1865 – Dec 1, steamboat Progress, snags/sinks, Arkansas Riv., 20m below Fort Smith, AR– 20

–20 Gaines, W. Craig. Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks. 2008, p. 11.
–20 Indiana Democrat, PA. “Eight Steamers Burned and Sunk.” 12-21-1865, p. 2, col. 2.
–20 Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats…[MS Riv. Sys]…. 1999, p379.

Narrative Information

Gaines: “Progress. U.S. Side-wheel steamer, 59 tons. Built in 1862 at Zanesville, Ohio. Was sunk on December 1, 1865, in the Arkansas River with a loss of twenty lives.” (Gaines, W. Craig. Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks. 2008, p. 11.)

Way: Progress. Sternwheel wood-hull packet, built in Zanesville, OH, in 1862 at 59 tons. “Ran Parkersburg-Zanesville with some regularity through 1865. Also 1864-1865 ran Marietta-Parkersburg, Capt. John Henderson, connecting with B&O trains, Robert Leslie, clerk. Sank and lost on Arkansas River, Dec. 1, 1865, with loss of 20 lives.” (Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats of the Mississippi River System… (Revised). 1999, p. 379.)

Newspapers

Dec 17: “The little stern-wheel steamer Progress, bound from Cincinnati for Little Rock and Fort Smith, with a valuable cargo of groceries, provisions, dry goods, liquors, cigars, &c., was snagged and sunk in the Arkansas River, in [epitaph] Bend, twenty miles below Little Rock, on the 1st inst. The boat and cargo belonged to parties in Covington, Kentucky…The Progress had disposed of over one-half of her cargo before she sunk, at Memphis and points along the Arkansas River.” (Cincinnati Commercial. “Steamer Progress Sunk in Arkansas River.” 12-17-1865, p. 1, col. 2.)

Dec 17: “The little stern-wheel steamer Progress, bound from Cincinnati for Little Rock…sunk in the Arkansas River on the 1st inst., with a valuable cargo.” (Cincinnati Commercial. “River and Steamboat News.” 12-17-1865, p. 7, col. 1.)

Dec 18: “The Progress is reported snagged and sunk in the Arkansas river. She was a small craft.” (New Albany Daily Commercial, IN. “River News.” 12-18-1865, p. 3, col. 3.)

Dec 21: “We record a chapter of steamboat accidents below. The Peerless was sunk and burned in the Ohio, three miles above Cairo. The Darling was sunk at Plum Point, in the Mississippi. The Calypso, Geneva and Highlander were sunk at St. Louis yesterday by the ice, and several other steamers and barges sunk and damaged. The Progress, with a valuable cargo, sunk in the Arkansas River, drowning twenty colored soldiers, and the A. B. Chambers was sunk near Island Twenty-five, on the Lower Mississippi – making a total of eight steamboat disasters, involving a loss in boats and cargoes of over eight hundred thousand dollars, in addition to the loss of life.” (Indiana Democrat, PA. “Eight Steamers Burned and Sunk.” 12-21-1865, p. 2, col. 2.)

Dec 25: “….Captain James H. Pepper, President of the Globe Insurance Company, telegraphs from Memphis yesterday, that he goes to Arkansas River to look after the cargo of the Progress, No. 2, recently sunk in that stream….” (Cincinnati Commercial. “River and Steamboat News.” 12-25-1865, p. 7, col. 1.)

Sources

Cincinnati Commercial. “River and Steamboat News.” 12-17-1865, p. 7, col. 1. Accessed 10-18-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/cincinnati-commercial-dec-17-1865-p-7/

Cincinnati Commercial. “River and Steamboat News.” 12-25-1865, p. 7, col. 1. Accessed 10-18-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/cincinnati-commercial-dec-25-1865-p-7/

Cincinnati Commercial. “Steamer Progress Sunk in Arkansas River.” 12-17-1865, p. 1, col. 2. Accessed 10-18-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/cincinnati-daily-commercial-dec-17-1865-p-1/

Gaines, W. Craig. Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2008.

Indiana Democrat, PA. “Eight Steamers Burned and Sunk.” 12-21-1865, p. 2, col. 2. Accessed 10-18-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/indiana-democrat-dec-21-1865-p-2/

Lytle, William M., compiler, from Official Merchant Marine Documents of the United States and Other Sources; Holdcamper, Forrest H. (Editor, and Introduction by). Merchant Steam Vessels of the United States 1807-1868. “The Lytle List.” Mystic, CT: Steamship Historical Society of America (Publication No. 6), 1952. Accessed 8-16-2020 at:
https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015018039084&view=1up&seq=8&size=125

New Albany Daily Commercial, IN. “River News.” 12-18-1865, p. 3, col. 3. Accessed 10-18-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/new-albany-daily-commercial-dec-18-1865-p-3/

Way, Frederick Jr. (Author and Compiler), Joseph W. Rutter (contributor). Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994: Passenger Steamboats of the Mississippi River System Since the Advent of Photography in Mid-Continent America (Revised). Athens OH: Ohio University Press, 1999.