| From the Abbeville (S. C.) Press |
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| July 17, 1863 |
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| Terrible Explosion |
| The large engine "Jefferson Davis,"
drawing the passenger train on the Petersburg Road, due in this city at
6 1-4 o'clock Monday evening, exploded its boiler between 5 and 6
o'clock p. m., near Boilling Creek, the sixth mile post from Richmond.
The train was a long one, running at the usual speed up the grade at
that point. The explosion killed outright the engineer, Hugh Burns, the
colored fireman Jas. Trent, and three of the paroled sailors of the
Confederate steamer Atlanta, who had arrived at Petersburg by flag of
truce, and, with other paroled prisoners, were coming over to Richmond
in the train. Five or six were badly wounded. The explosion was as
terrific as that of a 32-pounder, and such was its force that the engine
was thrown crosswise off the track, and the pilot or cow-catcher hurled
off to a distance of fifty feet up an embankment. Two of the box cars
next to the engine were demolished by the explosion and the momentum of
the train, and here the killing and maiming beyond that of the engineer
and fireman occurred, as the two cars were filled by sailors and
soldiers. One soldier, sitting upon the top of the foremost car, was
struck on the head by a billet of wood and instantly killed; another was
mortally injured. A large number of ladies and children were on the
train, but as they were in the rear cars, none were injured. |
| Richmond Examiner |
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