FOREST QUEEN: Side wheel steamer, 419 tons, built in 1858 at Madison, Ind.
On this day 150 years ago (2013), William Tecumseh Sherman reported to Grant's Assistant Adjutant General Lieutenant Colonel John A. Rawlins on the results of an attempt by three Union transports to run the batteries of Vicksburg the night before.
HEADQUARTERS Fifteenth ARMY CORPS, Camp near Vicksburg, April 19, 1863.
Lieutenant Colonel John A. RAWLINS, Asst. Adjt. General, Milliken's Bend;
SIR: As it may be a matter of interest to the general in command to know, I have to report that the fate of the three transports sent past the Vicksburg batteries during the night of April 17 is as follows:
FOREST QUEEN, Captain Conway, manned by her regular crew, was struck in the hull, and was disabled by a round shot cutting a steam pipe. Wheel-rope and wheel also cut away, and otherwise cut up. She drifted down opposite our lower picket station, where the gunboat TUSCUMBIA, Captain Shirk, took her in tow, and landed her just above the crevasse on this shore. I have ordered all the materials and whatever needed for her repairs; and Captain Conway reports to me that he will move to-morrow night by the Warrenton batteries, and join the fleet at Carthage.
During the Civil War Thomas Gaff furnished steamboats and supplies for the Union cause. He and his brother were the principal owners of the steamboat, the FOREST QUEEN, which successfully ran the blockade at Vicksburg. James W. Gaff moved to Cincinnati before the Civil War, and, while retaining his business connections with his brother, extended his financial interests until, at the time of his death, he was engaged in 32 distinct firms and lines of business. The papers in this collection consist of letters, bills, receipts, drafts, and miscellaneous papers of Thomas Gaff. They relate to farm operations; the raising of cotton and selling of horses at a Lake Providence, Louisiana plantation; land dealings in Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri; flatboat and steamboat shipments down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; silver mining at the Treasure Hill Silver Mine, Hamilton, Nevada; brewing; distilling; the steamboat, the "FOREST QUEEN"; and post-Civil War claims against the U.S. government for payment for hay delivered at the mouth of White River, Arkansas, and for the value of the barges, OTTAWA, YOUNKER NO. 3, and WABASH NO. 1.
Source http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/lilly/ ... php?p=gaff
One of their steamboats, the FOREST QUEEN, became headquarters for Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman during the Siege of Vicksburg. The steamboat, under the command of Capt. C. D. Conway of Aurora, successfully ran the Vicksburg blockade, but the FOREST QUEEN was burned to the water by Confederates in St. Louis, Missouri, on 04 October 1863.
Erhard Jung.
USA 2013 Forever stamp sg?, scott? (She is one of the transports)
Source http://www.indianabeer.com/History/IH-SE.html