Eclipse--article at time of disaster - Montgomery InGenWeb Project

.—The steamer Eclipse exploded her boiler on the Tennessee river, opposite Johnsonville, on the 27th. She had on board, the members of the 9th Indiana Battery, and other troops. In all over 140 or more lives were lost by the accident. Second Dispatch. Cairo, Jan. 28.—There were 160 persons on board, 36 of whom were killed and missing, and 69 wounded. All the guns of the 9th Indiana Battery were lost. No further particulars.

The transport Eclipse burst her boiler this morning on the Tennessee river, opposite Johnsonville. She had on board sixty-eight men of the 9th Indiana Battery, a conscript guard of twenty-one men returning from Eastport to St. Louis, and another small squad, besides a number of furloughed soldiers and a few civilians, in all about 160 persons. The destruction of life was fearful. The Battery lost fifty men killed, wounded and missing, and the detail of guards twelve men. Twenty-five men at least were killed outright, and about seventy-eight wounded; of the latter, many are injured beyond recovery. The Eclipse, at the time of the explosion, lay between the Lady Franklin and the Madison. The cables of the three boats had just been drawn from shore where the accident took place. Several men were thrown, by the force of the concussion, upon the hurricane decks of the Lady Franklin and Madison, while two or three fell on shore. The wreck caught fire immediately. Owing to the fear of a second explosion caused by the ignition of powder on board the ill-fated boat, very little assistance could be rendered her, but the other transports of the fleet, which numbered nine steamers, and the Madison stood bravely by however, and succeeded in rescuing a large number from the ruins. The Clerk was the only officer of the boat that was killed. He was locked in the office, which fell through into the hull. Most of the wounded were placed on board the boats Madison and Lady Franklin. The fleet arrived at this port early in the evening, and everything is being done to render the wounded as comfortable as possible; but the scene on board the two steamers is heart-rending. The disabled will probably be landed here, or taken to Cairo.