The Bolivar bulletin. (Bolivar, Tenn.) 1888-1946, 1898-07-01
TROOPERS N A WRECK.
Section One of Col. Torrey's Troop
Train Telescoped by Section
Two at Tupelo, Miss.
THE HEADQUARTERS CAR WAS BURNED.
-Four Troopers and a Porter Killed, One Sol
dier.Dying and Fifteen Others, Including
Col. TOrrey, Injured-The Escape of
the Colonel From Death was Little
Short of Miraculous.

NoAOhcl rom Death was Little
Short of Miraculous.
TUPELO, Miss, June 26.-The first
section of the train with Torrey's rough
riders reached here about three o'clock
this afternoon. While standing at the
station section , came around the curve
at 30 miles an hour. A man went up
the line waving a flag frantically, but
Engineer Rawls apparently paid no at
tention to him. The engine crushed
into No. /, lifting the caboose and
headquarters car on top of the engine.
Col. Torrey was sitting in the rear of
the last car, and was caught in a mass
OF crashing wood and glass. but was
thrown off the train, miraculously es-
Gaping. His head was slightly cut and
feet injured, but not seriously.
The car in section 1, carrying Troop
c, suffered most, telescoping with the
one in front. In this car, two troopers,
VIII c. Wallace and Sam johnson, both
of Troop c, were killed.
Gordon, the colored porter of the
Pullman car Cranky, was taken out of
the wreck of his car. Both of his legs
were broken, and he suffered serious in
ternal injuries, from which he died a
few minutes after being taken out.
Cornelius Lenihan and Henry S.
Mapes, both of troop c, were fatally
injured. Lenihan was hurt internally
and died soon after the accident.
Mapes, legs were cut off and his alb
dOmen pierced
Private GImmer, of Troop L, was also
fatally injured, and died soon after the
accident took place.
In addition to these the following are
the casualties:
Il. d. Staley, Troop NJ, elbow dislo-
Gated.
E. Perkins, Troop L, both hips
jammed.
Wallace D. Hodge, Troop D, ankle
broken.
George c. Gardner, Troop c, hip hurt.
j. Ii. Farr, Troop c, both legs hurt.
Rudolph Widemar, officers mess cook,
back sprained.
Hiram f. Davis, Troop C, ankle
sprained.
Henry Steltz, Troop C, leg broken.
VIII Grosvcnor, Troop c, leg bruised
Joseph Aaron, Troop C, back
sprained.
w. II. Robinson, Troop A, ankle dis
located.
Arthur Evans, Troop E, hip dislo-
Gated.
Joseph Wilkinson, Troop L, slightly
injured.
- Schenck, Troop c, leg badly
bruised
One baggage car in section two was
thrown across the track and smashed
up.
The headquarters car took fire. A
bucket brigade was organized and
fought it. Some of the baggage was
saved. The soldiers worked like heroes
with axes and ropes in the rescue of
comrades.
Citizens carried the wounded to a
large, cool storeroom, where all the
ladies of the town attended them. The
Methodist church was also used as a
hospital. All the local doctors lent
their aid. None of the cavalry horses
were injured.
The frenzied cries of the wounded
soldiers, the shrieking of the engines,
the kissing steam and everything
turned upside down. This was the
frightful condition that presented it.
self to our citizens, who were hurrying
to the scene of the accident, which oc-
Cured about 800 yards west of the Kan
sas City, Memphis Il Birmingham
depot. The frightful cries of poor Sam
Johnson will long be remembered. He
was wedged in and could not be REACHED
in time to save his life. The first sec
ton had stopped to take water, and
had Just whistled to start on, when
the second section rounded the sharp
curve just before the town is reached
and dashed into it, In the rear of the
first section was the sleeper Seville,
bearing the regimental staff, includ- |
Col Torrey. This car was com
demolished, yet, strangely
enough, every inmate excepting the
colonel escaped unscratched. The chief |
fatalities occurred in Il coach which |
stood in the center of the first section,
which carried Troop c, from Laramie, |
WyO. This coach was completely |
and the soldier boys with |
in were jammed and bruised beneath |
The debris.
On the second section one baggage
EAR was thrown into the ditch several |
hundred feet, but few of its passengers
we're hurt.
The sections contained Troops A, G, |
E, L, q and NJ, forming a part of regi- |
nent being transported to Jackson
Vile, Fla. 1t is the Second United |
States volunteer cavalry, and was |
raised by Col. Torrey, its commander,
from the Rocky mountain region, in
,luding the states of Wyoming, Colora-
10, Idaho, Nevada and Utah. The SOL |
liers killed and fatally injured are |
rom the first-named state.
The intrepid Col. Torrey said: Tell |
he boys I'll ride with them yet" lie
vas in the state room of the sleeper
seville, separated from engine of sec
md section by n short caboose, and was
lurled 300 yards. When the train
stopped he found himself on the out
ide, beneath the wreckage, and, al
hough badly injured, he managed to
scape up the embankment.
The wounded will be left here for
urther orders, and it is very probable
hat the dead will be buried here. The
,thers will go forward tomorrow.
Surgeon Root, the hospital steward,
nd a detail of men will be left in
harge of the wounded.