The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-11-04
THE BURNING OF PESHTIGO.
THE TERRIBLE TEMPEST OF FLAME.

THE TERRIBLE TEMPEST OF FLAME.
4 Horrible but Truthful Picture-Fsarful
Loss Of Life
Previous account of the work of the for
est fires in the Northwest have not told
1.-THE of the horrors; they seem almost too
great for pen to delineate. A correspon-
dent of the Times, writing from Peshtigo,
Wisconsin, relates the following graphic
story:
The sharp air of early October had sent
the people in from the evening church SER
vices more promptly than usual although
numbers delayed to speculate on a great
noise and ado which set in ominously from
the west. The housewives looked tremb-
lingly at the fires and lights within and the
men took last look at the possibilities
without; for many it was truly last
glimpse. The noise grew in volume, and
came nearer and nearer with terrific crack
ling and detonations. The forest rocked
and tossed unanimously. dire alarm fell
upon the imprisoned village, for the swirl
ing blasts came now from every side. In
one awful instant, before expectation
could gave shape to the horror, a great
flame shot up in the western heavens, and
in countless fiery tongues struck downward
into the village, piercing every object that
stood in the town like q red-hot bolt. A
deafening roar, mingled with blasts of cleo
trio flame, filled the air and paralized every
soul in the place. There was no beginning
to the work of ruin; the flaming whirlwind
swirled in an instant through the town.
There is no diversity in general exper-
| fence; all heard the first inexplicable roar;
some aver that the earth shook, while a
credulous few avow that the heavens OPEN
IL
| Moved by common instinct for all knew
that the woods that encircled the town
were impenetra BILE, every habtation was
deserted to the flames, and the gasping
multitude tlockei to the river. On the
west the mad no ride saw the bridge in
flames in score of places, and turning
sharply to the left, with one accord, plung
ed into the water. Three hundred people
wedged themselves in between the rolling
booms, swayed to and fro by the current,
where they roasted in the hot breath of
flame that lowered above them, and singed
the hair on each head momentarily expos
ed above the water. Here despairing men
and women held their children till the cold
water came as an ally to the flames, and
deprived them of strength.
Meantime, the eastern bank was densely
crowded by the dying and the dead. Rush
|
! swirling blasts m ct the victims full in the
face, and moved swath through the flee
| ing throng. Inhalation was humiliation.
| Scores fell before the first blast. A few
were able to crawl to the pebbly flats, but
| SO dreadfully distigured that death must
| have been preferable. All could not reach
the river; even the groups that fell prone
on the grateful damp flats suffered excru-
ciating agony. The fierce blaze, playing
| in tremendous counter currents above
them on the higher ground, was sufficiently
| strong to set the clothes aflame, and the
flying sand, heated as by furnace, bis
! tered the flesh wherever it fell. All that
could break through the sitting simeon
had come to the river. In the REQ glare
they could see the sloping bank covered
| with the bodies of those that fell by the
way. Few living on the back streets sue
ceeded in reaching the river, the hot breath
! of the fierce fire cutting them down rs they
/ ran. But here new danger hefell. Cows
| terrified by smoke and flame, rushed in
great lowing drove to the river brink Wo-
| men and children were trampled by the
! frightened brutes and many losing their
hold on the friendly logs were swept under
the waters.
IN THE FLAMES.
below no less narrowing thing happened.
| The burning timbers of the MILL built at
the edge of the bridge, blew and f1oated
down upon the multitude assembled near
the flats, and inflicted the most lamentable
sufferings. The men fought this new death
bitterly: those who were fortunate enough
to have coats flung them over the
heads of their wives and children, and
dipped water with their hats on the impro-
vsed shelter. Scores had every shred of
hair burned off in the battle, and many lost
their lives in protecting others. The fire.
men had made an effort to save some of
| the buildings, and the hose was run from
the river to some important edifice. The
heat instantly stopped the attempt, but
! not before the hose swollen with water had
been burned through in a hundred places.
Although the onslaught of fire and wind
! had been instantaneous, and the destruc
ton almost Simultaneous, the fierce sitting
currents of heat careered through the air
\ for hours. These current were more fatal
| than the flames of the burning village
Ignorant of the extent of the fire and the
l frightful combination of wind and flame,
many of the company's workman, some
with wives and children, shut themse Ives
up in the great brick building and perish ed
| in the raging heats of the next half hour.
| Oothers on the remote streets br oke for the
clearing beyond the woods, but few ever
| passed the burning barrier. Within the
| boundaries of the town and accessible to
| the multitude the river accommodation
was rather limited, and when the animals
had crowded in the situation was full of
despair. The flats were covered with prone
figures with backs ablaze and faces pressed
rigidly into the cooling moist earth The
| flames played about and above all with an
incessant, deafenng roar.
! The tornado was but momentary, but
was scceeded by maelstroms of fire, smoke
cinders and red hot sand. Wherever a
building seemed to resist the fire, the roof
would be sent whirling into the air, break
ing into clouds of flame as it fell. The
shower of sparks, cinders and hot sand fell
in continuous and prodigious force, and did
quite as much in killing the people as the
first terrific sirocco that succeeded the fire.
The wretched throng neck deep in the wa
ter, and the still more hapless beings strech-
ed on the heated sands, were pierced and
blistered by these burning particles. They
seemed like lancets of red hot steel, pene-
trating the thickest covering. The evil
dence now remains to attest the incredible
force of the slenderest pencils of darting
flame. Hard iron-wood pillow handles still
remain, perforated as though by minnie
| balls. and for the main part unburnt.-
When the hap,ess jewellers in the remote
streets saw themselve cut off from the river
groups broke in all directions in a wild pan
ic of flight and terror. A few took refuge
in "a cleared field bordering on the town.
Here flat upon the ground, with faces press
ed in the sand, the helpless sufferers lay
and roasted. But few survived the dread
full agony. The next day revealed pic
ture exceeding in horror any battle field
Mothers with children Rugged closely lay
in rigid groups, the clothes burned off and
the poor flesh scared to crisp. One moth
ell solicitous only for her babe, embalms
her unutterable love in the terrible picture
left on these woeful sands. With her bare
fingers she had scraped out pit, as the
soldiers did before Petersburg, and press
| ing the little one into this, she put her own
body above it as shield, and when the
daylight came both were dead, the little
baby face unscarred, but the mother burnt
almost to cinders.
These hardy lumbermen are not wont to
exaggerate, and the perfect accord of every
story and incident confirm every episode of