The early days of the Civil War in Missouri in 1861 were chaotic. Union commanders and sympathizers lived in fear of secessionists in eastern Missouri, especially those under the command of Col. M. Jeff Thompson in Southeast Missouri. One of the steamers running on the Mississippi River at this time was often pressed into service in support of Union troop movements.
The “City of Alton” was built in Madison, Indiana and launched in 1860. It was a sidewheel packet steamer, built to carry domestic mail, passengers, and freight. It initially ran out of Alton, Illinois to St. Louis. The first time Union authorities would commandeer her was in April 1861.
Authorities at the St. Louis Arsenal feared that firearms and munitions would be taken by Southern sympathizers. One April night the authorities removed 10,000 rifle muskets and ammunition, loaded them on the boat, and took them to Alton. There they were loaded onto freight cars of the Chicago and Alton and delivered to Springfield, Illinois to outfit Illinois troops.
“City of Alton” was instrumental in one early action in Southeast Missouri. Rumors of secessionist threats prompted Gen. Prentiss at Cairo to dispatch a force of about 1000 troops to reconnoiter toward Bloomfield from the Mississippi on Saturday, June 22. Cape Girardeau was threatened if the rumors were true. The steamer was detailed to move the troops across the river. The force landed at Commerce in Scott County. Another boat reported on Sunday that the steamer was waiting, empty, with sounds of cannon fire heard in the distance toward Bloomfield. From there, the rumors flew.
In reality, the size of the southern force was vastly overblown—not the 1000 reported by some informants. The Union force encountered very few in their loop inland. In the news vacuum at Cairo, though, a near-panic began by Monday. A force started up river to reinforce the earlier troops, but met the full contingent coming back downriver on the “City of Alton.”
Meanwhile, southern newspapers were reporting the Union force was defeated, hundreds of Union soldiers taken prisoner, and Gen. Pillow would soon be advancing on Cape Girardeau. The only prisoners taken were a few secessionist stragglers and some southern sympathizers from Thebes, Illinois.
The “City of Alton” continued to serve as a troop and supply transport when needed through the war. After the war’s end, the steamer ran between St. Louis and Memphis, and by the 1870s was running to New Orleans. It was favored by passengers as a “palace and race horse” for river travel.
The aging steamer came up for sale in August, 1883, and was purchased by Commodore P. P. Manion, a well-known wrecker. Initially he considered converting her into a “first-class excursion steamer,” but he soon opted to sell off the furnishings and dismantle her.
The sale of the furnishings appeared in the August 18, 1883 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “…all the fine outfit of the steamer City of Alton, at the foot of Cherry st., consisting of 4 bridal chamber sets, chairs, 3 large mirrors, upholstered furniture, bedding, carpets, 8 large chandeliers, china and silver wares, 1 fine piano, 6 large and small ice-chests, 8 fine cannon stoves, 2 cooking stoves and a large lot of cooking utensils, about 300 loads of kindling wood.”
A month later, the hull was offered for sale as a “fine wharf boat.” Sadly, she did not sell, but burned to the water’s edge when the adjacent steamer “Colorado” caught fire on January 2, 1884. An ignoble end for a fine steamer with a notable history.
