The steamer Magnolia was a survivor. She survived a catastrophic fire at the Mobile wharf that destroyed two steamers: Sam Dale and Ambassador. The fire also damaged another steamer named the Wilcox. The Magnolia then survived a collision on the Alabama River with the steamer Wetumpka and a later collision with the schooner Rebecca.
She may be most noted as the first steamer on the scene at the burning of the Eliza Battle. During the Civil War she passed to Confederate military control, was captured in 1865 by Union troops who rather than sinking her used her to ferry troops. Her luck ran out in 1867 when she sank at Selma, Alabama.
The Magnolia was a 325-ton steamer built in 1852 in Jeffersonville, Indiana, expressly for the Mobile trade. Running in the Mobile trade on both the Tombigbee and Alabama Rivers she was able to carry more than 1,400 bales of cotton each averaging 500 pounds. Illustrations of her appeared in Ballou’s Pictorial of Boston in 1855 and in an 1861 edition of the London Illustrated News.
When the Magnolia arrived in Mobile, she became a weekly Mobile and Montgomery packet boat carrying both passengers and cargo on the Alabama River. Advertisements stated that she was designed “after the model and style of the steamer Eclipse, now on the Mississippi River. Her cabins and State rooms are furnished and fitted up in a superb style, with everything necessary for the convenience and comfort of passengers.”
The Montgomery had only been in Mobile for a little over a year when she first dodged not one but two disasters. On the night of February 12, 1854, she was traveling on the Alabama River during a pea soup fog when she collided with the steamer Wetumpka. Though the Wetumpka sank within a few minutes, the Magnolia was only slightly damaged. All of the Wetumpka’s passengers and all but five crewmen were rescued by the Magnolia. No blame was ever fixed as the fog had been so thick that neither boat saw the other until they collided.
It was less than two weeks later that the Magnolia again showed her luck. Early on the morning of February 25th four steamers were docked near the foot of Dauphin Street in Mobile when fire broke out on the steamer Sam Dale. Wind from a coming rainstorm quickly spread the fire to the steamer Ambassador, which became engulfed in flames. The Magnolia was next to the Ambassador but was able to back off in time to prevent the fire spreading to her. The nearby steamer Wilcox caught fire before she could move. While the Sam Dale and Ambassador burned to the waterline, the arrival of a storm with heavy rain quenched the flames on the Wilcox and saved her.
During the 1857-1858 season, the Magnolia began running on the upper Tombigbee, principally in the Gainesville, Warsaw, Vienna/Mobile Tombigbee trade. The Magnolia had another brush with fire on March 1, 1858. Early that morning she was the first steamer to reach the burning hull of the Eliza Battle. She helped rescue survivors and then carried them to Mobile. A little over a week later the Magnolia, with Capt. Stone of the Eliza Battle, returned to the scene of the disaster to recover bodies of the lost.
A year later on March 31, 1859, the Magnolia’s luck still held. At One Mile Creek she collided with the schooner Rebecca. While the Rebecca received heavy damage, the Magnolia received little damage. One crewman on the schooner was killed, but there were no reported injuries on the Magnolia.
When the Civil War erupted, the Magnolia came under Confederate military control. She carried troops, equipment and supplies on the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers. Few records have been found naming the Confederate boats which were running on the Upper Tombigbee, though the Magnolia was probably one of them. A confederate soldier in an artillery battery camped at Columbus in January 1865 reported that all through the night the sounds of Tombigbee steamboats arriving and departing could be heard.
During the War, the steamer Henry King was captured by Union troops near Montgomery and burned; the Dick Keys exploded near Demopolis; the Lily sank but was raised; and the Cremona was intentionally sunk by the Confederates to block the Mobile Bay channel near Ft. Morgan. On April 26, 1865, the 12 steamboat “Rebel fleet” on the Tombigbee at Demopolis surrendered. One of the boats was the Magnolia. The boats were then put into U.S. service transporting troops. The Magnolia transported the 21st New York Battery from McIntosh Bluff to Mobile. On May 9, three other Confederate steamers, constituting the last of the Tombigbee steamers under Confederate control, surrendered on the lower Tombigbee. After the war ended and the Magnolia was no longer needed for transporting troops, she was auctioned off and put back into commercial service.
The luck of the Magnolia ran out in 1867 when she struck a “deadhead” or sunken log in the Alabama River across from Selma. The log ripped a hole in her hull, but she was able to cross the river before sinking just as she reached the riverbank at the foot of Union street. The Magnolia had led a charmed life and even in sinking, managed to reach the riverbank at a city street.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at rufushistory@aol.com.
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