Henry Von Phul (packet)
19th century American sidewheel steamboat
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Henry Von Phul was an American 709-ton sidewheel steam packet built as a merchant and passenger vessel in Paducah, Kentucky and St. Louis, Missouri in 1860.[1][2][3][4] During the Red River campaign of the Civil War she served as a Union transport on the Mississippi River and the Red River, and on December 8, 1863, she was twice heavily bombarded by Confederate guns.[5] On November 15, 1866, she caught fire on the Mississippi with 3,800 bales of cotton and was run ashore near Donaldsonville, Louisiana.[1]
Left side: Lady; right side: Henry Von Phul | |
| History | |
|---|---|
 United States | |
| Launched | 1860 |
| Acquired | c. 1863 |
| Decommissioned | before 1866 |
| Fate | Burned, November 29, 1866 |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement | 709 tons |
| Propulsion |
|
Military service
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On the morning of December 8, 1863, while en route to St. Louis from New Orleans, Von Phul was shelled by a Confederate shore battery of 6 guns about 5 miles (8 km) from Morganza.[4][7] Captain Patrick Gorman, commanding, was killed by a shell which entered the pilot house, killing him instantly; a barkeeper and a deckhand were also mortally wounded.[4][8] The damaged ship then made for the nearby Union anchorage off Morganza and was from there escorted by Neosho, a 523-ton river monitor.[4] After continuing only a few miles, she was targeted again: this time by some 4 pieces of horse artillery which waited for the monitor to pass by them before firing on the transport from the levee; they struck Von Phul some twenty times, wounding nine and disabling the ship.[4] Neosho turned to fire upon and scatter the gunners, and was supported by Signal.[4] Meanwhile, Captain Harry McDougall's Atlantic, a 2,668-ton side-wheeler en route to New Orleans from St. Louis, came alongside the Von Phul, at considerable risk to herself, and towed the crippled transport to safety.[5]
Fate
The steamer Henry Von Phul, with 3,800 bales of cotton, burned at 3 a.m. on November 14, 1866, above Donaldsonville, Louisiana.[9] The fire spread to the cotton from the pipe of a deck hand, and was soon under full headway.[9] The boat was immediately run ashore.[9] There were 101 persons aboard, including a number of women, nearly all of whom escaped ashore with the loss of all their baggage and clothes, many of them having only their night clothes.[9][10] The boat was owned in Memphis, Tennessee, and was not insured.[11]