NP, RD 12/10A/1864

From the Richmond Daily Dispatch
 
December 10, 1864
 
Yankees attempting to blow up railroad trains
   The Quincy {probably Florida} Dispatch of the 19th says the Yankees have been attempting to blow up trains of cars on the Florida railroad with torpedoes. On Tuesday last, a torpedo, containing sixty-eight pounds of powder, was taken up by our men, between Baldwin and Gainesville, some fifteen miles from Baldwin. Two trains had passed over the torpedo without exploding it. It was buried in the centre of the track, and was to be fired by means of a lock and cap attached to a musket barrel, and laid under one of the rails, and connecting with the torpedo by a gutta-percha tube. A piece of iron happened to be left between the hammer of the lock and the cap, which prevented the explosion when the cars passed over.

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