Shohola train Wreck

prroh

Captain
Honored Fallen Comrade
Joined
Oct 1, 2009
Location
Maryland
These fellows were captured during the Overland Campaign and were being taken from Camp Lookout, MD to the Elmira POW Camp. A freight train somehow got onto the track and there was a head-on collision. A couple of boggies (Iron wheels and axels) still lie at the bottom the steep ravine where the train crashed. Their bodies, plus several guards were placed in the dining room of the Shohola Inn which still stands today. BTW they make terrific Bourbon Old Fashions in the tap room.

Note the eleven mebers of the 51st NC listed.

Zane Grey had a house about 500 yards away, near a bridge over the Delaware built by the Roeblings who built the Brooklyn and Cinncinnati suspension bridges, two of the world's oldest.

100_0680.jpg
 
The five or so unaccounted for POWs were never heard from. If they made their way back to the ANV, the CSA papers would have had a field day in publicizing their return. I suspect these guys made a seperate peace.
 
I just visited the site of the Great Shohola Train Wreck on Sunday. Where would I find any information on the "boggies" and their location?
These fellows were captured during the Overland Campaign and were being taken from Camp Lookout, MD to the Elmira POW Camp. A freight train somehow got onto the track and there was a head-on collision. A couple of boggies (Iron wheels and axels) still lie at the bottom the steep ravine where the train crashed. Their bodies, plus several guards were placed in the dining room of the Shohola Inn which still stands today. BTW they make terrific Bourbon Old Fashions in the tap room.

Note the eleven mebers of the 51st NC listed.

Zane Grey had a house about 500 yards away, near a bridge over the Delaware built by the Roeblings who built the Brooklyn and Cinncinnati suspension bridges, two of the world's oldest.

100_0680.jpg
 
I just visited the site of the Great Shohola Train Wreck on Sunday. Where would I find any information on the "boggies" and their location?

I have no idea about information. They just lie at the bottom of the ravine, below the hotel. What information are you looking for?.
 
Remember Shohola very well

Remember parking at Shohola and walking down the old railroad tracks. We'd cut off and go down to the nearby Delaware River and fish for American Shad in the spring.

During that time, I never heard of the Confederate train wreak. It wasn't until I was hundreds of miles away from there, and decades later, I heard of the Civil War event.

To me it was just going down the railroad tracks from Shohola with a fishing rod and baits and the carry out of Shad at the end of fishing.
 
From that list I found three West Virginians-

Sgt. Robert P. Haynes, Co. H, 26th VA Battalion, enlisted in Greenbrier County
William A. Jones, 1st Corp., Co. D, 22nd VA, enlisted in Nicholas County
Philip "Sip" Reaser, pvt., Co. D, 26th VA Battalion, enlisted in Greenbrier County
 
The five or so unaccounted for POWs were never heard from. If they made their way back to the ANV, the CSA papers would have had a field day in publicizing their return. I suspect these guys made a seperate peace.


Actually, I am aware of one POW that did escape, and lived out his life in North Carolina.
 
And for the record, the POW that escaped made mention in a letter written years later that [FONT=Times New Roman, serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]John D. Johnson, [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Co. B, 31st North Carolina[/FONT][/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman, serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]was also killed in the wreck although his name is not on the monument at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira.
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And for the record, the POW that escaped made mention in a letter written years later that [FONT=Times New Roman, serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]John D. Johnson, [/FONT][/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Co. B, 31st North Carolina[/FONT][/FONT] [FONT=Times New Roman, serif][FONT=Arial, sans-serif]was also killed in the wreck although his name is not on the monument at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira.[/FONT]
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Two Confederate soldiers, John and Michael Johnson, of the 31st and 8th NC regiments, were transported across the recently constructed Shohola suspension bridge to the home of Mr. David Hic**** in Barryville. They died overnight and were buried in the cemetery of the small Congregational Church. The graves are marked by single stone and a small wooden cross. The dead at King and Fuller's Cut continued to be buried throughout the night until the dawn of the 16th. By 9:00 A.M. on July 16 four more men had died and were taken to the common grave at King and Fuller's Cut.
 
Two Confederate soldiers, John and Michael Johnson, of the 31st and 8th NC regiments, were transported across the recently constructed Shohola suspension bridge to the home of Mr. David Hic**** in Barryville. They died overnight and were buried in the cemetery of the small Congregational Church. The graves are marked by single stone and a small wooden cross. The dead at King and Fuller's Cut continued to be buried throughout the night until the dawn of the 16th. By 9:00 A.M. on July 16 four more men had died and were taken to the common grave at King and Fuller's Cut.

Yes, exactly right. And a side note, the church is now privately owned, and the grave can still be seen, however permission is needed to access the site.

The POW that I referenced to that escaped was Patrick Seago, who was aided in his escape by a former Union soldier. Seago was consequently caught by a US detective in Baltimore and forced to join the Union Army, under the name Patrick Smith, as a substitute for a relative of the detective. He joined [FONT=Arial, sans-serif] Co. B, 5th Maryland, Inf.,[/FONT]and he served for 8 or 9 months before he deserted. He lived out the rest of his life in Lileysville, NC. In a letter he wrote when he was 67 years old, he stated he could get no pension, because he was listed as killed in Confederacy records, and because he deserted, was unable to profit from the Union. He was poor and needy and was still looking to get help at his advanced age.

Patrick continued to correspond with the ex-Union soldier who helped him escape. I am still trying to track down those letters, if they even exist anymore.

BG
 
The memorial has two sides one for the confederates and for the federals lost in the wreck....

http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=32180

Here is a marker at the site...

http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=23631

This explains why the two trains were on the same tracks...because there were three trains all together....

http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=667

Here is pictures of the modern site but what is interesting is two confederates soldiers are still buried near the site....

http://www.civilwaralbum.com/misc11/shohola1.htm

This site has a good view of the events at the crash site...It seems more them 72 died in the crash then the lower official number...There was mass graves, mangled bodies, quick burials which all led to missing dead....

http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/elmiraprison/boydarticle.html

Here a first person account of the event...five confederates escaped....

http://www.catskillarchive.com/rrextra/shohola.Html

I would like to see these two trains manifest because I bet my uncles were one or both trains heading to Elmira NY.. My uncles were capture at Cold Harbor and sent to Elmira. The 51st NC Inf Reg and my uncles 8th NC Inf Reg. were part of Clingman's brigade....
 
A couple of boggies [sic] (Iron wheels and axels) still lie at the bottom the steep ravine where the train crashed. Their bodies, plus several guards were placed in the dining room of the Shohola Inn which still stands today.
100_0680.jpg


I think that prroh is misremembering. The bodies of the dead were buried in a trench grave within about 2-4 days or so. I personally differentiate that from a mass grave, where a pit is dug or excavated and bodies are thrown in randomly, like the Haitian graves following the earthquake - limbs nauseatingly stuck up into the air after the bulldozers were finished.

I have seen nothing that claims bodies were left behind in a ravine. Sometime between 1864 and the 1911 re-interment, a freshet washed away one end of the trench, taking about 5 sets of remains with it. This had happened before in the low-lying areas on the Delaware and maybe even since. So, between the freshet, natural decomposition, the several (two?) buried in Barryville, and maybe even families claiming the dead (I would be very surprised if the Erie employees weren't returned home), that's why only 60 individuals were transferred to Elmira.
 
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