;

Civil War Blog

A project of PA Historian

The Great Shohola Train Wreck – Lyman Weatherby, Union Guard Killed

| June 6, 2014

One of the great ironies of the Great Shohola Train Wreck is that one of the Union guards who was killed, Lyman Wetherby, was from the same region of Pennsylvania where the coal train originated – the coal train that collided with the prisoner train resulting in Lyman’s death. The northern part of the anthracite […]

The Great Shohola Train Wreck – Adam Wilkinson, Union Guard Killed

| June 5, 2014

Adam Wilkinson (1836-1864) was one of the Union soldiers who died near Shohola, Pennsylvania, in the train wreck on 15 July 1864.  Prior to serving in Company F of the Veteran Reserve Corps, he had served in the 121st Pennsylvania Infantry, Company H, as a Private. Of the 128 members of the Union Guard on […]

The Great Shohola Train Wreck – Was the Coal Train in a Hurry?

| May 30, 2014

On the same day that the New York Times reported on the Great Shohola Train Wreck, there appeared in that newspaper on the same page and just under the train wreck report, an article telling of the government seizure of the Reading Railroad and all its branches and of the almost total stoppage of the […]

The Great Shohola Train Wreck – Sgt. Barry Benson Escapes Elmira via Millersburg

| May 27, 2014

Confederate Sergeant. Barry Benson, who tunneled out of Elmira Prison. Benson, of Company H., 1st South Carolina Infantry was a prisoner of Elmira from 25 July 1864 to 7 October 1864.  He had arrived at Elmira Prison via the Erie Railroad from Jersey City, ten days after the train wreck at Shohola, and was in […]

The Great Shohola Train Wreck – The Grambling Diary

| May 23, 2014

Wilbur W. Grambling, a member of the 5th Florida Infantry, Company K (Confederate) arrived at Elmira Prison Camp on 24 July 1864, eight days after the arrival of the first survivors from the Great Shohola Train Wreck.  Wilbur had been wounded on 6 May 1864 at the Wilderness, and because he had been sent to […]