NEWSPAPER & ARCHIVE
EIGHT OTHER SOLDIERS, THREE OF WHOM MAY DIE, BADLY INJURED DURING TARGET PRACTICE AT FORT BANKS, IN MASSACHUSETTS.
Boston, Oct. 15. - Three men of the Eighty-ninth Regular Coast Artillery were killed and eight injured by the explosion of a mortar battery at Fort Banks, Winthrop, today. It is feared that three of the injured may die.
Those killed were:
Sergt. GEORGE NEVINS.
Private HIGGINS.
Private KELLEY.
The injured include:
Sergt. FOLEY and seven Privates.
The accident occurred while the artillerymen were engaged in target practice.
The artillerymen were having the customary morning practice in the mortar battery which overlooks the entrance to Boston Harbor. One shot had been fired and the gun was being reloaded for a second trial. As the breechblock was being closed there came a premature explosion in the powder chamber of the mortar. The breech was blown from the gun and every man of its crew became a victim of the accident.
All the killed and injured were members of the Eighty-Ninth Company of the United States Coast Artillery, which was with the Seventy-Sixth Company, and constitutes the artillery force at the fort.
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