The Great Shohola Train Wreck: How Topography and Geology Contributed to the Unfolding of a Civil War Tragedy

Abstract

On 15 July 1864, a head-on collision between a W-bound 15-car prisoner-of-war train and an E-bound 50-car coal train occurred along the Erie Railway's single-track mainline between Shohola and Lackawaxen in Pike County, PA. The prison train, carrying 833 Confederate prisoners and 122 Union soldiers, was en route to the Civil War Prison Camp at Elmira, NY. At least 50 of the Confederate prisoners, as well as 17 Union guards and 4 trainmen, lost their lives. While the major cause of the accident was failure to hold the E-bound train at Lackawaxen pending safe passage of the W-bound train, the topography and geology at the site of the crash certainly contributed to the magnitude of the tragedy.