[2] Some 833 Confederate prisoners of war (many captured at the Battle of Cold Harbor[3]) were accompanied by 128 Union guards from the Veteran Reserve Corps.
[6] The next 23 miles (37 km) of the railroad was, and is, a single track snaking along the Delaware River through hardwood forest, and has many "blind" curves.
[3] It passed through Sparrowbush, New York, and was travelling at a speed of 20 to 25 miles per hour (32 to 40 km/h) when it reached Shohola Township in Pennsylvania at 2.50 p.m.
[7][5][8] Frank Evans, a Union guard described the scene: "The two locomotives were raised high in the air, face-to-face against each other, like giants grappling...The front (car) of our train was jammed into a space less than six feet.
The citizens of Shohola and nearby Barryville, New York, treated the wounded 'without regard to the colour of their uniforms'[1] and doctors sent by two relief trains from Port Jervis worked throughout the night.
[9] The official death toll was 65 people killed composed of 44 prisoners, 17 guards, and 4 railway staff,[5] however estimates range from between 60 and 72.