The Detroit times., 1911-06-29
MARTIAL RITES FOR
PRISONERS OF WAR
Remains Of 72 Confederates and
Their Union Guards, Victims of
Erie Disaster, Removed.

"oA 'iihS uiSaotSib tue lcIIlOlc ouOhOia
wreck in July. 1864, in which more
than 100 confederate prisoners and
their Union guards were killed. has
been recalled by the removal Of the
remains of The victims from a trench
near the scene OF the wreck to Wood
lawn cemetery. New York. where
they have been reinterred with mil
itary honors.
Thew ork has just been completed
under the supervision OF Capt. Fen
ton, Second United States cavalry,
and aide-de-camp to Gen. Frederick ID.
Grant. II was done under the act OF
congress which authorized the gov
eminent to have all confederate and
union soldiers killed In the Civil war
removed to national cemeteries.
II took three days to complete the
work OF elimination, place the re-
mains in boxes and ship them to New
York. This was done by firm OF
Port Jervis undertakers. AS near as
they were able to estimate, seventy
two bodies were recovered from the
trench on the Sill farm at Shohola, on
the banks of the Delaware river, al
though the official estimate at the
time of the disaster gave the number
OF killed as 81 confederates and IL
union soldiers. The injured, many OF
whom died later, numbered 1913.
Relies Found In Trench.
The trench in which the dead were
buried was rs feet long. feet wide
and 6 feet deep, and as II was close
to the river there have been reports
that some of the dead were washed
away during spring freshets, but this
is denied.
Some relics were found during the
elimination, among which were two
combs, the heel plate OF a shoe, q
daguerreotype picture and part of the
frame and glass. ap ipe. a pocketbook,
razor, inkwell, bugle, the ornament
from a soldiers cap, a gold pin and
many other trinkets. There was moth
ing, however, by which any OF the
dead could be identified.
The wreck victims were part OF q
shipment of 10000 confederate pris-
oners from Point Lookout, Va, to Ell.
mira, N. Y, where prison camp had
Just been made ready to receive them
The Erie railroad train on which they
were being conveyed from Jersey City
to Elmira contained about eight hun
dred confederates. guarded by about
one hundred and twenty-five union SOL
diers. II was made up of emigrant
cars, box and cattle and all sorts OF
odds and ends that could be scraped
together In the railroad yards. The
guards, with loaded muskets, were
stationed on the platforms at the ends
of each car.
The train had left Jersey City about
O'Clock in the morning and passed
through the little Delaware valley
hamlet of Sholola early In the after
noon, moving at the rate OF twenty
five miles an hour. About a mile west
OF Shohola there was an awful crash.
followed by shrieks, groans and walls
of anguish. A collision with heavy
coal train going east ON the same
single track had occurred en- curve
in a deep cut, known locally as King
Fuller's cut. Both locomotives reared
straight up In the air like graphing
giants, the one jammed fast against
the other.
\From the mass of tangled and
spifptered wreckage the bodies OF the
seventy or more prisoners and their
guardA WHOM ere killed outright were
taken. Many Of the injured died be,
fore nightf0ll, and others fingered for
a time in neishboring farm houses and
other places nearby where temporary
hospitalsw ere established.
Roasted to Death.
The fireman OF the coal train was
killed, but the engineer escaped by
jumping. The engineer of the prison
ers' train was caught in the wreck OF
his locomotive, pinned against the
boiler and slowly roasted to death
The survivors tried to rescue him,
but the dying engineer warned them
away because of the danger that the
boiler might explode at any moment
The wreck was caused by the mis-
take Of Duff Kent, a telegraph oper
ator, who was drunk while on duty al
this place, four miles west of the
scene OF the disaster. II was before
the days OF double tracks, semaphores
or automatic signals, and when the
coal train came down the Homesdale
branch from Hawley bound for New
York, the conductor asked the or
ator at Lackawaxen, where the branch
joins the main line, IL the track was
clear. so that he might proceed east
Kent had been drinking all day and
all the night before. He told him 70
go ahead. having forgotten in his be
fuddled condition that he had beer
notified that the extra train bearing
the confederate prisoners was bound
over the same track.
A coroner's inquest was held at Sho
hola and the verdict exonerated every
one from blame, although the Grimm
al carelessness that had caused the
disaster was known to all. Kent was
not molested. and the night Of the
wreck he attended a ball at Hawley
and danced until daylight. while the
victims OF his mistake lay dead and
dying. But the next day the neigh
borhood began to realize the horror
OF the catastrophe Kent heard the
rising voice of public indignation and
disappeared. He was never heard OF
again.
II