Hamilton Belle [Steamboat]

The Hamilton Belle was a small steamboat that was frequently chartered by Union forces in Arkansas to support their operations on the state’s waters during the Civil War.

The Hamilton Belle (or Bell) was a 133-ton sternwheel ferryboat built in 1857 in Cincinnati, Ohio. The vessel was first based in Keokuk, Iowa, but it was operating south of there by the time of the Civil War.

The Hamilton Belle first appears in Arkansas reports when it was used to bring reinforcements to hard-pressed Federal troops engaged in the August 3, 1862, skirmish at L’Anguille Ferry, then to transport men wounded there to the Union base at Helena (Phillips County). The steamboat was chartered by the Union army from November 4 to 14, 1862, and from November 25 to December 20, 1862.

Though apparently not under formal charter, the Hamilton Belle transported troops under Colonel Powell Clayton during the March 5–12, 1863, expedition from Helena up the St. Francis and Little Rivers. Brigadier General Benjamin Prentiss sent the Belle on March 18, 1863, to carry 50,000 rations to Federal forces engaged in the Yazoo Pass Expedition in Mississippi. On July 30, 1863, the steamer brought badly needed supplies to Brigadier General John Wynn Davidson’s cavalry at Wittsburg (St. Francis County) as they descended Crowley’s Ridge during the Little Rock Campaign. The Hamilton Belle also carried Union troops down the Mississippi River on the November 14–17, 1863, expedition from Helena; on the February 13–14, 1864, expedition from Helena up the St. Francis River; and on the May 13–14, 1864, scout from Helena to Council Bend.

The steamboat was chartered from July 1 to 8, 1864, but it later transported Major Eagleton Carmichael’s Fifteenth Illinois Cavalry down the Mississippi River in the operation that resulted in the July 26, 1864, action at Wallace’s Ferry. The Hamilton Belle was then chartered on August 17, 1864, “for an unknown period” that included transporting Black Union troops during the August–September 1864 expedition up the White River; being dispatched September 7, 1864, from DeValls Bluff (Prairie County) to bring supplies and a guide to a Union scouting expedition; and transporting two sections of the Seventh Massachusetts Battery from Louisiana to St. Charles (Arkansas County) on September 11, 1864.

The vessel was also chartered on October 31, 1864, for an unknown period; from January 1 to February 8, 1865; from March 12, 1865; for an unknown period; and from June 17 to July 8, 1865.

After the war ended, the Hamilton Belle operated from Vicksburg, Mississippi, where on July 14, 1866, it was reported that the steamboat “had her safe broken into and robbed of several hundred dollars.” It continued working from Vicksburg until at least August 1868. The steamboat’s ultimate fate is unknown.

For additional information:
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. 142.

“River News.” Vicksburg Herald, August 6, 1868, p. 3.

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series 1, Vol. 24, Part 1, p. 391; Vol. 41, Part 3, pp. 92, 153. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1889.

Way, Frederick, Jr. Way’s Packet Directory. Athens: University of Ohio Press, 1983, p. 206.

Mark K. Christ
Little Rock, Arkansas