| From the Richmond Dispatch |
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| July 8, 1863 |
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| The locomotive explosion |
| on the Petersburg road, last
Mondayafternoon, was serious in its results, causing the death of four
individuals, the wounding of four or five others and the entire
destruction of the engine. As we stated yesterday, the explosion took
place opposite the six mile stone, as the triad was running up Falling
Creek grade, on its way to Richmond. The explosion was caused by the
blowing out of the crown of the fire box, which is now supposed to
have been cracked for some time. By the force of the concussion, the locomotive
seems to have been lifted from the track, carried a distance of
twenty feet, turned entirely around, reversing code, and then upset in
a ditch. Some of the rails were bent almost double, the was lifted
twenty feet and thrown fifty yards and the engine was completely
demolished. A friend of the engineer says he was very much depressed
for several days before the fatal accident, and remarked that he did
not like to see the steam and water escaping by the clay bolts in his
engine. |
| Mr. Hugh Baurns, the engineer, died from
the scalding he received in half an hour after the explosion; and his
fireman, Jim Trent, (a negro,) died soon after. One of the soldiers
killed was a member of the 2d Georgia regiment; the other was a marine
from on board the steamer Atlanta. Another soldier had his left ankle
crushed badly; a fourth received a painful contusion on the left knee,
and some slight internal injuries; a fifth was severely, though not
dangerously, scalded, and one of the guards was severely wounded on
the head. |
| The train, consisting of eight coaches,
was detained some time till another locomotive
could be procured. Most of the coaches were filled with ladies, sent
from the North by flag of truce, and paroled Confederate prisoners,
and it is really wonderful that so few were injured. |
| We understand that the injury to the road
is already repaired, and that the cars will make their trips as usual. |
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