Connecticut western news., 1894-07-19
TROOPS BLOWN UP.
FOUR SOLDIERS KILLED AND FOUR
 TEEN BADLY HURT.
The Ammunition Chests of Battery F Ex- ploded While the Troops Were Taking "a Practice March Down One of chIcsgo's Boul~vards

Boulevards.
 CHICAGO, July I7-A caisson of Bat tery F, Second artillery. United States army. exploded with terrific force at Grand and Oakwood boulevards. Two artillery men and one trooper were instantly kill ed Nearly a score of other persons troops residents in the vicinity and pass CTS by-wcre injured. some of them ia. tally.
 The list of the killed and wounded is as follows
 Killed and Wounded.
 Killed-J. Donovan, private, Battery F, Second artillery; Edward Doyle. private. Battery +, Second artillery; Joseph Gay Tor, farrier, Troop B, Seventh cavalry.
 Wounded-Sergeant Leines Battery F. Second artillery. badly shot through the body, severely burned with powder about face and head, recovery doubtful, Fred Stolz, private, Second artillery, badly burn ed and wounded about legs, will recover; John Allen, private, second artillery, shot in head and neck, fatally injured; Maurice O'Donnell, private, Second ar tillery, shot in the head and powder burn ed. may recover; c. Encke, driver in rear, private, Second artillery. blown from his horse and badly injured, will recover; John Urquhart, private, Second artillery, ball of left foot crushed by bullet not serious; Herbert Antes, bugler Troop B, Seventh cavalry, shot in shoulder and arm. will recover; Sergeant Anthony Kane, Troop B, Seventh cavalry, ear shot off Sergeant George Hoffman, Troop B, Seventh cavalry, shot in chin; Corporal Abraham Riley, Battery F, Second artil- lery thrown to the ground and badly bruised; Sergeant King, Battery Y, Sec n bruised; unknown artilleryman, thrown from horse. picked up unconscious, in- iuries slight; unknown boy, thrown from bicycle, injured about the legs; Miss Alice York, 4l03 Grand boulevard, tendon of heel severed by bullet; Mrs. K. c. Huhl- Ing, 3a3o Grand boulevard, severely cut and injured In her home by falling glass
 Fred Stolz of the Second artillery died later. He was terribly burned and bruis- ed by the explosion.
 MysterIous and Fearful Explosion.
 The troops had left Brighton park for a long march around the city to exercise the horses. They were in command of Cap tain Dodd of Troop F, Third cavalry, and consisted of Troop F, Third cavalry. 40 men; Troop k, Sixth cavalry, Lieutenant Tate, 10 men; platoon of Battery K, Sec ond artillery. two guns. Lieutenant Gayle, 23 men; Troop B, Seventh cavalry, Cap tain Varnum, 40 men The men marched in this order. ..
 Everything went smoothly, and there were no incidents until the column march ing south on Grand boulevard was just crossing Oakwood boulevard. Then a terrific explosion occurred.
 The men on the caisson, supposed to be Donovan and Doyle, were literally ff.t and hnx- many feet by the violence of the conous- sion. Four of the horses drawing the calls son fell in their tracks, shot through and horribly mangled. while three others woro blown 90 feet ahead against the trees on the boulevard, dying instantly. The cais- son was blown to atoms. not a piece of 1t larger than a mans hand being found. The boulevard looked like a battlefield.
 There was quick series of explosions after the first report, and shrapnel shot rained like hall among the trees on the boulevard and pierced the surrounding dwellings The concussion broke every window in the houses for blocks away. The walls and roofs of the dwellings showed the terrific effect of the missiles. Unexplode6 shells in the rear of the cais- son lay strewn over the ground.
 Colonel wnibon's Report.
 General Miles directed Captain Michler and Colonel wilibon of tho oommissary department and former commander of the battery to go to the scene of the acci- dent and secure a report of the affair. On the return of Colonel Wilibon he gave tho following verbal account of the accident preparatory to writing his report:
 "The command, under the escort of the cavalry, was taking its daily march exer- cise. The oaisson consisted of Timber, on which was a chest and the carriage containing two chests more Of ammuni- ton, making three chests on the caisson. The explosion occurred in the chest of the Timber, and the force of the explosion was to the rear, tearing away tho caisson and igniting the powder in the other two chests. The first caisson carried 42 shrap- nels and A cartridges. The shrapnels arc loaded with percussion containing fulmi- mates and small balls and arr, fired from the cannon by a cartridge containing SA pounds of powder.
 My theory of the accident Is that the screw plug at tho base of one of the shrap- nels came loose, and some of the powder leaked out, and, being ground and pound ed by the jolting of the Timber. ignited all the powder in the cartridges and explod- ed, and tho ignition of the cartridges in the other two chests followed. Tn the sec- ond chest on the caisson were 26 time shells, 16 shrapncls and their complement of A. cartridges In the third and rear chests were 42 shells and A cartridges.
 "The force of the explosion can be more readily understood when it is remembered that the 132 cartridges contained 495 pounds of powder"