DirkSears
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I have found the exact location of an 1861 train wreck that was carrying Union Soldiers from Illinois to Ohio. The train was 6 passengers cars long plus the engine. Approx 28 soldiers were killed and approx 60 wounded badly. None of the soldiers were buried at the wreck site so its not a graveyard or anything like that. All of the train cars were removed and the tracks no longer exist either.
I've got permission to hunt the area when it warms up.
Do you think I should or is hunting this area taboo because of the death involved?
<edit> OK, I think I'll hunt it from the posts below...Here is the history as I have found it! It has been transcribed from old newspaper clipings. When I asked the locals about the "malicious" people in the article they said it was "KGC" and some said "The Clan". The KGC response surprised me as I did not mention anything to the locals. I just stricly asked who they thought would do something like that. Kinda neat to hear KGC brought into the conversation. I'll try to get some pics of the area as soon as possible and I plan on hunting it this spring or sooner.
Train Wreck, Sept 1861
ANOTHER RAILROAD MASSACRE !!
OVER ONE HUNDRED TROOPS KILLED AND WOUNDED !!
CINCINNATI, September 18. -- Last night, about half past eight o'clock, a train on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, containing a portion of Colonel TORCHIN'S Nineteenth Illinois Regiment, while passing over a bridge, near , miles west of Cincinnati, fell through, killing and wounding over one hundred soldiers. The news reached here late last night, when a special train was despatched[sic] to the asistance of the survivors.
The following despatch[sic] has been received from the operator at , dated ten minutes after one o'clock this morning: “The bridge was broken in two. It let four cars down into the bed of the creek, and one fell on the top of them. The engine and one car passed over safely. There are about one hundred wounded and ten or fifteen killed. The colonel of the regiment says there are about that number killed, although nearly all of one company are missing.” It is thought the bridge was weakened by some malicious persons.
CINCINNATI, Sept. 18. -- The disaster on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad proves worse than at first reported. Four passenger cars were precipitated into the creek, and one box and one baggage-car fell on top of them. These cars contained companies E, F, G, and I, and the latter two companies are the principal sufferers. Captain HOWARD, of Company I, is among the killed. Up to 11 o'clock this morning about thirty killed have been taken out and more are supposed to be beneath the wreck. A train is on the way here with ninety-two wounded. The impression at the scene is that there have been from forty to fifty killed. There seems to be but little doubt, that the bridge had been tampered with by malicious or traitorous persons. The bridge was sixty feet span and ten feet high, and was only recently inspected.
THE KILLED AND WOUNDED.
CINCINNATI, Sept. 18 – Evening. -- The wounded arrived here this evening, at 5 o'clock, and were all taken to the Marine Hospital, where ample arrangements have been made for their comfort.
The following is a list of the names of
THE KILLED.
Company E -- MARTIN KELLY, F. C. VALENTINE, LEWIS BARBELT,
Company G -- C. H. COLLYNG, DAVID NOBLE, G. M. BRADSTONE.
Company I -- Capt. B. B. HOWARD, Corporal JERRY INGRAM, Corporal A. PAINTER, W. A. ROSE, CARROL J. COLEMAN, H. CONNORS, JOHN BROWN, JOSEPH SMITH, Private McCONNOLLY, Capt. BRUCE, H. C. BURROUGHS, W. HARWICK, ANTOINE PAFFNER, PETER NOWLER, ADAM RINGE, JOHN DOUGLASS, M. HUNT, and four others whose names have not been ascertained.
THE WOUNDED.
Company A – First Lieut. CLIFTON T. WHARTON (seriously), Private H. A. MASSEY.
Company B – JOHN BLACKMAN (leg amputated), JOSEPH W. PACK.
Company F – W. E. BROWN, DANIEL MAURY, PROSPECT WARING, RICHARD PORTER, JAMES MYER, J. H. HARKINSON, C. W. MARTIN, JOHN RUSSELL, FELIX COX, J. H. BORDER, WM. WELSH, WM. W. LEANE, B. F. WRIGHT, DANIEL SMITH, Corporal H. E. BEEHE, Corporal A. GOLDSMITH, A. G. PLUMMER, J. W. LYNDSAY, JAS. ANNA, ANDREW McCORMICK, H. ATWOOD.
Company G -- GEORGE MORRIS, (seriously), WILLIAM TRACY, JOHN LYONS, ALFRED TAYLOR, CALEB SHOWERS, BENJ. BENNETT, JOHN A. ABELL, H. F. MILLER, MICHAEL JAMES CHRISTIAN, JOHN HAYS, ROBT. G. OSBORNE, (seriously), H. STALL, MARTIN WALTMER, DENNIS GALLAGHER, DANIEL TONRIS, R. MUMFORD, J. MUMFORD, W. BILLINGS, W. R. WHITELY, J. B. McMULLIN, H. A. REED, J. W. HOUGHTALON, CHAS. E. BELTOW, JAMES MAXWELL, STEPHEN STALLICH, JAMES M. TENNYSON, J. A. LYNDSAY, LOUIS SPRINGE, CLARK DODGE, ABRAHAM PERSING, CHAS. HOURSING.
Company I – DANIEL SNYDER, A. GILMORE, ALFRED CRIPPEN, CHARLES H. ROEH, JOHN H. ROMAS, CONRAD SCHLEVER, JAMES LYNN (seriously), JAMES ALLISON, WILLIAM WIPPO, AUGUST WINTHROP, J. M. CARROLL, W. P. TYLER, JOHN MORRISSEY, W. H. VICKERS, FRANK HARDEE, H. HOBBS, NICHOLAS ALERM, M. V. FOLEY, HOWARD BEARDSLEY, W. C. SMITH, E. J. IRWIN, MR. JONES, W. PITTUM, DANIEL FARLOW, JOHN CRAMER, Corporal VINCENT, SMION VICTOR ANIKEN, H. DENNIS, H. H. PALMER (seriously), JAMES W. DAWSON, JOHN FRITK, S. DOWLING, W. NOBLE, JOHN W. BOSTON, MICHAEL MALONEY, HARRISON COWDEN.
Company K -- JAMES C. FULLERTON and twelve others so slightly wounded that we omit their names, and six seriously wounded, beyond hopes of recovery.
1861-09
THE LATE DREADFUL RAILROAD ACCIDENT
The special train that started on Tuesday night for the scene of the railroad disaster, conveyed DRS. JUDKINS, QUINN, NORTON and WOOD, a special reporter from the Commercial, and a number of railroad attaches, provided with every appliance deemed necessary to meet an emergency. At they were joined by DR. JOHN A. WARDER.
No certain intelligence of the disaster could be procured until reaching the neighborhood of the scene, where a train of cars, containing one hundred of the wounded, was found, under the direction of the physicians and surgeons from the surrounding country, who had flocked to the rescue. Taking on board the city surgeons, it proceeded to , miles distant, where the inhabitants, men and women, turned out to assist in washing and dressing the men.
After the train left, our reporter proceeded a few rods further towards the scene of disaster. His first sight was that of a car thrown off the track some twenty yards from the bridge, the next that of another car standing on one end. He then learned that at ten minutes to nine on the night previous, the train, consisting of six cars, carrying about two hundred and fifty of the Nineteenth Illinois Regiment, Col. TORCHIN, had broken the bridge down, under the following circumstances: The engine passed the bridge in safety, the first car was thrown off the track, but ran to a place 20 yards beyond the bridge; but the second car fell directly into the creek, hind end downwards; the fourth and fifth cars ran on top of the third, crushing it flat as a board. In the third car was Company I, where the greatest mortality took place. The sixth and last car, containing the field officers and their attendants was not injured.
Those who escaped represent the scene as full of every conceivable horror. Fires were soon lighted on the banks, messengers despatched[sic] for assistance, and the work of rescue begun. All the while the air resounded with the groans, and prayers and imprecations of the sufferers. A train was sent down from with a detachment which had arrived there.
Before daylight eighteen bodies were recovered in addition to rescuing all the living. Lieutenant WHOTTEN was caught by both legs between two platforms, and it required three fourths of an hour to chop and saw him out, every blow of the axe causing intense agony. A colored servant caught in a similar, though less painful situation, was two hours undergoing the operation of rescue. A brakesman, with an arm and leg both broken, crawled from under the bottom car to a place of safety. The water in Creek, over which the bridge passes, was about three feet deep.
Fortunately, both the regimental surgeons, their hospital steward and Lieutenant KELLOTT, also physicians, were in the forward car and escaped without injury. Companies I and G were the greatest sufferers – the latter entire company, except Lieutenant BRIGGS and two corporals, were more or less injured. The Colonel, who is an old Russian campaigner, Lieutenant KELLOTTT and Fife Major MOORE, were accompanied by their wives. These ladies not only rendered great assistance in dressing the wounded, but even tore their under garments off their persons to make bandages.
Captain B. B. HOWARD, for many years post-master of Galena, and a fine soldier of the Mexican war, was completely crushed, not a whole bone being left. After finding the body of their captain, his company, or the few who were left, covered it with green bushed. An old German, himself badly hurt, sat at the head of the corpse telling of Captain HOWARD'S virtues to all that could listen. One poor fellow named CLARK, saw his brother drown, he standing by unable to help.
Of the cause of the disaster we are somewhat loth(?) to speak. Not a soldier on the train, with whom we have conversed, save one, has any doubts that the bolts had been tampered with, and such, also, is the opinion of many railroad men and the inhabitants there-abouts. Certain it is, the bolts look as if they had been filed. There are some Secession sympathisers thereabouts, with whom the company had trouble in times past. Until within two weeks, the bridges have all been watched.
1861-09-19
Train Wreck, Sept 1861
The Late Railroad Massacre.
CINCINNATI, Sept. 19.-- The unfortunate 19th Illinois Regiment reached this city at two o'clock this morning. They marched to the Fifth street market house, where supper had been provided for them, and thence to the Little Miami depot, where they took the cars for Camp Dennison.
The bodies of their dead were taken to the Orphan Asylum buildings, where they will be placed in coffins, and made ready for burial. Many of the bodies are sadly disfigured, but the great portion seem to have come to their deaths from internal bruises received in the crash. At two o'clock, this afternoon, the bodies will be taken to the Spring Grove Cemetery for burial. The remains of Capt. HOWARD will be sent to Galena for interment.
CINCINNATI, September 19. -- The funeral of the soldiers killed by the accident, night before last, took place to-day.
After the services at the Asylum by the chaplain of the unfortunate regiment, the coffins, twenty-eight in number, were placed in hearses and cars draped in mourning, and escorted by battalions from the Illinois Twenty-fourth and Nineteenth Regiments, the Home Guards, and Rifle Regiments, of this city.
The procession passed through the principal streets. The coffins are now in the vaults, subject to orders from Indianapolis. The wounded are doing well, and the surgeons now think that all will recover.
Philadelphia Press Pennsylvania 1861-09-20
--------
A Broken Rail the Cause of the Accident.
CINCINNATI, September 25. -- A committee of practical mechanics, appointed by the Chamber of Commerce to examine into and report the cause of the late accident on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, whereby so many soldiers were killed, have examined the bridge that fell, and their unanimous report was presented and adopted this afternoon.
They report that, after a careful examination of the bridge, and others built at the same time, and of the same materials, they have unanimously concluded that the accident was not occasioned by any insufficiency of timbers or iron work, but attribute the accident to a broken rail, found at the west end of the bridge. As the locomotive and one car passed over safely, the latter car, as appears from marks upon the timbers, misplaced the iron and cross-ties, which threw the remainder of the cars from the track as they entered the bridge, thus precipitating them against the truss and cords, breaking it down, and not from any weakness or decay of the timber. Another committee of practical men, appointed on the part of the railroad company, made substantially the same report.
1861-09-26
I've got permission to hunt the area when it warms up.
Do you think I should or is hunting this area taboo because of the death involved?
<edit> OK, I think I'll hunt it from the posts below...Here is the history as I have found it! It has been transcribed from old newspaper clipings. When I asked the locals about the "malicious" people in the article they said it was "KGC" and some said "The Clan". The KGC response surprised me as I did not mention anything to the locals. I just stricly asked who they thought would do something like that. Kinda neat to hear KGC brought into the conversation. I'll try to get some pics of the area as soon as possible and I plan on hunting it this spring or sooner.
Train Wreck, Sept 1861
ANOTHER RAILROAD MASSACRE !!
OVER ONE HUNDRED TROOPS KILLED AND WOUNDED !!
CINCINNATI, September 18. -- Last night, about half past eight o'clock, a train on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, containing a portion of Colonel TORCHIN'S Nineteenth Illinois Regiment, while passing over a bridge, near , miles west of Cincinnati, fell through, killing and wounding over one hundred soldiers. The news reached here late last night, when a special train was despatched[sic] to the asistance of the survivors.
The following despatch[sic] has been received from the operator at , dated ten minutes after one o'clock this morning: “The bridge was broken in two. It let four cars down into the bed of the creek, and one fell on the top of them. The engine and one car passed over safely. There are about one hundred wounded and ten or fifteen killed. The colonel of the regiment says there are about that number killed, although nearly all of one company are missing.” It is thought the bridge was weakened by some malicious persons.
CINCINNATI, Sept. 18. -- The disaster on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad proves worse than at first reported. Four passenger cars were precipitated into the creek, and one box and one baggage-car fell on top of them. These cars contained companies E, F, G, and I, and the latter two companies are the principal sufferers. Captain HOWARD, of Company I, is among the killed. Up to 11 o'clock this morning about thirty killed have been taken out and more are supposed to be beneath the wreck. A train is on the way here with ninety-two wounded. The impression at the scene is that there have been from forty to fifty killed. There seems to be but little doubt, that the bridge had been tampered with by malicious or traitorous persons. The bridge was sixty feet span and ten feet high, and was only recently inspected.
THE KILLED AND WOUNDED.
CINCINNATI, Sept. 18 – Evening. -- The wounded arrived here this evening, at 5 o'clock, and were all taken to the Marine Hospital, where ample arrangements have been made for their comfort.
The following is a list of the names of
THE KILLED.
Company E -- MARTIN KELLY, F. C. VALENTINE, LEWIS BARBELT,
Company G -- C. H. COLLYNG, DAVID NOBLE, G. M. BRADSTONE.
Company I -- Capt. B. B. HOWARD, Corporal JERRY INGRAM, Corporal A. PAINTER, W. A. ROSE, CARROL J. COLEMAN, H. CONNORS, JOHN BROWN, JOSEPH SMITH, Private McCONNOLLY, Capt. BRUCE, H. C. BURROUGHS, W. HARWICK, ANTOINE PAFFNER, PETER NOWLER, ADAM RINGE, JOHN DOUGLASS, M. HUNT, and four others whose names have not been ascertained.
THE WOUNDED.
Company A – First Lieut. CLIFTON T. WHARTON (seriously), Private H. A. MASSEY.
Company B – JOHN BLACKMAN (leg amputated), JOSEPH W. PACK.
Company F – W. E. BROWN, DANIEL MAURY, PROSPECT WARING, RICHARD PORTER, JAMES MYER, J. H. HARKINSON, C. W. MARTIN, JOHN RUSSELL, FELIX COX, J. H. BORDER, WM. WELSH, WM. W. LEANE, B. F. WRIGHT, DANIEL SMITH, Corporal H. E. BEEHE, Corporal A. GOLDSMITH, A. G. PLUMMER, J. W. LYNDSAY, JAS. ANNA, ANDREW McCORMICK, H. ATWOOD.
Company G -- GEORGE MORRIS, (seriously), WILLIAM TRACY, JOHN LYONS, ALFRED TAYLOR, CALEB SHOWERS, BENJ. BENNETT, JOHN A. ABELL, H. F. MILLER, MICHAEL JAMES CHRISTIAN, JOHN HAYS, ROBT. G. OSBORNE, (seriously), H. STALL, MARTIN WALTMER, DENNIS GALLAGHER, DANIEL TONRIS, R. MUMFORD, J. MUMFORD, W. BILLINGS, W. R. WHITELY, J. B. McMULLIN, H. A. REED, J. W. HOUGHTALON, CHAS. E. BELTOW, JAMES MAXWELL, STEPHEN STALLICH, JAMES M. TENNYSON, J. A. LYNDSAY, LOUIS SPRINGE, CLARK DODGE, ABRAHAM PERSING, CHAS. HOURSING.
Company I – DANIEL SNYDER, A. GILMORE, ALFRED CRIPPEN, CHARLES H. ROEH, JOHN H. ROMAS, CONRAD SCHLEVER, JAMES LYNN (seriously), JAMES ALLISON, WILLIAM WIPPO, AUGUST WINTHROP, J. M. CARROLL, W. P. TYLER, JOHN MORRISSEY, W. H. VICKERS, FRANK HARDEE, H. HOBBS, NICHOLAS ALERM, M. V. FOLEY, HOWARD BEARDSLEY, W. C. SMITH, E. J. IRWIN, MR. JONES, W. PITTUM, DANIEL FARLOW, JOHN CRAMER, Corporal VINCENT, SMION VICTOR ANIKEN, H. DENNIS, H. H. PALMER (seriously), JAMES W. DAWSON, JOHN FRITK, S. DOWLING, W. NOBLE, JOHN W. BOSTON, MICHAEL MALONEY, HARRISON COWDEN.
Company K -- JAMES C. FULLERTON and twelve others so slightly wounded that we omit their names, and six seriously wounded, beyond hopes of recovery.
1861-09
THE LATE DREADFUL RAILROAD ACCIDENT
The special train that started on Tuesday night for the scene of the railroad disaster, conveyed DRS. JUDKINS, QUINN, NORTON and WOOD, a special reporter from the Commercial, and a number of railroad attaches, provided with every appliance deemed necessary to meet an emergency. At they were joined by DR. JOHN A. WARDER.
No certain intelligence of the disaster could be procured until reaching the neighborhood of the scene, where a train of cars, containing one hundred of the wounded, was found, under the direction of the physicians and surgeons from the surrounding country, who had flocked to the rescue. Taking on board the city surgeons, it proceeded to , miles distant, where the inhabitants, men and women, turned out to assist in washing and dressing the men.
After the train left, our reporter proceeded a few rods further towards the scene of disaster. His first sight was that of a car thrown off the track some twenty yards from the bridge, the next that of another car standing on one end. He then learned that at ten minutes to nine on the night previous, the train, consisting of six cars, carrying about two hundred and fifty of the Nineteenth Illinois Regiment, Col. TORCHIN, had broken the bridge down, under the following circumstances: The engine passed the bridge in safety, the first car was thrown off the track, but ran to a place 20 yards beyond the bridge; but the second car fell directly into the creek, hind end downwards; the fourth and fifth cars ran on top of the third, crushing it flat as a board. In the third car was Company I, where the greatest mortality took place. The sixth and last car, containing the field officers and their attendants was not injured.
Those who escaped represent the scene as full of every conceivable horror. Fires were soon lighted on the banks, messengers despatched[sic] for assistance, and the work of rescue begun. All the while the air resounded with the groans, and prayers and imprecations of the sufferers. A train was sent down from with a detachment which had arrived there.
Before daylight eighteen bodies were recovered in addition to rescuing all the living. Lieutenant WHOTTEN was caught by both legs between two platforms, and it required three fourths of an hour to chop and saw him out, every blow of the axe causing intense agony. A colored servant caught in a similar, though less painful situation, was two hours undergoing the operation of rescue. A brakesman, with an arm and leg both broken, crawled from under the bottom car to a place of safety. The water in Creek, over which the bridge passes, was about three feet deep.
Fortunately, both the regimental surgeons, their hospital steward and Lieutenant KELLOTT, also physicians, were in the forward car and escaped without injury. Companies I and G were the greatest sufferers – the latter entire company, except Lieutenant BRIGGS and two corporals, were more or less injured. The Colonel, who is an old Russian campaigner, Lieutenant KELLOTTT and Fife Major MOORE, were accompanied by their wives. These ladies not only rendered great assistance in dressing the wounded, but even tore their under garments off their persons to make bandages.
Captain B. B. HOWARD, for many years post-master of Galena, and a fine soldier of the Mexican war, was completely crushed, not a whole bone being left. After finding the body of their captain, his company, or the few who were left, covered it with green bushed. An old German, himself badly hurt, sat at the head of the corpse telling of Captain HOWARD'S virtues to all that could listen. One poor fellow named CLARK, saw his brother drown, he standing by unable to help.
Of the cause of the disaster we are somewhat loth(?) to speak. Not a soldier on the train, with whom we have conversed, save one, has any doubts that the bolts had been tampered with, and such, also, is the opinion of many railroad men and the inhabitants there-abouts. Certain it is, the bolts look as if they had been filed. There are some Secession sympathisers thereabouts, with whom the company had trouble in times past. Until within two weeks, the bridges have all been watched.
1861-09-19
Train Wreck, Sept 1861
The Late Railroad Massacre.
CINCINNATI, Sept. 19.-- The unfortunate 19th Illinois Regiment reached this city at two o'clock this morning. They marched to the Fifth street market house, where supper had been provided for them, and thence to the Little Miami depot, where they took the cars for Camp Dennison.
The bodies of their dead were taken to the Orphan Asylum buildings, where they will be placed in coffins, and made ready for burial. Many of the bodies are sadly disfigured, but the great portion seem to have come to their deaths from internal bruises received in the crash. At two o'clock, this afternoon, the bodies will be taken to the Spring Grove Cemetery for burial. The remains of Capt. HOWARD will be sent to Galena for interment.
CINCINNATI, September 19. -- The funeral of the soldiers killed by the accident, night before last, took place to-day.
After the services at the Asylum by the chaplain of the unfortunate regiment, the coffins, twenty-eight in number, were placed in hearses and cars draped in mourning, and escorted by battalions from the Illinois Twenty-fourth and Nineteenth Regiments, the Home Guards, and Rifle Regiments, of this city.
The procession passed through the principal streets. The coffins are now in the vaults, subject to orders from Indianapolis. The wounded are doing well, and the surgeons now think that all will recover.
Philadelphia Press Pennsylvania 1861-09-20
--------
A Broken Rail the Cause of the Accident.
CINCINNATI, September 25. -- A committee of practical mechanics, appointed by the Chamber of Commerce to examine into and report the cause of the late accident on the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad, whereby so many soldiers were killed, have examined the bridge that fell, and their unanimous report was presented and adopted this afternoon.
They report that, after a careful examination of the bridge, and others built at the same time, and of the same materials, they have unanimously concluded that the accident was not occasioned by any insufficiency of timbers or iron work, but attribute the accident to a broken rail, found at the west end of the bridge. As the locomotive and one car passed over safely, the latter car, as appears from marks upon the timbers, misplaced the iron and cross-ties, which threw the remainder of the cars from the track as they entered the bridge, thus precipitating them against the truss and cords, breaking it down, and not from any weakness or decay of the timber. Another committee of practical men, appointed on the part of the railroad company, made substantially the same report.
1861-09-26
