Railroad Accident near Shohola Pennsylvania - Elmira, NY
Posted by: 
ripraff
N 42° 06.600 W 076° 49.624
18T E 348944 N 4663604
49 Confederate Soldiers, Prisoners of War, killed in a railroad accident, were buried in the Woodlawn National Cemetery in Elmira, NY.
Waymark Code: WMP04W
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 06/01/2015
Views: 6
This monument erected by the United States is to those 49 buried here. The names are listed.
text "Erected by the United States to mark the burial place of forty-nine Confederate Soldiers who, while Prisoners of War, were killed in a railroad accident near Shohola, Pennsylvania, and whose remains were there buried, but subsequently removed to this cemetery, where the individual graves cannot now be identified."
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"On July 15, 1864 a wood burning steam locomotive pulling 17 passenger and freight cars moved along the Broad Gauge Erie Railroad in southeastern New York state. Aboard were 833 Confederate prisoners of war and 128 Union guards. The guards were members of the 11th and 20th Regiments of the United States Veteran Reserve Corps under the command of Captain Morris L. Church. Most of the guards rode in the last three cars, others stood atop boxcars and inside the boxcars. The Confederates were the fourth group of prisoners to be sent from Point Lookout, Maryland, to Elmira, New York...At the junction John Martin descended from his post in the caboose and entered Lackawaxen Station asking if the track was clear to Shohola. His question was answered by Kent, indicating that the track was clear. With this mistake the fate of the two locomotives was sealed...The trains meet at "King and Fuller's Cut", A section of track followed a blind curve where only 50 feet of forward visibility was possible. When they collided, only Engineer Hoitt had time to jump clear."