Curlew [Steamboat]

The Curlew was a steamboat often chartered by the Union army for operations on waterways in and around Arkansas.

Built around 1860, the Curlew was a stern-wheel steamboat measuring 150 feet long and twenty-six and a half feet wide; it was described as “a good, stern-wheel steamboat, of medium size, with great power for towing.” Initially based at Evansville, Indiana, and operating on the Ohio River, by early 1863 the steamer was hauling cargo on the Mississippi River as far as Memphis, Tennessee.

On February 28, 1863, the gunboat USS New Era seized the Curlew and “found a large quantity of goods not permitted in any way” and captured a considerable amount of Confederate money from several people. Taken to Cairo, Illinois, by a prize crew, the vessel was released by June and was chartered by Union forces from June 29 to July 19 and from October 21 to December 13, 1863.

The Curlew was operating in Arkansas by January 1864 when a Memphis newspaper announced that the “fast steamer” was leaving “for Duval’s [sic] Bluff.” It was chartered from March 3 to April 12, 1864, but was apparently operating independently and transporting a load of cotton when it was trapped by low water at Johnson’s Island on the Arkansas River about fifteen miles below Pine Bluff (Jefferson County). On April 16, a band of guerrillas led by Tom Kennan, “a notorious guerrilla and boat-burner, better known as Wild Irishman,” attacked the vessel. Union troops aboard the steamboat “drove them off,” killing Kennan and suffering one soldier mortally wounded. The vessel was back in Memphis by April 25, 1864, and was chartered from April 29 to June 27, 1864, apparently participating in the Red River Campaign in Louisiana, with a newspaper reporting that the Curlew went up the Red River as far as the Black River before turning back.

The steamer was again chartered by Federal forces on February 9, 1865, and it transported eleven officers and 270 men of the Fifty-Sixth U.S. Colored Troops (USCT); troopers from the Eighty-Seventh Illinois Mounted Infantry; and a single gun from Battery E, Second U.S. Colored Light Artillery on the February 19–22 expedition from Helena (Phillips County) to Friar’s Point (usually spelled Friars Point) in Mississippi. The Curlew also transported Illinois horsemen and soldiers of the Sixtieth USCT on the February 24, 1865, scout from Helena to Clarke’s Store in St. Francis County. The steamboat remained under charter until May 31, 1865.

The Curlew again operated from Evansville after the Civil War ended, and it left there on March 3, 1868, with a load of corn for Cincinnati, Ohio. The next day, the steamer hit a snag, “knocking a hole in her hull and causing her to take water rapidly. She was run ashore and sunk over her main deck, with her outer guard in seven feet water.” The boat’s captain returned to the wreck in June and “succeeded in recovering the principal portion of her boilers, chimneys, engines, and other iron works.”

For additional information:
“Another Steamboat Sunk.” Evansville Daily Journal, March 7, 1868, p. 5.

“For Sale.” Evansville Daily Journal, August 26, 1862, p. 2.

“For Sale.” Saint Louis Republic, July 3, 1865, p. 4.

“For White River,” Memphis Bulletin, January 18, 1864, p. 3.

“From Island Ten.” Vicksburg Daily Whig, January 9, 1863, p. 1.

“From Natchez.” Saint Louis Globe-Democrat, May 19, 1864, p. 1.

Gibson, Charles Dana, and E. Kay Gibson, comps. Dictionary of Transports and Combatant Vessels Steam and Sail Employed by the Union Army 1861–1868. Camden, ME: Ensing Press, 1995, p. 76.

“Guerrillas on the Arkansas.” Memphis Bulletin, April 23, 1864, p. 4.

“The Latest News.” Nashville Daily Union, April 30, 1864, p. 2.

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies. Vol. 24. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1911, pp. 347, 349.

“Wreck of the Curlew.” Evansville Daily Journal, June 17, 1868, p. 8.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas