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RARE Edition of the Tri-Weekly American Times Newspaper Vicksburg,Mississippi ( Warren County) March 13th 1857 ( four pages)
(Some of the historical highlights include):
Broadside: Virginia and North Carolina Negros for Sale ! Sold by Bolten, Dickens & Company~ Our Motto. "Small Profits and Quick Sales"~ November 15th & 16th ( 1857) we will have 50 to 100 Negros for sale. ...Recollect they will be here about the time the excitment of the Presidential election will subside,and your minds will be calmed off sufficient to make year purchases".
* Large group of carefully selected negros have arrived from Kentucky & Virginia~Bolten,Dickens & Company
*Rare early advertidsement for Bowling Alley ( KEEP THE BALL ROLLING) found in the saloon under the Apollo Hall in Vicksburg.
*(Jeremiah Gurney) Skylight Gallery is coming to Vicksburg !... with his traveling photographic salon and taking ambrotypes September 17th
*Editorial berating the pro-slavery Democrat Party for stiring up trouble up north agitating ant-slavery factions.
* Warren Female Seminary advertisement
*Many illustrated notices of steamboat (Paddleboat) Packet schedules and services including the PRINCESS~
The Princess was a four-year-old state-of-the-art side-wheel paddleboat.On February 27, 1859, the Steamboat Princess exploded on the Mississippi River killing between 70 and 200 passengers and crew. Maintaining a posted schedule was important in the competitive business of steamboat commerce. When the Princess pulled up to the wharf in Baton Rouge early on the morning of February 27, 1859, it was already late. The boat was loaded with passengers, mostly from Mississippi and Louisiana, headed to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras. More passengers boarded at Baton Rouge including a number of politicians fresh from the state legislative session that had just ended early for the holiday. An estimated four hundred people were on board the Princess when it pulled out into the current of the river after 9 a.m. Because the boat was late, high boiler pressure had been maintained during the stop, and second engineer Peter Hersey was reported to have declared that he would make it to New Orleans on time “if he had to blow her up.” As a portent of the looming catastrophe, the Mississippi River was veiled in a dense fog. The Princess was about six miles below Baton Rouge at Conrad’s Point when a teenage boy watching the boat glide along from a distance noted, “A great column of white smoke suddenly went up from her and she burst into flames.” The explosion was cataclysmic as all four huge boilers burst at once. Hersey and many others died instantly in a blast of scalding steam. Concussion swept away the infrastructure, and the upper cabins, state rooms, and hurricane deck collapsed inward. Fire broke out and began to consume the remains. Even amid the horrendous chaos, rescue efforts began immediately. The flaming hull drifted onto a shoreline sandbar and grounded. Uninjured crewmen and passengers dragged the injured up onto the sandbar. Slaves from the nearby Cottage plantation were ordered to bring sheets and blankets. Barrels of flour were emptied on the ground, and the terribly burned victims were rolled in it and placed in the shade. Men in skiffs from both riverbanks rescued people clinging to debris. Plowing upriver from New Orleans, the Natchez was the first steamboat to arrive on the scene. For several hours its crew and passengers provided aid before heading upriver, its decks covered with bodies of the dead and injured. There was no manifest to record the names of passengers aboard the Princessat the time of the disaster. The number of people killed instantly or who drowned or died as a result of their injuries was variously estimated from seventy to two hundred; the actual number was likely closer to the smaller figure. At least a hundred people survived their injuries. Among those killed were Louisiana state representatives H. J. Huard and Charles Bannister. The boat and its entire cargo was a total loss. Human error—failure to maintain safe boiler pressure—was determined to be the cause of the tragedy, and a pall was cast over the 1859 Mardi Gras celebrations.
(Years later, a local resident described the horrific scene he witnessed as a teenager): “I have a vivid recollection of a tragedy which happened in those days which often troubles the dreams of my old age. I was an eye-witness of the blowing-up and destruction by fire of the Princess, the finest steamboat on the Mississippi in those days. The night before the disaster my father and mother had kissed me good-bye and gone on board of an old dismantled steamboat, which answered the purposes of a wharf, to await the arrival of the Princess, as they intended to take passage on her for New Orleans. Early the next morning I went down to the river to find out if they had yet left. “The Princess had just drawn out into the stream, and as I stood watching her as she glided down the river, a great column of white smoke suddenly went up from her and she burst into flames. She was loaded with cotton. As though by magic the inhabitants of the town gathered at the riverside and in the crowd I spied my brother-in-law, Charles La Noue, in a buggy. He called to me; I jumped in alongside of him and we dashed down the river road in the direction of the burning boat. The road was rough and the horse was fast. The high levee on our right shut out the view of the river, so we could only see the great column of smoke. On our left were the endless fields of sugar cane, with an occasional glimpse of a planter's house set in a grove of pecan trees. “At last, in a great state of excitement, we arrived at the plantation of Mr. Conrad.8 ‘Brother Charlie’ jumped out of the vehicle and ran toward the house while I made the horse fast to a tree. I then mounted the levee from where I could see floating cotton bales with people on them; men in skiffs, from both sides of the river, were rescuing the poor terror-stricken creatures and bringing them ashore. From the levee I rushed into the park in front of Mr. Conrad’s residence and there saw a sight which can never be effaced from my memory. Mr. Conrad had had sheets laid on the ground amidst the trees and barrels of flour were broken open and the contents poured over the sheets. As fast as the burned and scalded people were pulled out of the river they were seized by the slaves and, while screaming and shrieking with pain and fright, they were forcibly thrown down on the sheets and rolled in the flour. The clothes had been burned off of many of them. Some, in their agony, could not lie still, and, with the white sheets wrapped round them, looking like ghosts, they danced a weird hornpipe while filling the air with their screams. Terrified by the awful and uncanny scene, I hid behind a huge tree so that I should not see it, but no tree could prevent me from hearing those awful cries and curses which echo in my ears even now. “Suddenly, to my horror, one of the white specters, wrapped in a sheet, his disfigured face plastered over with flour, staggered toward my hiding-place, and before I could run away from the hideous object it extended its arms toward me and quietly said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Jimmie. It is me, Mr. Cheatham. I am dying--hold my hand!’ And he sank upon the turf beside me. Although dreadfully frightened, I managed between sobs to ask the question uppermost in my mind: ‘Can you tell me where I can find my father and mother?’ (He later learned that his parents departed on an earlier steamboat.) The ghostlike man only replied with a cry which seemed to wrench his soul from his body. He shivered for an instant, and then lay still. A slave passing by pointed to the body and casually remarked, ‘He done dead.
(Some of the historical highlights include):
Broadside: Virginia and North Carolina Negros for Sale ! Sold by Bolten, Dickens & Company~ Our Motto. "Small Profits and Quick Sales"~ November 15th & 16th ( 1857) we will have 50 to 100 Negros for sale. ...Recollect they will be here about the time the excitment of the Presidential election will subside,and your minds will be calmed off sufficient to make year purchases".
* Large group of carefully selected negros have arrived from Kentucky & Virginia~Bolten,Dickens & Company
*Rare early advertidsement for Bowling Alley ( KEEP THE BALL ROLLING) found in the saloon under the Apollo Hall in Vicksburg.
*(Jeremiah Gurney) Skylight Gallery is coming to Vicksburg !... with his traveling photographic salon and taking ambrotypes September 17th
*Editorial berating the pro-slavery Democrat Party for stiring up trouble up north agitating ant-slavery factions.
* Warren Female Seminary advertisement
*Many illustrated notices of steamboat (Paddleboat) Packet schedules and services including the PRINCESS~
The Princess was a four-year-old state-of-the-art side-wheel paddleboat.On February 27, 1859, the Steamboat Princess exploded on the Mississippi River killing between 70 and 200 passengers and crew. Maintaining a posted schedule was important in the competitive business of steamboat commerce. When the Princess pulled up to the wharf in Baton Rouge early on the morning of February 27, 1859, it was already late. The boat was loaded with passengers, mostly from Mississippi and Louisiana, headed to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras. More passengers boarded at Baton Rouge including a number of politicians fresh from the state legislative session that had just ended early for the holiday. An estimated four hundred people were on board the Princess when it pulled out into the current of the river after 9 a.m. Because the boat was late, high boiler pressure had been maintained during the stop, and second engineer Peter Hersey was reported to have declared that he would make it to New Orleans on time “if he had to blow her up.” As a portent of the looming catastrophe, the Mississippi River was veiled in a dense fog. The Princess was about six miles below Baton Rouge at Conrad’s Point when a teenage boy watching the boat glide along from a distance noted, “A great column of white smoke suddenly went up from her and she burst into flames.” The explosion was cataclysmic as all four huge boilers burst at once. Hersey and many others died instantly in a blast of scalding steam. Concussion swept away the infrastructure, and the upper cabins, state rooms, and hurricane deck collapsed inward. Fire broke out and began to consume the remains. Even amid the horrendous chaos, rescue efforts began immediately. The flaming hull drifted onto a shoreline sandbar and grounded. Uninjured crewmen and passengers dragged the injured up onto the sandbar. Slaves from the nearby Cottage plantation were ordered to bring sheets and blankets. Barrels of flour were emptied on the ground, and the terribly burned victims were rolled in it and placed in the shade. Men in skiffs from both riverbanks rescued people clinging to debris. Plowing upriver from New Orleans, the Natchez was the first steamboat to arrive on the scene. For several hours its crew and passengers provided aid before heading upriver, its decks covered with bodies of the dead and injured. There was no manifest to record the names of passengers aboard the Princessat the time of the disaster. The number of people killed instantly or who drowned or died as a result of their injuries was variously estimated from seventy to two hundred; the actual number was likely closer to the smaller figure. At least a hundred people survived their injuries. Among those killed were Louisiana state representatives H. J. Huard and Charles Bannister. The boat and its entire cargo was a total loss. Human error—failure to maintain safe boiler pressure—was determined to be the cause of the tragedy, and a pall was cast over the 1859 Mardi Gras celebrations.
(Years later, a local resident described the horrific scene he witnessed as a teenager): “I have a vivid recollection of a tragedy which happened in those days which often troubles the dreams of my old age. I was an eye-witness of the blowing-up and destruction by fire of the Princess, the finest steamboat on the Mississippi in those days. The night before the disaster my father and mother had kissed me good-bye and gone on board of an old dismantled steamboat, which answered the purposes of a wharf, to await the arrival of the Princess, as they intended to take passage on her for New Orleans. Early the next morning I went down to the river to find out if they had yet left. “The Princess had just drawn out into the stream, and as I stood watching her as she glided down the river, a great column of white smoke suddenly went up from her and she burst into flames. She was loaded with cotton. As though by magic the inhabitants of the town gathered at the riverside and in the crowd I spied my brother-in-law, Charles La Noue, in a buggy. He called to me; I jumped in alongside of him and we dashed down the river road in the direction of the burning boat. The road was rough and the horse was fast. The high levee on our right shut out the view of the river, so we could only see the great column of smoke. On our left were the endless fields of sugar cane, with an occasional glimpse of a planter's house set in a grove of pecan trees. “At last, in a great state of excitement, we arrived at the plantation of Mr. Conrad.8 ‘Brother Charlie’ jumped out of the vehicle and ran toward the house while I made the horse fast to a tree. I then mounted the levee from where I could see floating cotton bales with people on them; men in skiffs, from both sides of the river, were rescuing the poor terror-stricken creatures and bringing them ashore. From the levee I rushed into the park in front of Mr. Conrad’s residence and there saw a sight which can never be effaced from my memory. Mr. Conrad had had sheets laid on the ground amidst the trees and barrels of flour were broken open and the contents poured over the sheets. As fast as the burned and scalded people were pulled out of the river they were seized by the slaves and, while screaming and shrieking with pain and fright, they were forcibly thrown down on the sheets and rolled in the flour. The clothes had been burned off of many of them. Some, in their agony, could not lie still, and, with the white sheets wrapped round them, looking like ghosts, they danced a weird hornpipe while filling the air with their screams. Terrified by the awful and uncanny scene, I hid behind a huge tree so that I should not see it, but no tree could prevent me from hearing those awful cries and curses which echo in my ears even now. “Suddenly, to my horror, one of the white specters, wrapped in a sheet, his disfigured face plastered over with flour, staggered toward my hiding-place, and before I could run away from the hideous object it extended its arms toward me and quietly said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Jimmie. It is me, Mr. Cheatham. I am dying--hold my hand!’ And he sank upon the turf beside me. Although dreadfully frightened, I managed between sobs to ask the question uppermost in my mind: ‘Can you tell me where I can find my father and mother?’ (He later learned that his parents departed on an earlier steamboat.) The ghostlike man only replied with a cry which seemed to wrench his soul from his body. He shivered for an instant, and then lay still. A slave passing by pointed to the body and casually remarked, ‘He done dead.
