| From the Memphis Appeal |
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| June 25, 1863 |
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| Frightful Explosion of a Boiler |
| A few minutes past one o'clock
yesterday, the boiler of the South Carolina railroad machine shop,
Meeting street, corner of Columbus, exploded with fearful effect,
instantly killing a young lad named Henry G. Randall, about fourteen
years old and injuring severely three other persons. The explosion
took place just as the machinery had been put in motion after dinner,
and it is supposed was caused by lack of water in the boiler. The
boiler, a large and heavy one, weighing several thousand pounds, was
hurled far a distance of some fifty or sixty yards, demolishing in its
course the brick building which inclosed it, a brick wall on the south
side of Columbus street, the foundry of the machine shop, a wooden
fence on the north side of the street, and finally lodged in a
wooden house on this side, showing ??? it was protruded at an angle of
about forty-five degrees from its position in the boiler house. This
house was occupied by Mr. Jas. Randall, and it was his little son who
fell a victim. The east side of the building, through which the boiler
entered, is entirely destroyed, and the whole dwelling is badly
shattered. Young Randall was in the dining room, sitting at the table,
his father and another member of the family having left only a few
moments previous. Mrs. Lawton, the housekeeper of the family,
sustained some injury, but not of a serious character. Private John
Ashley, Company E, Colonel Keitt's regiment, was driving a wagon past
the building at the time, and received some serious but not dangerous
contusions in the head and right shoulder, from fragments of brick. He
was thrown from the wagon, and was taken in the Wayside hospital,
where he was attended to by Dr. Dobby. The only person injured in the
machine shop was the colored fireman, who had seven of his ribs
fractured. Some portions of bricks and iron bolts pierced the east end
of the house next west of Mr. Randall's, but, fortunately, the room
through which the missiles entered was vacant at the time. |
| Charleston Mercury |
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