The Bedford Gazette

A True Heroine.

Mrs. Caroline C. Stranburg, wife of P. P. Stranburg, of this city, was a passenger on the Pennsylvania, which was burned to the water's edge on the Mississippi, sixty miles below Memphis, on Sunday morning, 12th inst. Mrs. S. left her berth just before the explosion took place, and when she heard the report, which shook every piece of timber in the boat, she caught hold of her little child, which was only two months old, and rushed into the ladies' cabin, at the very moment that a large piece of machinery came rushing through the floor. She ran to the Captain's room and told him that the boat was on fire, but he said she was mistaken, and advised her to be calm. She said she was not mistaken, and her manner was so earnest that the captain thinking she might be correct, went down to the boiler deck. He returned in a short time, and remarked to Mrs. S., "There is no danger now: the fire has been subdued." Mrs. S., however, would not be convinced she insisted that the boat was in flames and told the captain to make preparations for saving the passengers. As she finished speaking, the flames broke through the cabin floor, and in less than a minute the cabin was filled with smoke. She saw that the time for action had arrived, and she knew that her life and that of her child depended on her own exertions, so she went down the private stair case, and was fortunate enough to reach the boiler deck in safety. Knowing that she would perish by fire if she staid on the boat, she determined to leave it, and run the risk of meeting her death by another method. She accordingly seized a board about seven feet long and eight or ten inches wide, grasping her child with one arm and the board with the other, plunged into the river.

The current owing to the high stage of water, was very rapid, and Mrs. S. had as much as she could do to keep herself and child above the surface: but she proved equal to the dangerous situation in which she was placed, and her perilous journey down the river would not have been attended with half the danger that it was, if her unselfish heart had not prompted her to save a man who was unable to save himself. A short time after leaving the boat she saw a man struggling in the water, and she knew from his movements that he was too much exhausted to save himself from going to the bottom; so she generously and nobly jeopardized her life to save his: she grasped him by the arm, at the risk of being pulled from her frail support, and assisted him in getting upon a little piece of plank that was hardly sufficient to keep herself and child above the surface of the Father of Waters.

After floating for an hour and a half, the three were rescued by some men, who, having heard the explosion, launched a small boat and started up stream to render assistance to the unfortunate sufferers. When the man who was rescued by Mrs. Stranburg placed his feet in the boat, he tried to express the gratitude which he felt for his preserver, but his heart was so full of thankfulness that his tongue refused to give utterance to his grateful feelings.

Mrs. Stranburg left this city about three months ago, and went to Clinton, Miss., her birthplace, where her relatives reside. She took passage on the Pennsylvania at Vicksburg, and was fortunate enough to arrive at her own house in this city, on Monday evening.-Bloomington (Ill.,) Pantagraph.