Federal steamers George Peabody and the West Point, collide in the Potomac River, VA.

5fish

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2019
Messages
10,626
Reaction score
4,544
Here I found the OR... there were other vessels that render help... save over 200 lives...

http://www.gendisasters.com/maryland/6300/aquia-creek-va-steamers-collide-potomac-river-aug-1862

snip...

Washington, Thursday, Aug. 14.
There is news here of a horrible disaster to one of the vessels lately loaded with patients from the Peninsula hospitals. At 2 o'clock this afternoon, the steamer GEORGE PEABODY, loaded with sick and wounded soldiers, was run into and sunk by the steamer WEST POINT, opposite Acquia Creek.
There was great danger of losing the whole number on board, but it is stated that finally only eighty were lost.
 

5fish

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2019
Messages
10,626
Reaction score
4,544
Here is a news clip of the event....


snip... sample of the article...

A collision occurred on the Potomac River, last night, off Ragged Point, between the steamers Peabody and West Point, involving the loss of seventy-three lives. The West Point was bound to this place from Newport News, with convalescent troops of Gen. Burnside's army. The Peabody brought the rescued soldiers and passengers to this point, and from Lieut. Col. Charles Scott of the Sixth New Hampshire, who was on board of the ill-fated vessel, and in charge of the troops, I have obtained the following account of the affair:

"We left Newport's News on Tuesday, the 11th, with 254 soldiers, four officers, three ladies, and one child. At Fortress Monroe we took on 17 men, making in all 279 souls. On Wednesday evening, the 13th, about 9 o'clock, off ragged point, on the Potomac, we were startled by a shock, and soon discovered that a collision had taken place between our steamer and another, named the George Peabody, bound down the river. The West Point began to leak very fast, and it was ascertained that she would sink in less than ten minutes. The Peabody, which had been partially disabled, could render no assistance, except with small boats."
 

5fish

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 28, 2019
Messages
10,626
Reaction score
4,544
Here is an eyewitness account years later .... wives were on broad...


snip... read the link for details...

The sad and tragic account of the sinking of the West Point as written in the regimental history of the Sixth New Hampshire Regiment. The story of the West Point was described in detail to the Historian of the Sixth, Captain Lyman Jackman by Lieutenant-Colonel Scott who was able to secure his wife’s remains by appealing to President Lincoln, then in residence at the Soldiers’ Home in the house today known as President Lincoln’s Cottage. –J. Blake

Loss of the West Point
When the Ninth Army Corps left Newport News to go to the help of the Army of Virginia, all its sick were sent to the hospitals. It was soon decided to send them by boat up the Potomac to Alexandria and Washington. So on the 13th of August, all the sick and convalescent, about two hundred and fifty, were put upon the steamer West Point. Some members of the Sixth New Hampshire Regiment were of the number, among whom were Lieutenant-Colonel Scott and Sergeant C. L. Parker. The Wives of Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, Major O. G. Dort, and Captain John A Cummings, with the Major’s little son, four or five years old, were also of the party. Sergeant (afterwards Lieutenant) Parker gives the following account of the disaster which befell the West Point
 
Top