Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1894-07-21
DEATH AT DRILL.
Disaster to Regular Troops on
Parade in Chicago.
-Four Killed and Many Wounded by the
Explosion of Caisson on Grand Boul-
evard - Handsome Residences
Damaged by the Shock.
BLOWN TO ATOMS.

lery, was wiped out of existence Mon
day afternoon by the explosion of an
ammunition caisson near the corner of
Oal<wood and Grand boulevards.
Every man in the platoon was either
killed outright or fearfully bruised
and burned. The unrecognizable
fragments of the two cannoners
who sat on the timber were scattered
over several acres Of ground. One man
had his head blown from his shoulders.
The cavalry escort, consisting of two
troops in front of the ill-fated battery
and one behind was stampeded, and
many of the men blown from their
horses and seriously injured Nine
heavy artillery and cavalry horses
were killed outright, the pieces of some
of them being blown through the air.
| Heavy caissons were torn literally to
atoms. Great chunks of iron and sec
tions of wheels were hurled hundreds of
yards. Some of them pierced the stout
oak doors and the plate-glass windows
of the residences along the boule-
ward, and some buried them
eral persons on the street were more
or less injured. One woman was
| driven insane. All the houses for
| block or more in every direction were
honeycombed with shot, the windows
being broken, the roofs punctured,
| furniture and carpets torn and burned
and yards of plastering shaken down.
| The shade trees, big elms and cotton
woods, which stand along the boule-
ward were stripped of their branches
and foliage and pierced with hundreds
of pieces of shrapnel shot and frag-
ments of iron. Blood was everywhere.
Great pools of it stood along the edges
of the pavements and were constantly
| fed by trickling streams from the
mangled heaps OF dead or dying men
and horses. 1t was spattered on the
telegraph poles, and the brown stone
residences, $50 feet away, were
frescoed with it. Five min
utes after the explosion the
street for several blocks looked as
if two armies had fought desperately
over it and had withdrawn for mo-
ment to prepare for another sally. For
the first time the troops sent out to
protect the city against the strikers
had experienced all the horrors of war.
The blood of soldiers had been shed.
Following is list of the killed and
injured:
KmLED-Farrier Joseph Caller, troop B of
the Seventh cavalry, Fort Sheridan 80 years
old, six years in the service, head blown from
shoulders and the body burned and mutilated;
Cannoneer Edward Doyle, battery F. Second
regiment Fort Riley, Kan, 90 years old. body
| tn mis- Donovan.
battery F. Second regiment, Fort Riley, Kan,
81 years old, body blown to pieces: Private
Fred Stoltz, battery #, Second regiment, Fort
Riley, Kan, wheel driver of caisson, terribly
burned, died at Mercy hospital at o'clock.
| WoUNDED-Trumpeter Herbert Antes, troop
B of the Seventh cavalry, Fort Sheridan,
shoulder blown off and legs and arms fright
fully burned, taken to Mercy hospital, Will
probably die Sergt, Ludwig Leiner, battery F,
Second regiment, Fort Riley, 80 years old;
struck in breast and face by fragments of iron,
his body mass of burns, cannot recover; Fri
vate John Allen, battery f, Second regiment,
Fort Riley, driver of lead team OF caisson, n
| years old, shot In neck and severely burned;
| Private Maurice ODonnell, battery f, Second
regiment, Fort Riley, lead driver of second
caisson cut on the head and burned; Sergt
George Hoffman, troop b, Seventh cavalry.
| Fort Sheridan, shot In chin; Sergt. Anthony
| Kane troop b, Seventh cavalry Fort Sheridan,
80 years old, ear blown of; Private Enks, wheel
| driver of second caisson, battery +, Second
regiment, Fort Riley, blown off his horse and
fell head first on the edge OF stone sidewalk;
Private Urquhart battery f, Second regiment.
Fort Riley, shot through the foot; Trooper
Huyck, troop b, Seventh cavalry, Fort Sheri-
dan, bruised and rendered deaf; Private
Panushki battery +, Second regiment,
Fort Riley, wheel driver OF second caisson,
bruised about face and shoulders; Mrs. l.. b.
Grggs, 1850 grand boulevard, cut in the arm by
flying glass; Ralph M. Byers, Ia years old, liv-
ing at 3T lakewood boulevard, two scrapnel
3 shots through calf of leg, removed to his home;
| Miss Alice York, 4l03 Grand boulevard, tendon
OF heel severed by bullet, taken home, not Sc
rious; Corporal Abraham l.. Riley, Battery F.
Second regiment, Fort Riley, thrown to the
ground and bruised.
, Capt. Dodd, in command of a detach
ment of artillery and cavalry, had sci
out from Brighton Park early in the
$ morning for practice ride into the
city. At the head of the column was
troop Il of the Sixth regiment, Fort
I Riley, Kan, under the command
I of Lieut.. Tate. Following them was
troop FL of the Sixth regiment from
Fort Niobrara, forty men, commanded
by Lieut.. Hyer. Then came the ill
o fated battery + OF the Second, two
guns and caissons, in charge of Lieut.
t Gale. They were from Fort Riley
Q Kan. The rear was protected by
: Lieut., Tompltins, with b troop of the
Seventh cavalry, forty men, from
5 Fort Sheridan.
. Gen. Miles, on being informed of th'
!. disaster sent Col Williston to the seen,
}, to secure report of the affair. Col
d Williston, while he could discover alb
q solutely no facts concerning the cause
) OF the explosion, has y theory whicl
L may explain it. He said:
my theory OF the accident is that the plu
at the base of one of the shrapnels becam
c loosened, some of the powder leaked'out, an
D. being ground and pounded by the jolting OF tn
, timber, ignited, the powder in the cartridge
exploded, and the Ignition of the other tw
\. | chests followed
1.-The shrapnel is probably the most deadl
1t projectie thrown by modern guns, The 3-inc
| shells ARE of steel and cArrY at their tiI