Historical Document, 1863: Mississippi Steamboat"The Ruth" Burns, 1863

How the New York Observer Story looked

After the American Century

 

Here are two accounts of a steamboat accident, the first from the New York Observer and Chronicle, August 13, 1863, the second an eye-witness account from The Philadelphia Inquirer  which supplements the first story in many interesting ways. The disaster occurred in the midst of the Civil War, just five weeks after the North won the battle of Vicksburg and thereby gained control over the entire Mississippi Valley.

Steamer Burned and Great Loss of Life

from the New York Observer and Chronicle, August 13, 1863,

 

A despatch from Cairo dated Cairo Wednesday August 5: The steamer Ruth, valued at $10,000, was burned last night at midnight at the foot of Island No. 1  She was bound for Helena [Arkansas], and had on board eight paymasters and their clerks, with $2,600,000 in "greenbacks" to pay General Grant's army. There were about 200 persons on board, of whom 30 were lost. The captain, the first and second officers, and all the rest of the crew were saved. The papers and all the books of the boat were lost. Thirty-one soldiers of company I, North Wisconsin, acted as a guard to the paymasters, under the command of Lieut. Courrier. Of these one corporal and four privates were lost, and three kills by a stage plank falling on them while in the water. The boat had aboard 99 head of beef cattle, 120 mules, 400 tons of commissary and settlers' stores, and about 100 tons of private freight, which were lost.

The fire broke out in the aft part of the boat; some say between the decks others in the nursery rooms. As soon as the fire was discovered the boat was headed for the shore on the Missouri side, and struck the bank with full force, the fire having driven the engineers from their posts, and the engines, consequently, continued to work. As soon as she struck, a number jumped ashore, but her stern soon swung round down stream, and as the engines were still working her bow was burned from the shore and she again started down the river. When she left the shore about thirty persons were aboard, nearly all of whom must have perished. The soldiers are said to have acted heroically, and to have stood by the boxes containing the money until it was certain that all was consumed. The boxes were bound and too heavy to be removed, besides, the flames spread all over the boat in less than five minutes.

This image from The Police Gazette, 1888, does not depict the disaster described but a similar incident.

THE DISASTER ON THE MISSISSIPPI.; Destruction of the Steamer Ruth.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer August 14, 1863

CAIRO, Ill., Aug. 5, 1863.

I am one of the sixteen members of our department who left St. Louis on the evening of the 3d inst. in the ill-fated steamer Ruth for Vicksburgh, and now, through the blessing of Almighty God, am able to write you this brief statement of the dreadful termination of our voyage. Our trip was a quiet one and peculiarly pleasant -- as so many of us were familiarly acquainted with each other, and the boat was not crowded, having but a few passengers -- in comparison to my experience on former journeys on this river. Under the Major's charge was the sum of two millions six hundred thousand dollars, and the corps of paymasters.

As a guard, we had a company of the Ninth Wisconsin infantry, under command of Lieut. COURIER. We reached Cairo at 9 P.M., and most of us remained conversing upon the front deck until the boat departed, which was at 11 o'clock. Feeling fatigued, I retired to my state-room at this hour, but not to sleep long, for I was suddenly wakened by the Major at 12 o'clock, who stated that the boat was on fire, imploring me to get up immediately. I sprang from my berth, took my watch from under my pillow, placed it on a chair, and hurriedly drew on my pants. Looking from my state-room door upon the guards. I saw that the fire was in the stern of the boat, which was making rapid progress to the shore. I therefore thought that the advance of the flames would be slow. Vain conceit! I had only time to throw on my vest and coat, draw on my socks and one boot, having the other partially on, when the fire burst into my stateroom door. I seized my watch in one hand, and my carpetsack (which was by the chair) in the other, and dashed through the smoke and fire for the front of the boat. At this moment there was a terrible crash and jar, rolling the smoke in blinding clouds, and spurting the flames through the entire vessel. I knew we had struck the shore, and felt I was safe. Seeing the front portion of the cabin free from fire. I took a rapid glance of our money and property stored there, and went to the head of the stairs on the outer deck, which I found filled with men struggling to get precedence -- among them four of our guard with one of our smaller boxes. I will here leave myself and tell you of Maj. BRINTON's movements. Upon leaving me, he informs me, he went to the front upper deck, and there gave directions to the guard, who were cool and obedient. He leaned over the railing, as the soldiers were on the the deck below, not being aware that the boat was close to shore, when she struck. The blow had all the force that two powerful engines could give it, and the boat felt to me like a telescope that was being closed up. As the vessel struck, the Major was precipitated head-foremost to the deck below, but, fortunately for him, struck some one beneath with his shoulder, which broke the fall, and he was only severely bruised. Some poor fellow, name unknown, came down with him, but he struck solidly upon deck and never stirred afterward. For a second the Major was unable to move, but upon recovering found that the boat had not remained upon the bank, but was rapidly receding to the middle of the river; the gang plank had been shoved on shore and was just falling when he sprang upon it and reached the shore as it fell. It was fortunate he did so, as he was too severely hurt to swim. In the fall of the plank three of the soldiers I had seen carrying the box of money were struck beneath the water, never to rise again.

All this time I was unconscious of the boat's movements, and when I found the stairs clear and had reached the deck, I discovered, to my dismay, that we were some distance from the shore. A group of men stood with me on the receding vessel, debating upon the chances of a jump and swim for life. Every one seemed calm, and I heard men speaking, but not a sound of excitement could be defected in their voices. Major JAMESON and Major WHITE were standing talking with poor LAMSON, who was lost, (Maj. JAMESON's clerk, the only child of a Boston clergyman,) persuading him to jump with a shutter, he being unable to swim. I went to the bow of the boat, put my watch in my pocket, took off my coat, vest and boots and laid them on my valise. While doing this, Maj. JAMESON had jumped overboard with his trunk, which was light and buoyant, and saved his life. Maj. WHITE followed immediately after, and struck out for shore. As I was taking off my last boot the steam drum burst with a terrible explosion, and the next instant I was under water, and soon engaged in the most terrible struggle for life that I have ever dreamed of. It will give you some idea of my position when I tell you I was nearly as far from the shore as from Market to Chestnut-street, an easy distance fur one to swim who was prepared for it; but with heavy clothing, and muscles relaxed from sickness, I found it a dreadful task. The engine of the starboard wheel had stopped, but that of the larboard was in motion, and this gradually threw the stern of the boat round, so I was obliged to swim with all my power against a strong current to avoid the burning stern. I passed it, but my head felt as if it was being toasted, and I several times went under water to avoid its intensity.

After this I swam more slowly, but felt my strength was almost gone; the shore seemed dark and distant, I looked back at the boat; just then some poor fellow sprang for his life; as he touched the water a bullock (the boat was loaded with them) jumped upon him; the bullock swam away; the man never rose again. I was now near the shore, but had not strength to reach it. Mr. GREVES, seeing me, and how exhausted I was, caught a cotton-wood tree, which is long and slim, and held it to me. I used my only remaining strength, and, reaching, seized it, and was drawn to shore. I cannot express what my feelings were when I reached that beach. I saw but a few men scattered here and there out of two hundred we started with, and Maj. BRINTOM not among them. My strength was gone. I thought I was dying. When I recovered a little. I found those who came off the boat first had clambered up the bank, which was very steep and overgrown with cotton-wood. The heat of the burning vessel was too severe for any to remain below.

Among those thus saved was the Major. You may imagine my delight. This takes some time to relate, but you will scarcely credit it, when I assure you, that from the breaking out of the fire up to the time when I jumped overboard was three minutes, and then the fire was bursting from the windows of the office in the front of the boat. Not a soul could have lived five minutes from its commencement. The boat was a new one, and had the most perfect apparatus for subduing fire of any on the Western waters, but so rapid was the progress of the flames that it was impossible to make use of it.

I need not tell you that I saved nothing but what I swam to shore in, and found myself without coat, vest, boots and hat. We kindled a fire, and, having arrayed myself like Adam in Paradise, I dried the few clothes that remained to me, and was soon again comfortable. I am thankful to several unknown persons for acts of kindness. At four in the morning the steamer Shinglis came from Columbus, and took all that remained to Cairo, where we were soon comfortably located, but will proceed by next train to St. Louis. The loss by this disaster is greater than any that ever occurred in river navigation, not only a large amount of money being destroyed, but a very valuable cargo and vessel. To the members of the Pay Department it is irreparable, as all the papers accumulated since entering service are destroyed. I arrived at Cairo at 6 o'clock, and after writing some letters and sending telegrams, I went with Maj. BRINTON on board the Ravina, to view the wreck and see if we could find any trace of bodies or valuables. We found it three miles below where she first struck, in deep water -- only a few timbers, pieces of the machinery, and the side of a wheelhouse being left to mark its resting-place. Floating on the surface of the water, tied to timber, were the charred and swollen remains of cattle and mules.

We found no trace of any of the lost, and returned to Cairo too late for to-day's train. I start for St. Louis to-morrow, and will again write. We seem to be reaping nothing but sorrow in this district. I have just learned of the death of Maj. M.K. HAZELTON, at Memphis. He was a gentleman and a fine officer, and as great a loss to the Government as to his friends. Nine others are very ill; we can't stand the climate. HARRY.

Technology Matters: Internet book piracy - author's view

After the American Century

The thing about being robbed in cyberspace is that you don't even notice. Last year when someone got hold of the number on one of my credit cards  and began spending thousands of my dollars in Florida, I felt and heard nothing for weeks. If someone had robbed me on the street, I certainly would have noticed. But I have not been on the streets of Florida for decades. 

This week I discovered that many different people have been stealing, almost certainly for several years, my book Technology Matters by downloading it for free from the Internet. I stumbled across one site giving it away, notified the publisher, and it was taken off. But then I decided actually to search and see if there were others. I found out that there were at least 8 other sites where the book could also be downloaded for free.

But was this really free? The  book can be purchased on Amazon for $10.06 brand new. It is also for sale as a Kindle edition for about the same price. So this is not at all an expensive book. My publisher has made a great effort to make it available at a reasonable cost. Were someone to download it for free and print out the 296 pages, how much would they save? Assuming two pages on a sheet, these pirates need to print 148 pages, plus the cover. Then it would be wise to bind the whole thing together in some way. And do not forget the cost of the ink and electricity and the wear and tear on the printer. There may be a small savings, but the result is not nearly as nice, as lightweight, or as handy to use as a bound book.

Aside from the economics of this theft, there is the effect on publishing. The more people download illegally, the fewer books the publishers sell, and in fact the fewer books they can afford to publish. The sort of person who wants to read Technology Matters is someone who would like publishers to survive and to bring out a wide variety of academic titles.

Instead of supporting the authors, the publishing industry, and the culture of learning, the Internet downloading pirate is choosing to spend money on printers, ink, electricity, and paper.

Alternately, the thief can read the book in electronic form, but it was not formatted for that medium, and based on my own experience of reading PDF files on both an Ipad and Kindle, this is an awkward business. Try jumping to the index to check something and finding your way back, for example. Try to go look at the footnotes (usually at the end) out of curiosity. Not easy.

Finally, as an author who spent three years researching and writing a book that people are stealing from me, I must point out that royalties are never large enough to cover the costs of going to the archives and libraries, much less provide a plausible hourly wage. As a rational economic man, if sales fall because my work is stolen digitally, I should stop writing books altogether. There is no economic incentive. Internet book piracy can only discourage writers from writing and publishers from publishing.

Stealing books electronically may seem like getting something for nothing. But it takes from some and gives to others. Seen in a larger perspective, there is no free lunch. If this trend accelerates, we will eventually have no more books, but instead printers, copy machines, and blank paper that no one wants to write on,

Election 2012: Santorum On Top in Early Feb Polls

After the American Century

Since Santorum's triple victory last week a number of polls have shown his support rocketing up to the top position. In an average of all the recent polls, he has just over 30%, and he is about 3% ahead of Romney. Moreover, Santorum wins ALL of the polls, whether conducted by Pew Research or the New York Times. Just eight days ago this result would have seemed improbable.

Meanwhile Gingrich seems to have had his moment in the sun, falling in the same polls to about 16%. Moreover, the trend is downward, as he gets only 10% in the most recent one. Since Gingrich is nearly broke, he has had to stop most campaigning to raise money.  He vows to keep going, and almost certainly will be using his energies to attack Romney, though he is an unpredictable man.

Romney hardly needs to worry about money, but suddenly neither does Santorum. He received more than $1 million a day in the first days after his stunning victories last week. Moreover, suddenly all the journalists and TV stations want to talk with him. This gives him free exposure to the public.

And just to make it harder for anyone to achieve a majority, Ron Paul keeps chugging along. He came in a close second to Romney in Maine. Romney should have been able to win easily there, as Maine was once a part of Massachusetts and has many similarities with next door New Hampshire, where Romney won.

In short, things remain unstable and will be interesting at least until March 6, or Super Tuesday. Here is the schedule of the primaries and caucuses to come until March 6.  The full list stretches into June, and it is possible to imagine a scenario in which no one candidate has been chosen prior to the Republican Convention. That would make the Convention an exciting event, rather than a scripted coronation.

February
21: Wisconsin Primary
28: Arizona Primary
      Michigan Primary

March 

3: Washington caucuses

6: Alaska caucuses
Georgia Primary
Idaho caucuses
Massachusetts Primary
North Dakota caucuses
Ohio Primary
Oklahoma Primary
Tennessee Primary
Vermont Primary
Virginia Primary

Election 2012: Passion Trumps Money - Santorum Resurgent in Minnesota, Colorado, and Missouri

After the American Century

A week is a long time in American politics. Two weeks ago Gingrich trounced Romney, and he seemed the emerging leader. One week ago Romney trounced Gingrich in Florida, and many pundits were saying that the race was all but over. Now this week Santorum has won not just one state but three, all in a single night. Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado have all spoken with one voice. The Republicans there like the former Senator from Pennsylvania. This should not be such a surprise, because Santorum began this campaign with a strong showing in the Iowa heartland that turned into a victory on the recount. 

In the heartland they do not much like Romney. Perhaps it is because evangelicals are uncomfortable with his Mormonism. Perhaps it is because a rich investor is not their kind of guy. Perhaps he just does not pass the famous "beer test" - i.e. which of these candidates would the average voter most want to sit down and have a beer with? Romney, as a faithful Mormon, does not drink, suggesting that he is ultimately unelectable.

Santorum has not won narrow victories. In Minnesota he had more votes than the next two candidates combined, with Romney running a weak third at just 16%. In Missouri Romney did somewhat better, with 25% of the vote, but Santorum also was stronger there, with 55% of the votes as I write this, with final results still pending. Colorado is still counting, but it seems that Santorum's win there is also assured, but the precise percentages are not yet forthcoming. With a third of the vote counted, Santorum has 42%, Romney 30%, and Gingrich 15%. Gingrich commented on these results, saying that Romney's attack advertising had hurt him and given Santorum a chance. 

Ron Paul also remains in the race, and can be encouraged by the fact that he beat Romney in Minnesota, to finish second. In Missouri and Colorado, however, he was last.

What do Santorum's victories mean? One way to get a grip on the race is to look at the delegate count, where Romney still has a commanding lead. But another, more important aspect of the situation is less tangible: momentum. Romney is losing it and Santorum is getting it. The Senator's supporters are passionate, and they have brought him these victories even though Romney spent far more money on advertising. But in caucuses passion trumps money every time.

Election 2012: The Long Game

After the American Century

So Romney has won Florida just as convincingly as Gingrich won South Carolina. But the race is not over. Far from it, for to win the nomination requires more than 1000 delegates, and Romeny has less than 100. Nevertheless, Romeny does have more money than his three rivals combined, and he has a strong organization up and running in each state. He was able to outspend Gingrich 5 to 1 in attack advertising, and Gingrich now has used up most of the millions he got from a Las Vegas casino owner and his wife. He claims to be a grassroots candidate, but so far the grassroots have not been sending in much money.

But Gingrich does have support in the Old South. He won in the Florida panhandle, which is the most southern part of that state, culturally speaking, precisely because it is the most northern part of the state, settled and developed by slaveholding families who joined in the Civil War. And Gingrich also can expect to do well in the primaries and caucuses of other southern states, such as his own Georgia, Alabama, etc. If he can also do well in the Mountain West, then Romney will have to outlast him.

For Gingrich the best scenario would be that Santorum soon drops out, due to lack of money and failure to do well since Iowa. His supporters would likely move to Gingrich, even if some of them might have to hold their noses to do so. On the other hand, Santorum may feel it is worth remaining in the race a while longer. He is not working at anything else, having lost his seat in the Senate, and by running he keeps himself before the nation, perhaps as a potential VP nominee. He may think that there is the possibility that Romney and Gingrich will discredit each other and Santorum can emerge as the alternative. 

And there is a big problem with Romney, from the point of view of a general election. The list of who gave money to his enormous PAC fund is now available for public scrutiny. It turns out the overwhelming majority of his backers are money men, investors, hedge-fund executives, and the like. Speculators. The very people who profited from the collapse of the economy. Americans are not exactly in love with bankers and hedge-funds at the moment. Not only did Romney run one of them, but people of this kind provide almost all of his campaign money. Many of them gave $1 million each. Expect Gingrich to remind the electorate. Often.

Meanwhile, Ron Paul keeps chugging along, with his 15% or so, which could become a factor at the National Convention. Imagine a scenario where neither Gringrich nor Romney has enough delegates, and they have to offer something to Paul to get his votes behind them on a second or third ballot. 

In short, this contest has the potential to last into the summer, especially if Gingrich can raise some money. The month of February is somewhat quieter than January, with just caucuses, and the focus shifts now to the longer game, with the first big test coming on Super Tuesday in March. Romney's money could be quite telling, as he will be able to saturate the airwaves of all the states with negative advertising, as he did in Florida. The many simultaneous primaries could be a decisive turning point. But then again, it might prolong the Republican agony and keep entertaining us until summer.

Review: Donald Hall, Unpacking the Boxes

After the American Century                                                                                                                                                          

I have just finished reading Donald Hall's fine memoir, Unpacking the Boxes (Houghton Mifflin, 2008). It is a fitting conclusion to the autobiographical vein in his work that began with his first book, String too Short to be Saved (1961).  That book was about his summers on the New Hampshire farm where he helped his maternal grandparents. This one begins outside of New Haven, where his father worked as an accountant for a milk company owned by his grandfather. As often happens, his two parents came from quite different worlds. In New Haven his mother drank cocktails and sought to emulate the middle class of the late 1920s and early 1930s. In New Hampshire, however, his mother felt at home, and soon her son found that he preferred it as well.

Unpacking the Boxes was written from that same New Hampshire farm, which Hall inherited and moved back to in the 1970s. There he literally unpacked the boxes that contain mementos of his early life. This awakened memories of early childhood and his awakening to poetry. Even before he reached high school, Hall was passionately interested in words and writing, and his descriptions of his early embrace of the Muse is entwined with his equally passionate pursuit of girls. He admits that one of the attractions of being a poet when young was that young ladies found it quite appealing.

Hall proved a seriously productive writer, with, by my count, 15 books of poetry, two biographies, three plays, a dozen children's books, two collections of short stories, and six autobiographical works.

Hall spent two years at Exeter Academy, where his father sent him, determined that his only son should have any career he liked, and not waste another life entombed in the family dairy business. Young Hall was a prodigious worker, who already knew he wanted to be a poet. At Exeter, he steadily rose from almost failing grades in Latin and several other subjects to very high marks, winning a place at Harvard, where he also excelled. From there he had an enviable string of fellowships, with two years at Oxford, a year at Stanford, and then three more years at Harvard. In these student years he met many of the major poets of the generation ahead of him, such as Richard Wilbur and John Ciardi. Already by the time he reached Oxford he was something of a personage, taking on an editorial role as well as writing. He became a close friend of George Plimpton and at a young age was editor of poetry for his Paris Review. (The major poets whom he got to know at this time, notably Robert Frost, are the subject of another Hall memoir, Remembering Poets that I highly recommend.)

Hall might have said more about the confrontation between the Beat poets and the more classical or traditional poets, among whom Hall was a leader. Their differences were more poetical than political. Hall was Left leaning all through his career, and he admired the work of Walt Whitman, even if initially far more drawn to the great English Romantics such as Keats and the metaphysical poets. He belonged to that generation who felt it necessary to have read all the predecessors. At Harvard, for each weekly tutorial with Harry Levin he was to have read ALL the poetry by one person, William Blake for example, and be ready to discuss it intensely for an hour alone with the professor.

Hall's own work did change after his encounter with the Beat Generation, even if he remained closer to the classical tradition. I did not know that Hall became close friends with Robert Bly at Harvard, or that their friendship endured through life. I should have realized, because I did know that each of them went to Harvard, but somehow I never made the connection. Likewise, Hall was close to Galway Kinnell. These writers were closer in sensibility to the Beats, and their connection to him rightly suggests that Hall was not doctrinaire in his aesthetics. He knew and loved quality, and long before they were famous befriended the important emerging writers in the British Isles such as Ted Hughes and Seamus Heaney, as well.

In its first half, this is primarily an intellectual autobiography about a poet's coming of age. Then it divides in c. 1970, when his first marriage fell apart. Yet another of Hall's books has already treated this middle period of his life in detail so he skips through it rather schematically, covering his arrival in Ann Arbor (where he taught for the better part of a decade) in far more detail than the decision to leave academia. He liked teaching but he longed to be a writer full time and managed to do it. In good part it was possible because he was so fortunate as to inherit the New Hampshire house and because he had a steady income from a good deal of prose writing. Notably, he wrote a fine book that I used myself in teaching writing, back in the early 1970s. Appropriately titled Writing Well, it remains one of the best introductory texts one can find.

The last half of the book is much darker than the first, colored by the long illness and death of his second wife, the poet Jane Kenyon, who passed away in 1995. She was 19 years younger than he, and Hall was devastated by the loss. The book is not light reading, as it describes how he remains in the house surrounded by constant reminders of her. He visited the grave every day for more than a year, and could speak of little else. At the same time, his own health was failing. Born in 1928, he was 70 by the time he had even begun to recover a normal life. He soon began to suffer frailties, and it was apparently a trial for him to complete the memoir at all.

In part this is because just as Hall reached what he called "The Planet of Antiquity" he received the great, but also greatly demanding, honor of being named Poet Laureate of the United States. This entails many exhausting public appearances and interviews. The gratification of attention was almost outweighed by the demands it made on a man who could not walk without a cane and fell many times when attempting stairs. But he survived the glorious ordeal and this book saw the light.

There is much more in Unpacking the Boxes, which ideally should be read after String too Short to Be Saved. The title of that first book also came from something found in an attic, a box of snippets of string, with a label on the box that read, "String too short to be saved." It is from such detritus that Hall has made this presumably final memoir, and the title might almost have been recycled. Fine as the work is, there will still be something for the eventual biographers, as Hall has not written much in these memoirs about the actual poems he published. This has the "virtue" that one can enjoy Unpacking the Boxes without knowing anything of Hall's poetry, which then awaits as a further literary adventure.

Election 2012: The Second Florida Debate

After the American Century

The second Florida debate is over, and it appears that Romney is suddenly a stronger debater. He has a new coach, and he was far more aggressive and convincing than before. Based on the debate alone, Romney seemed more credible and competent. Indeed, at several points he wiped the floor with Gingrich.

Based on this performance, many of the pundits now think that Newt may not be able to win in Florida. Moreover, new polls suggest that Obama would thrash Gingrich by almost 20 points. Many leading Republicans have said that he would not be the right man. The momentum seems to have shifted, in short.  Yet one of the most recent national polls does show Gingrich leading Romney 31 to 27%. And think about this. When either Paul or Santorum drops out, their voters are more likely to shift over to Gingrich than to Romney.

What about those two other candidates? Both Santorum and Paul had a good night. So long as they are in the race no one will be able to amass a majority of the Republican delegates to the convention. So much has happened already, that we cannot assume that the selection process is soon going to be over.

Meanwhile, the Republican candidates speak, with no sense of irony, of "self deportation" as a solution to the illegal immigrant problem. Newt Gingrich wants English to be "the official language of government" as if it were not already rather the case.  There was an absurd discussion about deporting illegal grandmothers. They speak so seriously and their audience of true Republican believers is so enthusiastic, one can forget that much of what is being discussed is nonsense.

Let the fun continue, just do not take them too seriously.