The poem “The Blue and the Gray” by Judge F.W. Finch of New York was inspired by the April 25,1866, actions of the ladies of Columbus decorating the graves of both Union and Confederate soldiers buried in Friendship Cemetery. The Tombigbee River flows along the west side of the cemetery and the poem begins.
“By the flow of the inland river
Whence the fleets of iron have fled.”
I had always read and been told that during the Civil War there was very little if any steamboat traffic above Demopolis, Alabama, on the Tombigbee. That made me wonder about those opening lines written in 1866 and whether there was steamboat traffic that continued to come to Columbus and Aberdeen during the war. In researching my book, “The Tombigbee Steamboats,” which was published in 2010, I found that commercial activity had slowed substantially and all but ended on the upper Tombigbee. Shipping records for Columbus and Aberdeen bear this out.
The winter shipping season of 1859-60 saw nine different steamboats making 53 trips from Columbus to Mobile. Then in 1861 the Civil War erupted. During the 1861-62 winter season only four boats, the James Dellet, the Georgia Sykes, the William S. Barry and the Lily, were in the Mobile-Columbus commercial trade. However, only the William S. Barry and the Lily were left in the Aberdeen commercial trade. By the 1862-63 season, only six steamboats made 10 commercial trips between Columbus and Mobile while none went to Aberdeen.
However, It turns out there was a good bit of activity on the Tombigbee at Columbus during the war, but it was by boats under Confederate control. Most of the privately owned steamboats on the Tombigbee had been pressed into Confederate service as military transport steamers.
Steamboats still traveled the Tombigbee, but they had become Confederate military transports. The steamers Warrior, Cherokee, Gen. Robert E. Lee, William S Barry, Reindeer, Lily, Marengo, Waverly, Magnolia, Ariel, Black Diamond and Cremona, all of which had been in commercial trade on the upper Tombigbee, had begun transporting military personnel and goods. The Alice Vivian remained in private hands but would often carry military personnel and cargo.
In January 1863 the large Confederate Briarfield Arsenal at Columbus was ordered moved to a safer location at Selma, Alabama. On Jan. 23, 1863, the Mobile Advertiser and Register reported the Alice Vivian had arrived in Mobile from Columbus “with a quantity ordnance” and then proceeded to Selma. This apparently was Confederate ordnance that had been removed from the arsenal at Columbus.
In mid-1863 both the Alice Vivian and the Alabama River steamboat James Battle were converted to ocean going blockade runners operating from Mobile. The Alice Vivian’s first run to Havana, Cuba, was successful but on her second attempt to run the Union blockade she was captured on Aug.16, 1863. The Vivian was converted into a U.S. military transport steamer for the Mississippi, Missouri and Red rivers.
The fleet of Tombigbee steamboats obtained by the Confederate government became military steamboats. They then faced dangers in addition to the normal hazards of the river. Among the wartime steamers in the Tombigbee/Alabama River trade, the Swan was captured in 1862, while the Alice Vivian, James Battle and the W.S. Barry were captured in 1864. The steamer Lily sank in May 1863, but it was raised and again used as a Confederate transport boat. The steamer Henry J. King was burned at Montgomery by Union troops in 1865, and the steamer Dick Keyes exploded near Demopolis in January 1865.
The steamer Cremona, during the late 1850s, had been in the Aberdeen-Columbus-Mobile trade and was the first steamboat with a calliope to arrive at Aberdeen. During the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864 she was filled with bricks and sunk at the Bay’s Dog River Bar by the Confederates to obstruct the Mobile Bay ship channel.
Military records from 1864-65 provide accounts of steamboat activities on the upper Bigbee. O.F. Hamblin of the 2nd Michigan Cavalry was wounded and taken prisoner on Oct. 30, 1864. He was sent to a Confederate military hospital in Columbus. After his recovery he was taken by steamboat from Columbus to Cahaba, Alabama (near Selma), to a prisoner of war camp known as Castle Morgan.
In January 1865, a Confederate artillery battery camped at Columbus was ordered to Columbus, Georgia, by way of Montgomery. The soldiers and guns were to be taken by steamer while the horses were sent overland. On Jan. 25, the steamboat Lily left Columbus carrying the troops and guns to Mobile. There the troops and guns were transferred to the steamer Reindeer for passage to Montgomery. While camped near Columbus, Mississippi, the Confederate artillery battery had reported hearing the whistles of steamers in the distance announcing the arrival or departure of boats at the Columbus landing.
At the close of the Civil War in 1865, the New York Herald of May 23 carried an account under the headline of “Surrender of the Rebel Fleet on the Tombigbee River.” The newspaper reported the surrender of 12 Confederate steamboats and said, “The formal surrender of the rebel naval squadron in the Tombigbee River took place at Nanna Hubba Bluff (35 miles north of Mobile) on May 9. … The following rebel vessels were surrendered: – Jeff Davis, Robert Watson, Magnolia, Marengo, St. Charles, Gen. Beauregard, Duke, Sumter, St. Nicholas, Reindeer, Admiral.”
Union Army records indicate the Confederate steamboats were actually at Demopolis at the time of the surrender. Other steamboats that surrendered on the river included the Cherokee, Baltic, Waverly, Southern Republic and Black Diamond.
The boats became federal property, and when no longer needed for transportation of troops were auctioned off as property seized from the Confederate government. The fleets of iron and wood had not “fled,” they had surrendered and then returned with new peacetime owners.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
