H. R. W. Hill

Hartford, John

picture

H. R. W. Hill (Steamboat)
Steamboats
Civil War, 1861-1865

The H. R. W. Hill, a Memphis and New Orleans Packet, was built at New Albany, Indiana in 1852 and, is reported to have had an iron hull. She was a large boat, owned by captain Thomas H. Newell, and registered in Cincinnati. Her engines were 30 inches in diameter with 10 foot stroke. A big carrier, she brought 5162 bales of cotton in to New Orleans in 1858, a record to that date. When the Civil War broke out she became a Confederate troop ship and one of the most uproarous tales written by Mark Twain is a recounting of one of her pilot's advantures in a battle while serving on this steamboat. The Federals captured the H. R. W. Hill at Memphis on June 6, 1862 and after the war she was dismantled and the hull was used as a wharfboat at Cairo and the machinery went to Captain B. Rush Pegram's second Ruth in 1865. Tonnage 602.

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Herman T. Pott National Inland Waterways Library