Unexploded Ordnance

ANOTHER AWFUL WARNING-THREE MEN KILLED AND TWO WOUNDED BY THE EXPLOSION OF AN OLD TORPEDO.

-On yesterday-afternoon. a large torpedo having lodged on the John's Island beach, it was regarded as a valuable prize by the poverty-stricken inhabitants, and a great crowd gathered round,while six, all freedmen, engaged in the fool-hardy attempt to unload the destructive contrivance. They had been engaged in the hazardous enterprise about fifteen minutes, when suddenly there was a tremendous explosion, and the crowd of bystanders were covered with sand, and enveloped with a stifling smoke. As soon as the first shock of the explosion was over, and the smoke had cleared off, it was found that Pompey Legare, the principal workman, had been blown literally to atoms, his head, arms and legs being all severed from his body. Jack Hamilton and Robert Cunningham were killed and frightfully mangled, and William and Joe Rivers were severely wounded. The sixth man, as if by a miracle, escaped unhurt. That none of the surrounding crowd were killed or even injured is passing strange, and can only be accounted for on the supposition, that the force of the explosion was upward

Charleston Mercury, 21st.

 -Edgefield Advertiser(Edgefield, S.C.) May 29, 1867