Rose Hambleton [Steamboat]

aka: Rose Hamilton [Steamboat]

The Rose Hambleton was a steamboat that was frequently chartered or pressed into service by Union forces during the Civil War and often operated in waters in or near Arkansas.

The Rose Hambleton was a 154-ton sidewheel steamboat built in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1861. A newspaper described it as a “new and snug little steamer” that was “trim and neat in her appearance…short but compactly built.”

The steamboat was part of the Union flotilla at Pittsburg Landing in Tennessee in April 1862 and was chartered from July 14 to September 2, 1862. In February 1863, Lieutenant Commander Thomas O. Selfridge “arrested [the Rose Hambleton] near Napoleon, for being engaged in the contraband cotton trade, it is reported under permits” from Brigadier General Willis Gorman, who commanded the District of Eastern Arkansas. The steamer had 160 bales of cotton on board and was taken to Cairo, Illinois, “in charge of a naval officer.” It was “released by order of the United States Marshal” in early April.

The Rose Hambleton apparently took part in the Union operations on the Yazoo River in Mississippi after being released. An Evansville, Indiana, newspaper reported on April 29, 1863, that the steamer was heading to Louisville, Kentucky, to undergo repairs and “showed strong symptoms of ‘Yazoo,’ in the shape of broken chimneys and ‘scape-pipes, rent guards, etc.’”

It was again in Arkansas waters during the Little Rock Campaign in August and September 1863, when the Rose Hambleton transported sick Union troops from DeValls Bluff (Prairie County) to Helena (Phillips County) for eventual transfer to hospitals in Memphis.

The steamboat was chartered from November 1, 1863, to January 23, 1864, for operations in Arkansas. On November 3, 1863, the Rose Hambleton was attacked by guerrillas on the White River about five miles below Des Arc (Prairie County), and the ship’s mate Hiram Shaw was “dangerously wounded. The ball passed through his body just below the shoulderblade [sic].” A newspaper predicted that Shaw would “undoubtedly recover.”

The vessel was again chartered from January 23 to February 12, 1864, and again from February 15 to March 12. It was “pressed” from June 2 to July 31, 1864, and then hired from August 1 to September 14. On October 31, 1864, the Rose Hambleton carried troops from DeValls Bluff to Strickland’s plantation in an unsuccessful attempt to break up Confederate conscripting operations. The vessel was again pressed into service from November 10 to 14, 1864, and January 19 to 23, 1865; it also transported the Twenty-first Iowa Infantry Regiment from DeValls Bluff on November 22, 1864. Union forces again chartered it from February 20 to 26, 1865, at which time the steamboat transported two squadrons of the First Iowa Cavalry Regiment from Pine Bluff (Jefferson County) to Memphis, Tennessee.

The Rose Hambleton was on the Mississippi River when the steamboat Sultana exploded and burned on April 27, 1865, and was one of several steamboats that were “cruising around the place…picking up the breathless body of some unfortunate one, who ‘slept the sleep of death’; or some more fortunate, who escaped a water grave.”

The steamer was pressed into service to transport troops of the Seventy-ninth U.S. Colored Infantry and Fourth Arkansas Cavalry Regiment (US) on the May 6 to 11, 1865, scouting expedition from Little Rock (Pulaski County) to Bayou Meto and Little Bayou and was again called to U.S. service from June 19 to September 9, 1865.

Following the war, the Rose Hambleton arrived at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on June 6, 1866, under the command of Captain Charles Beers and left for St. Louis, Missouri, the next day. It was sold to Captain John Claycomb in Cincinnati on November 19, 1866, for use on the Arkansas River, and by late July 1869, J. F. Wilson, a “wrecker and machinist,” had acquired it and was altering it for bridge construction work on the Upper Ohio River; a newspaper reported that “one-half of her cabin and her upper guards are to be taken off, a floor bottom put in her hull bulkhead. She will also be provided with a steam pump for pumping coffer dams.” The Rose Hambleton was reported lost on September 30, 1869.

For additional information:
“Appalling Marine Casualty.” Memphis Argus, April 28, 1865, p. 3.

“From Cairo.” [Marysville] Daily California Express, April 11, 1863, p. 1.

Gallipolis [Ohio] Journal, January 9, 1862, p. 2, col. 4.

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. 276.

“Gleanings from Our Exchanges.” Evansville [Indiana] Daily Journal, July 29, 1869, p. 3.

“Gleanings from Our Exchanges.” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, March 4, 1863, p. 4.

“More Guerrilla Firing on the River.” Memphis Bulletin, November 4, 1863, p. 3.

“Port of Memphis.” Memphis Bulletin, September 10, 1863, p. 3.

“River News.” Evansville Daily Journal, April 29, 1863, p. 3.

“Telegraphic.” Muscatine [Iowa] Evening Journal, February 28, 1863, p. 2.

The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Vol. 41, part 4, p. 639; Vol. 48, part 1, section 1, p. 777. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1893, 1896.

Way, Frederick, Jr. Way’s Packet Directory. Athens: University of Ohio Press, 1983, p. 402.