Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1893-01-08

h''h NNnNt AhAttrrN ~ IT. tNNN Ni NN NIAfi
for the removal of the machinery for
the information of those whom it may
concern. Yours respectfully.
tSigned) A. Anderson,
General Superintendent United States
Government Railroads Military Di-
vision Of the Mississippi
This letter with my orders will con-
vince the most skeptical that there ex-
listed machine shop at Columbus, Ky,
M this time, because / employed the men
working IN those shops to pull down the
machinery and load Is aboard of gov
eminent transport boats 20 take IL TO
Cairo, H., then ! had il transferred to
packet boat aud took IL 60 Nashville,
and from Nashville it went 20 Chatin.
nooga. | took oil the men that wanted
to 20 TO Nashville. ! think they worked
about thirty-fiye or forty men; about one.
halt of them went 10 Nashville with me;
or my arrival at Nashville. 1 staid there
about a month
had orders to report 90 A. Ander
sons office every morning, which l did
but he seemed to have nothing for me
to do except running on the road, and
made up my mind | would not go on the
road any more, az ] had been honomhy
relieved. and ] told Mr.. Benjamin so.
About this time the government located
aud set up thirteen saw mills nc the
Tennessee river. The terminal Of the
NASHVILLE aud Northwestern rond was
called iohnsonville, and Il was a great
point for distributing supplies 60 the
armys department of the Cum
berland and Tennessee. as the
Tennessee river Is navigablc all
the year. A lieutenant 10y the name of
Cherry was put In charge of this post
as assistant acting quariermaster Ia
July, 1861, he came 10 Nashville aud W.
questCd me 10 accept the position Of mas-
ter mechanic Well. of course, he did
not have 20 pull any buttons from my
coat 90 get me 10 accept H. 80 ] went 80
Jacksonville aud took charge of all saw
mills and machinery In the master me-
chanic. We built a warehouse GOO feet
long and 100 feet wide for government
stores. We had tracks running down 10
the river and little cars to unload tue
boats, but We never got it into good oper-
alton. l will explain later on why we
did not.
Lieutenant Cherry and myself went
up 10 Nashville 20 got the machinery.
They did not run any passenger train on
the Nashville and Northwestern rond, all
the people that Travelled on the road had
TO travel IN the CuhOOSg and they only
ran one train a day each way. Mike
Davis pulled one OF those trains with his
brother liill as conductor. Mike also ran
an eating house eighteen miles below
Nashville. he had stopped OF on his up
trip Mt his eating house and got some
one TO rum his engine to Nashville. The
train left there ut Z u. M, but Mikes
man failed 10 put Ia an appearance. so
I was asked 20 run the eighteen miles,
and then Mike was 20 take her which
he did. Lieutenant Cherry rode ON the
| engine with me TO the eating house and
seemed To he ovcr-iOyed with his ride.
We all went into Mikes house and ate
dinner. but do not imagine we had pie
or cake or that we fingered long eating
fruit or cracking nuts. Mike told us that
beans aud salt pork were good enough
for people travelling those days.
after we finished eating we all got
on board and started for JohusOnyillc:
! all of MS reached there except Lieutenant
| Cherry. When we came ont OF the eat
ing house, Mike asked me to come on
the engine AS he wanted to talk with me,
so Lieutenant Cherry went back In the
| cabOose, There were couple Of ladies'
| Ia there and one OF them had a six
months-old baby. Captain Coleman,
| Lieutenant Tanner and Lieutenant James
| Newhart aud Private friedman were
| In the cabOose. About fifty boxes O,
| cartridges were in Il, aud the tops Of the
| box ears were full OF private soldiers.
! Everything went smooth until we got
| eleven miles from Jacksonville. / was
| sitting behind Mike on bis side when
| felt the train jerk we had about thir-
! teen ears. / looked back and saw the
| cars turning over and soldiers and guns
! flying in the air In all directions. j hol-
| lowed 10 Mike TO shut her of for Gods
| sake and TO reverse; we were making
| about twelve or fifteen miles per hour:
| ! jumped off the engine and ran back;
| the first sight that met my eyes was
| Lieutcpnnt Cherry lying ON the dump
| with the upper part of sidc-dOOr frame
| holding him down. He was a pOrtly
man; he was literally cut in two about
| the center of his body; / grabbed and
| raised his head: he tried 10 look up, but
! could not. and only said "Oh, my poor
/ family the last words he ever spoke
"'rhe two ladies and baby wcre nhurt,
but one of the ladies' had her dress near
~ torn Off. Captain Coleman was scri-
ously hurt; his collar bone and three ribs
were broken. lleutcn0nts Tanner and
Newhart aud Private Frcdmann and
about twenty-five or thirty soldiers were
bndly hurt When the end door wa.
opened the baby was lying down in the
lower corner of the car on it's little back
kicking up It's heels and laughing AZ loud
az IL could. We had TO pry up the cai
TO get Lieutenant Cherry ont Nothing
but the flesh held the two pnrts together
az his back was brokon.
"1hat was a terrible sight to witness
| but as this was the only ono among tho
liNll9 hAh w o'N NNNih WhAi aAiHN
II.
"This chr wreck was caused by the
| car next 10 the cnboose dropping a brake
beam which threw the caboose OH on
! fiji and it turned over and carried five
other cars with il before we could stop
| We gathered up the dead ana wounded
| aud took them 10 Jacksonville.
Captain b. II. Coleman was post com
mander at Jacksonville, and Lieutenant
| Cherry was post assistant acting quar-
ter-mnster, so ! was left without a boss
until such time "a they could send a man
| / carried out the work as we had plan
ned It. and IL seemed 20 please all who
had any connection with IT, but IL never
did the government any good. for about
the time we got Il completed the John
mics came in and whipped us out burned
| down the warehouse utter we had laid
mp about 100000 worth Of army stores
aud now comes a pretty hard yarn iol
some of my Yankee brothers To swallow
but nevertheless, Il is true.
I'VE had about 1000 men at Johnson
Vile, ana three glmbouts, seven trans
ports. and five canal hOats for Chicag,
loaded with pork The rebels came II
there one night about 500 strong Wit
some siX-p0und cannon, and cleaned M
out. We had one regiment OF coloref
soldiers, aud this Is one time when th,
cOlored troops did not fight nOhly, bu
they ran sllendidly- bet they go
away that night Everybody seemed 10 b,
on the lookout for himself. So we an go
away as fast rs we could. AOw re
|