sinking in the St. John’s River
150 years ago today: “The Federal army transport Maple Leaf strikes a Confederate torpedo in the St. John’s River, Florida, and sinks off Mandarin Point[1]”
Here’s how folks in Richmond got the news. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch April 6, 1864:
A Yankee shipsteamer B[l]own up by a torpedo in Florida.
–The following is the official telegram relative to the blowing up of the Yankee steamer near Jacksonville, Fla.,
Camp Milton, Fla., April1.
To Gen. Thomas Jordan:
General — A large, double stack, side-wheel steamer is sunk opposite the mouth of Doctor’s Dake, fifteen miles above Jacksonville. She is supposed to be the Maple Leaf. She exploded a torpedo at 4 o’clock this morning. Particulars not known.
Patten Anderson,
Major General Commanding.
Thomas M. Fleming’s excellent account of the Maple Leaf at is posted at militaryhistoryonline.
Maple Leaf Shipwreck provides a great deal of primary source material, including photos.
As we can see from the image above, Alfred R. Waud drew the “Genl. Hunter” going down with the Maple Leaf, but I haven’t seen anything else about a second ship.
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150 years ago the people of Richmond could read about a different type of river technology. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch April 1, 1864:
Brooklyn and New York.
–Mr. John A. Roebling, the engineer of the Niagara Suspension Bridge, proposes to build a bridge between the cities of New York and Brooklyn. The super-structure of the bridge would form an arch about two miles long, clearing the water of the East river in one sweep of 1,600 to 1,800 feet span, and extending over the houses of both cities in a series of smaller spans whose length would be gradually diminished from the East river towards either approach, say from 1,200 to 1,600 feet.
twixt New York and Brooklyn
- [1]Fredriksen, John C. Civil War Almanac. New York: Checkmark Books, 2008. Print. page 414.↩
