Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1917-08-10
SHELL TRAGEDY WAS
UNAVOIDABLE, DECLARE
AUTHORITIES ON SCENE
Continued From Page one)

on impact. 1t must strike some resist
ing object before there is an explosion
1t was not until hours after that the
members of the student battery knew
a she'll had been DETECTED off it's course
with such fatal consequences. Some of
them did not know 1t until morning.
Meanwhile Mrs. Lillian Harris, with
a colored woman in her employ, had
driven up to the farm house Of David
Cross, on the Burnt Hickory road Stand
ing around the stump of a tree in the
same vicinity were the three negroes
Charles Martin, Jim Holloman, Sr., AID
Jim Holloman, Jr. Presently another
negro, Jim Coleman. came up.
WE'RE AT LEFT OF RANGE.
All of these persons were at a point
which was a long way 20 the left of a
IprolongatiCn of the direct line of fire. In
other words they would have been sew
eral hundred yards to the left of
Straight line drs Wa from the mouth
OF the three-inch cannon.
Though Little Kennesaw mountain
partially interposed between them and
the battery of artillery. they were still
able 20 see tie puffs Of smol.e emitted
by each gun following a discharge.
They considered themselves we'll out
of range, however. In fact one of them,
Charles Martin, said to jim Holloman
that he didn't feel afraid of cannon
as long as there was a mountain be-
tween.
After sending her negro employe to
the farmhouse and seeing her go in
doors, Mrs. Harris wheeled her buggy
and started back along the road the way
she had come.
lust then there was a terrific roar,
a scream of agony from the negro
Coleman, and flying slivers of steel
were sprayed i'm all directions.
MRS. HARRIS HURLED 20 FEET.
Mrs Harris was struck in the neck
and thrown a distance of twenty feet.
The buggy she was driving was cut
from it's harness and spun around like
a pinwheel.
fragments and scattered for yards. Inc
legs of the elder Jim Holoman were
cut from his body as If by scythe, and
have never been recovered. Charles
Martin was killed in his tracks by
wounds in the skull.
Jim Coleman, who was probably far
Their away from the explosion than the
others, suffered a badly torn foot. but
serious consequences will not follow.
1t was this sight of stricken, dismem-
bered bodies which met the gaze of the
frightened negro woman who came rush
ing out of the farmhouse on hearing
the explosion.
1t was practically this same sight
which met the eyes of Judge n. A, Nor
ris and Sheriff Swanson three-quarters
of an hour later, when summoned by a
telephone message from the farmhouse.
they hurried to the scene, which is
about three miles from Marietta.
According to Judge Morris descrip-
ton all the bodies were lying in a
radius of about twenty-five feet. All
were dead. The negro Jim Holloway,
Jr.. was mutiliated beyond recognition
When Judge Morris arrived. followed
later by the sheriff, darkness had come.
but everything that could possibly be
done was done.
An ambulance from a Marietta I'M
dertaking establishment was the first
vehicle to reach the scene and in this
wagon the bodies were removed to town
and the wounded man, Jim Coleman,
carried to DIR. Nolans sanitarium.
REVIEW OF THEORIES.
From the general discussion and re-
the best opinion has resulted in the fol.
lowing:
l. The nature of. the wounds and the
fact that impact was necessary for ex-
plosion make it certain that it was a
high explosive shell thaz caused the ia
talities.
2. The fact that no further shots
from the battery were heard after the
explosion of the one at the Cross farm
house makes it certain that the fatal
shot was one Of the rounds fired in the
final salvo.
s. The fact that the persons killed
were within what is called the dead
space"-that is, the space within which
II is not possible to he hit by a shell
over the crest of the mountain-makes
1t practically certain that the shell
ricochetted.
In explaining this last theory Lieu
tenant Colonel Robert j. Fleming scouts
the idea that the tragedy may have been
caused by one of the cannoneers setting
off ar incorrect range.
"In the first place." he said. eff a
cannoneer had set off the incorrect
range. it would probably have been
caught at the battery before the gun
was ever fired. In the second place
if the gun had been fired at the eleva-
ton necessary to clear the top of the
mountain, 1t would have gone five miles
before hitting the ground"
Lieutenant McMahan, who was in
charge of battery No. ., declared tina {
every possible precaution to prevent
the occurrence of any accident had been
it was absolutely unpreventable.
Early In the morning the range parry
warned negroes off the range and the
most elaborate caution was exercised be-
fore the beginning of each firing prob |
lem.
THINKS SHELL DEFLECTED.
1t was his opinion that the shell hal
struck a piece of rock near one OF the |
targets and had been DETECTED over the |
mountain at such an angle as to strike |
Mrs Harris and the negroes. The fact |
that the shell did not explode when II
struck the rock was something extreme
ly unusual he said, and the whole hap
pening was such. as would not occur |
once in a thousand years.
Colonel Noyes expressed deep regret |
over the tragedy. He said that il APP
parently was unpreventable. However, |
the investigation would be thorough in
every particular, he said and the re-
suits reported to the southeastern de- |
partment.
Mrs Harris was thirty-one years old |
and is survived by her husband, Seth |
Harris, who was sick at the time Of the |
accident and is now in a much worse |
condition; one son. Paul, aged eight, and |
one daughter, Nell, aged five. The body |
L. tE 1A,aN 81