From the Richmond Whig, 3/28/1864, p. 1, c. 2

HORRIBLE ACCIDENT. - On Saturday evening, about one o'clock, while some empty cars on the Fredericksburg railroad were being backed down the track on Broad street, between 6th and 7th street, a youth named Joseph Rowe, fifteen years of age, attempted to jump on the foremost car by catching hold of the coupling iron. The coupling iron slipping aside as he laid his weight upon it, he was thrown across the track, when the wheels of the car passed directly across his neck, cleaving his head from the body. Death was, of course, instantaneous. The boy was the son of a poor widow of Fredericksburg, who had been adopted by Mr. Thos. Jones, of that place, but at present residing here. A handsome coffin was provided and the body was decently interred at the expense of the Fredericksburg Railroad Company. This is not by many the first accident we have had to record as happening on the railroad on Broad street, nor will it be the last, unless some action is taken in the matter by the City Council. The railroad company do all they can, but are unable to prevent crowds of boys from riding and playing about their trains. The council should make it a penal offence, and direct the police to arrest every boy caught in or upon, or in the act of getting upon any railroad car without permission from the proper authorities.

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