Life
- Died
- July 28, 1869
Career
- Fireman — Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville Railroad
Unknown–July 28, 1869
Biography
Charles Shields was a fireman for the Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville Railroad and was killed in the Budds Creek disaster on July 28, 1869. Shields was working aboard the Louisville-bound No. 2 express train, with engineer Eugene Riley, when the bridge over Budds Creek near Clarksville gave way around 1 a.m. The locomotive and several cars fell into the creek bed, and fire soon consumed much of the wreckage.
Shields died alongside Riley after steam escaped from the damaged locomotive boiler. Contemporary accounts identify Shields as a resident of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and note that he left behind a wife and children. He was one of five people killed in the wreck, which became the most widely remembered disaster in the history of the Memphis, Clarksville & Louisville Railroad.