Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1910-07-22
(From a STAFF Correspondent.

(From a STAFF Correspondent.
OLD POINT COMFORT. VA. July
21-Eleven non commissioned ON
GERS and priyates of the Sixty ninth
Company, Coast Artillery, are dead
and six other men of the same com
panv are wounded as the result Of the
premature ignition of charge O
smokeless power in one of the 12-lncf
disappearing rifles In Battery DeRls
sy at II O'Clock this morning while
the artillerymen of Fortress Monroe
were striving with all the grimness
and fervor of actual warfare TO de-
fend Washington from the attack OF
an imaginary hostile fleet. The toll
of death undoubtedly would have
been greater but for the herOism dis
played both by the officers and men
of the gun crew in stamping out with
feet and bare hands the burning pow
der that threatened the sacks IN
which the charge for a second shot
had been brought up.
List Of the Dead.
The dead:
SERGEANT HARRY G HESS, OF
Phoebus. va. gun commander. Sur
vived by widow and two little children.
CORPORAL CHARLES o ATKINS,
Black Farm. Ohio.
CORPORAL ALBERT BRADFORD,
Riley county. West Virginia. gun
pointer.
PRIVATE ARLIF ADEY. Brandons-
vile, West Virg MIA.
PRIVATE JOHN ". CHADWICK.
Tazewell. Tennessee.
PRIVATE ROY DUFFEY. Kenova,
West Virginia.
PRIVATE Give W. KING. Day
ton. Ohio.
PRIVATE ALFRED W. SMITH.
New York City.
PRIVATE ANDREW ]. SULLIVAN,
Perkins. Kentucky
PRIVATE JAMES II. TURNER.
Ripley. Tennessee.
PRIVATE JUDD f. HOGAN, Geyer,
Ohio.
Lieutenant Seriously Wounded.
The injured:
Second Lieutenant Georgs l.. Van
Dussen, U. S. A.. timekeeper. leg
broken in two places.
Corporal John c. Humphreys, Sa-
vannah. Ga. burned about the face
and hands and cut by flying concrete.
Private Ellsworth W. Hoffman.
Pittsburg. Pa, burned about the body
and arms.
Private OIville T. Rainey. Hancock,
Ohio. burned and cut about the face.
neck and shoulders.
Private william C. Sulzberger.
Fortress Monroe. burned about the
face.
Private Charles r. Parks. Fortress
Monroe. burned about the body and
arms.
Cause MAY Never be Known
Although a special board Of IN
quiry examined into il this after
noon. the exact cause OF the expIo-
sion probably never Will be known.
for the liDs Of the men In the gun
crew who might have told the cause
are sealed in death. Various theories
have been advanced. one being that
the explosion was caused b. a defec-
tiv primer being ignitea by the gases
in the gun breech. II was rumored
tonight that this Il the theory held
BY the investigating board. Colonel
Clarence ?. Townsiey. commsndaEt
Of the Fort. gives IL as his opinion
that the explosion occurred during
the insertion Of the breeck block isio
the breech Of the gun and before the
block hsd been rotated and locked m
place
While probably fifty shots had been
fired BY the FIVE batteries IN operation.
only two shells had beer discharged
from Sergean Hess gun before the
horrible tragedy OCCURRED. The gun
crew had rammcd in the shell and
the sacks % smokeiess powder before
the explosion took place. The men.
twenty in number. were arranged
around and a short distance from the
breech Of the gun. The presence Of
the projectile ia the rife prevented
the powder from going out through