Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 27, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 July 1894 — DEATH ON PARADE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

DEATH ON PARADE.

TERRIBLE EXPLOSION AMONG UNCLE SAM’S MEN. Ranks of Federal Troops Stuttered While Oat lor Sammcr Day Drill Exercize in Chicago—Four Men Killed, Seventeen Injured, and Nine Horse* Dead. Cause of the Disaster Unknown. By the explosion in Chicago of an ammunition chest belonging to Battery P of the Second Artillery, from Fort Riley, Kan., four soldiers were instantly killed, eighteen other people, soldiers and spectators, were wounded, and nine artillery horses were killed. The carnage producol by the discharge of the forward gun caisson, leaded with the death-dealing sh rapine i shells and steel percussion shells, was frightful. The houses in the neighborhood of the scene of the explosion, which was the intersection of Grand and Oakwood boulevards, were riddled by the, projectiles of all kinds from shrapnel bullets and canister and j arts of the gun carriages. Two of the soldiers were literally blown to pieces. Their j Indies, mangled beyond recognition, were picked up 2 0 feet or more from where the explosion took place. The people for b ocks around were stunned !by tho concussion. Windows were ' shattered b'oeks away from the accident. und the pc pie rushed out into j tho streets in alarm, thinking it was a jdynamite bomb which some one had ! sot oil. Ail except five of the injured were soldiers of the regular army. The accident occurred at 1:45 o’clock. Tho detachment, consisting of three i troops of cavalry and one battery of

artillery. wa3 proceeding south on Grand boulevard to Washington Park. Capt.-Dodds from Fort Riley was in command. With him were troop'B of tho Se enth Regimen’, Capt. Varnum; fro ]> 10 of tho Sixth Regiment, Lieut. Byer: and two pieces of artillery of battery K. under c ramand of Lieut. Gavle. •Sol<].*er* JiTow.i ICip.li In Air. Troop F was in (he lead, with troop B following. Behind this came the artillery, and troop E brought up the rear. In this order the soldiers were riding, .lust as the artillery reached the intersection of Oakwood boulevard the-o.x]*lo ion occurred. First there cum j a terride, concussion which blew tie men * cateid on the C'ussojj. ■high in utheu'r arid prostrated tKo artillery horses and the nearest cavalrymen. Tiiis was followed immediately by a series of lesser explosions. These caused much less slaughter than tho lirst. Donovan and Doyle, two gunner treated on the exploding caisson, wore i In-own hundreds of feet into the air. Their mangled remains were afterward found gOO feet or more away from the scene, F* uallv terrible was the fate of Joe Galley, of Troop B, just behind the explosion. 11 is head was crushed by the sheds. Tho caisson was totally wrecked. Bits of the wheels were

driven, into the buildings on both sides of the street, and birely enough was left in tho re ad way to indicate the spot’where the vehicle had stood. The lour horses were lrightfully cut and mangled by the shrapnel. They plunged about in agonies on the ground for a few moments and then lay still. The hor.-es on the second tiaceof arti'lery right, behind the explosion fared little better. All except one were killed. Tho cause of the explosion remains a mystery. As nearly all the cases in the ammunition chest were discharged, the cause of the accident will never be discovered. It is supposed, howevyr, to have bean caused bv the accidental unscrewing of an imperfect shrapnel shell cap.

EXPLOSION OF THE CAISSON.

AFTER THE EXPLOSION.