens the valves
and let's on steam. This last thoughtful act
saved himself and the engine The front
truck Of the mail car had broken-letting
that end of the car fall on the road-which
| plOughed up the ground, hence the dust
! The front of the baggage strikes the rear of
tue mail car, throwing it in a position at
| right angles with the road The mail car
IN its precipitation draws the baggage car
after it, and it in turn wrenches the second
class off, but it being on the trestle
takes it along with it. The mail ana bag
gage cars roll over the embankment, and the
second-elass car drops to the bottom of the
ravine, thirty feet deep. The first class car
! falls into the chasm on the second class
crushing both to pieces; the ladies' coach is
| thrown off the rails, but is dragged on the
cross-ties, which breaks its velocity
until it reaches the chasm,
the front end falls with crash
on the two preceding-the rear end rests
against the embankment, its position is
nearly perpendicular Colonel Tate WIS
standing in the aisle, midway this car; he
| fell in its descent, striking the lower end
with great force, having all the passengers
and moveables in the car piled upon him.
! He came near being crushed to death and
was seriously injured In this car was
gentleman and his family, from Edinburgh,
! Scotland He was badly bruised; his wife,
two children, and nurse were killed The
youngest child was in the arms of the nurse
| when the disaster occurred, and the brains
Of the babe were crushed out on her bosom
So tightly were they wedged in the wreck,
that it required considerable force to draw
the child from her arms, before her body
| could BE- recovered. Mr. Al w Mcdonald,
roadmaster, was passing from the ladies
to gentlemens car. at the time of the acct
dent the end of the former crushed him
into the latter, killing him instantly. Seven
| dead bodies were taken from Immediately
| beneath the end of the ladies' car The
casualties Of tho second class car were
dreadful 1t was filed with emigrants from
Sweden en- route for Brandon, Miss under
the superintendence of Colonel Spier He
was killed Many of the emigrants shared
the same fate all the rest were wounded
One young girl, sixteen years of age, was
sitting silently by the manged corpse other
mother. When approached. she asked
Where is my arm p She was told that it
was fastened in the, wreck Pull it out, it
hurts so much" These arc only a few of
the many painful incidents that transpired
The shrieks and groans of the wounded, the
crushed and mangled forms of the dead and
dying, are more than the pen can describe.
In all there were about seventy five persons
on the train, of these twenty-four were
killed, and all the remainder were wounded,
except those on the engine
Captain Frost soon arrived at the scene of
the disaster, with corps of laborers and
attendants Their first thought was for the
wounded and the dead. These were speed
ilv though tenderly taken from the wreck,
the former sent to Water Valley, the latter
to Oxford. to await. the arrival of friends.
A general order was issued to let all those
who were seeking for the unfortunate to pass
| free over the road. We can testify that
from the superintendent down to the humb-
lest dttache, all seemed to vie with each
other in bestowine attentions and express
ing sympathy with the friends of the
sufferers.
THE CAUSE OF THE DIsAsTER-wAs IT AVOID
ABLE?
We will express no judgment, but simply
state what we saw and heard, leaving the
reader to form his own conclusion. Our
knowledge is derived from observation, from
Captain Frost and from others. Bear in
mind that the engine, the mail and baggage
cars, had passed over, ard as the en- gineer
would say without jostle." Observe
also that the first sign of wreck that he
saw was the front end Of the mail car
ploughing up the earth-'makIng dust.
We observed that the front truck of this car
was broken, thus confirming what he saw.
If we admit that the disaster began with
this, the remainder is easily accounted for.
But did the disaster begin with this truck
If it did not then it began somewhere else.
Let us suppose that it had its origin in the
trestle. But ifthere why did not the engine
crush it? it was by far the heaviest portion