Shohola train wreck The Great Shohola train wreck occurred on July 15 , 1864 during the American Civil War on the broad gauge Erie Railroad 1½ miles west of Shohola , Pennsylvania and killed at least 60 people . Aboard the 18 car train were 833 Confederate prisoners of war ( many captured at the Battle of Cold Harbor ) and 128 Union guards from the Veteran Reserve Corps . The prisoners were being taken from Point Lookout , Maryland to newly constructed Camp Rathbun at Elmira , New York , built to house 10 , 000 inmates . They had begun their journey by steamer traveling along the Atlantic coast from Maryland to New Jersey . Here they were switched to railroad for the final 273 miles to Elmira . Trains . The prisoner ' s train , hauled by 30 - ton wood - burning Engine 171 was designated as an ' extra ' , meaning it ran behind a scheduled train which displayed warning flags giving right of way to the following ' extra ' . However Engine 171 had been delayed leaving Jersey City until 6 a . m . while guards located missing prisoners and was further delayed en route so that it arrived at Port Jervis , four hours late . The next 23 miles of the railroad is a single track snaking along the Delaware River through hardwood forest , and has many " blind " curves . It passed through Sparrowbush , NY , and was travelling at a speed of 20 to 25 mph when it reached Shohola Township , Pike County , Pennsylvania at 2 . 50 p . m . Ahead at Lackawaxen the dispatcher was responsible for stopping all eastbound traffic until the ' extra ' had passed through . But it had been more than four hours since the scheduled train had passed through that morning and when a coal train from the Hawley branch , bound for Port Jervis , stopped at Lackawaxen Junction with 50 loaded coal cars the dispatcher mistakenly allowed it through . Soon afterwards he received the message that the ' extra ' had passed Shohola ; but it was too late . Collision . A mile and a half from Shohola the track passes through " King and Fuller ' s Cut " which had only 50 feet of forward visibility as the track negotiated a series of blind bends . The trains collided head - on with a crash so fierce that it was said that locals ' felt it as an earthquake ' . The combined speed was more than 30 mph , and propelled the wood stacked in each engine ' s tenders forward into the cabs ; killing both engineers and firemen . The wooden box cars were telescope d into each other . Of the 37 men in the car immediately behind the engine , 36 were killed outright , the only survivor being thrown clear . Most casualties occurred in the first three box car s , those riding further back escaped death though many were injured . A ring of uninjured guards was formed around the wreck but despite this five Confederate prisoners escaped and were never recaptured . Frank Evans , a Union guard described the scene : " The two locomotives were raised high in the air , face - to - face against each other , like giants grappling . . . The front ( car ) of our train was jammed into a space less than six feet . The two cars behind it were almost as badly wrecked . There were bodies impaled on iron rods and splintered beams . Headless trunks were mangled between the telescoped cars " Aftermath . The citizens of Shohola and nearby Barryville , New York , treated the wounded ' without regard to the colour of their uniforms ' and doctors sent by two relief trains from Port Jervis worked throughout the night . The official death toll was 65 people killed composed of 44 prisoners , 17 guards , and 4 railway staff , however estimates range from between 60 and 72 . A subsequent enquiry found the dispatcher , who fled the scene , to be negligent . The dead were buried in unmarked graves next to the track , where they remained for 47 years until 1911 when they were moved to the Woodlawn National Cemetery at Elmira , and the Shohola Monument erected with the names of the Union soldiers on one side and the names of the Confederate soldiers on the other . The Shohola Railroad Historical Society houses a museum dedicated to the wreck in a caboose stationed permanently in Shohola .