GDG- Capt. Lincoln draws one axe

[Dennis Lawrence]

Friday, April 27, 1832.
Beardstown, IL.


Capt. Lincoln draws one axe from quartermaster.Quartermaster's Record, 
Black Hawk War Collection, Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, 
Springfield, IL.

[Contemporary letters indicate that Lincoln's company, like many others, 
changed its view of war after five days in camp. Little disposition was at 
first manifested to question governor's call. But lack of discipline and 
shameful way appointments are made cause many soldiers to believe they are 
on holiday excursion and not on expedition against hostile Indians.]

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April 27, 1865 : Tragedy on the Mississippi

Days after the end of the Civil War, the worst maritime disaster in 
American history occurs when the steamboat Sultana, carrying 2,100 
passengers, explodes and sinks in the Mississippi River, killing all but 
400 of those aboard. The Mississippi, with its dikes and levees damaged by 
four years of war, stood at flood stage, and most of those who died were 
drowned in the surging river. All but 100 of those killed were Union 
veterans, and most were Yankee survivors of Andersonville and other brutal 
Confederate prisoner of war camps.

Many mourned the loss of these men, who survived the deplorable conditions 
at the Confederate camps only to die during their long-awaited trip home. 
The Sultana, overloaded with passengers, exploded just north of Memphis, 
Tennessee, in the early morning hours. The cause of the blast was 
determined to be a boiler malfunction.