The Port Gibson Correspondent

From the Picayune.

AWFUL AND MOST DEPLORABLE CATASTROPHE.

Bursting of one of the Great Guns on the Princeton—Instantaneous death of Secretaries Upshur and Gilmer, Com. Kennon, Mr. Gardiner, Virgil Maxey and others.

The mail of yesterday brought to our city news of the most horrible and lamentable catastrophe we ever have been called upon to record. On Wednesday, the 28th ult, a large gun on board the Princeton burst as they were discharging it, and killed instantly Judge Upshur, Secretary of State; Gov. Gilmer, Secretary of the Navy; Commander Kennon, Chief of the Bureau of Naval Construction; Virgil Maxcy, Esq., late Diplomatic Resident at the Hague; Mr. Gardiner, of New York, and several of the sailors of the vessel. A large number were wounded or stunned by the explosion. We gather the following details of this most terrible accident from our correspondent's letter and the Washington papers.

Wednesday had been set apart for a trip down the river, and Capt. Stockton had invited a large number of ladies and gentlemen to spend the day on board. We copy from the Intelligencer: "The day was favorable, and the company was large and brilliant, of both sexes; not less, probably, in number, than four hundred—among whom were the President of the United States, the Heads of the several Departments, and their families. At a proper hour, after the arrival of the expected guests, the vessel got under way and proceeded down the river, to some distance below Fort Washington. During the passage down, one of the large guns on board, (carrying a ball of 225 pounds;) was fired more than once, exhibiting the great power and capacity of that formidable weapon of war. The ladies had partaken of a sumptuous repast, the gentlemen had succeeded and some of them had left it, the vessel was on her return up the river, opposite to the Fort, where Capt. Stockton consented to fire another shot from the same gun, around and near which, to observe its effects, many persons had gathered, though by no means so many as on similar discharges in the morning—the who then thronged the deck being on this fatal occasion almost all between decks, and out of reach of harm. The gun was fired. The explosion was followed, before the smoke cleared away so as to observe effect, by shrieks of woe which announced a dire calamity. The gun had burst, a a point about three or four feet from the breech, and scattered death and desolation around."

Our correspondent writes that Judge Upshur was instantly killed; Gov. Gilmer was struck in the back, and with a mere gasp expired; Col. Gardiner, of New York, was literally cut in two below the hips, and bled to death in one minute; Maxcy, Esq., of Md., was instantly killed, and also Commodore Kennon; Stockton was very much burned, and six pilots were killed. Col. Benton, Senator from Missouri, was stunned, but we are happy to learn from the Globe that his injury arose not from any fragment of the gun, but merely from the concussion. He was at the butt of the gun, taking its range, when it fired. He was not sensible of its stunning effect until he had called for aid to the bleeding sailors. He was stunned for a time, but was enabled to walk after reaching the shore, and to give a distinct account of the dreadful scene.

'The papers of Washington had not been able to ascertain all the extent of the injury done, but it was known that seventeen sailors were severely, and many of them mortally, wounded. It was a merciful dispensation of Providence that nearly all of the large number of ladies on board the ship were below, and that no one was hurt, Mrs. Gilmer was, however, on the deck, and near her husband at whose request the gun was discharged a third time. She was taken back to Washington in a state bordering upon distraction. The ladies below were not apprised of the awful explosion until they returned to town. The Globe states that "Mr. Upshur and Mr. Gilmer were idols in the happy family by which each was surrounded. The elder children of Mr. Gilmer are just grown—the younger still in the nurse's arms. Commodore Kennon, Mr. Maxcy and Mr. Gardiner are all torn from family endearments—from wives and children."

The daughter of Mr. Upshur, several of the family of Commodore Kennon, and the daughters of Mr. Gardiner, were on board the steam ship at the time of the accident. Another mail will bring us more details of this terrible calamity, which will throw a whole nation into mourning. We conclude the above recital with the following remarks by the editor of the National Intelligencer:

"The scene upon the deck may more easily be imagined than described. Nor can the imagination picture to itself the half of its horrors. Wives, widowed in an instant by the murderous blast! Daughters smitten with the heart-rending sight of their fathers' lifeless corpse! The wailings of agonized females! The piteous grief of the unhurt, but heart-stricken spectators! The wounded seamen, borne down below! The silent tears and quivering lips of their brave and honest comrades, who tried in vain to subdue or to conceal their feelings! What words can adequately depict a scene like this?"