To celebrate both Christmas and Pierce's success in the
1852 presidential election, the small family set out for a
Boston respite before
his inauguration. After the vacation, in January 1853, the Pierce family was visiting
Andover, Massachusetts, either to attend a funeral or as a vacation for the holidays. On January 6, the family was returning to
Concord, New Hampshire, their hometown. Pierce and his family boarded a train carrying two cars and began their travel back to New Hampshire. At around 1:00 p.m., away from the Andover station (with one possible location being cited as "between Argyle and Arundel Street"), one of the train axles became fractured after running into some rocks that had fallen onto the tracks. The coach that Pierce and his family were in then derailed and fell down an embankment that was below, destroying the car. Pierce's 11-year-old son, Benjamin, who was standing up at the time, was the only fatality. While Pierce and his wife, Jane, did not sustain any severe injuries, Pierce immediately saw that his son had been nearly decapitated as a result of the wreck and covered the body with cloth to hide the sight from his wife, who nonetheless saw it. ==Aftermath==