| From the Raleigh Register |
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| September 17, 1862 |
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| Painful Accident |
| We learn that last evening, about 7 1/2
o'clock, a most painful accident occurred on the Wilmington &
Weldon Railroad, a short distance this side of the North East Bridge,
resulting in severe, if not fatal injuries to Hon. W. S. Ashe,
President of the road, whose left thigh was broken -- his right leg
shattered below the knee, and his right foot almost crushed off,
besides other injuries. The right leg has since been amputated just
below the knee. |
| It would seem that Mr. Ashe, who lives
some nineteen miles from town on the line of the railroad, started
home yesterday evening on a hand car, intending to get to the turn-out
at North East and wait there until the down mail train passed, before
proceeding farther. He was confident that he could easily reach that
point some time before the mail train would be due there. -- For some
reason the hand car did not get there in time. When within about a
quarter of a mile of the turn-out the train met and struck it, picking
it up on the cow-catcher. The others who were with Mr. Ashe on the
hand car had got off and escaped. He alone was hurt as already
described. When discovered he could not for some time be recognized.
He was brought into town and received all the attention that
friendship and medical shill could suggest. From the terrible nature
of the injuries, it is evident that the case must be critical in the
extreme. |
| Unfortunately there was no light either on
the hand-car or the engine. It appears that the regular engine had
somehow given out, and an engine purchased from the Seaboard &
Roanoke Railroad, which was being brought down in the rear of the
train, had to be put in front to haul the train to town. This engine
had no light. |
| At the latest accounts Mr. Ashe was
somewhat easier, though of course his case depends the turn which
things may take, and this cannot yet be ascertained. |
| Wilmington Journal of Saturday |
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| Mr. Ashe, as was expected, has died of the
terrible injuries he received, and in his case death was a relief.
Mutilated as he was, life, if he could have survived, would have been
a burthen to him. |
| Mr. A. was a gentleman well known in the
South. He repeatedly served in the State Legislature, represented his
District several terms in the old Congress, and was for the last seven
or eight years the efficient President of the Wilmington & Weldon
Railroad Company. His loss will be deeply deplored. |
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