Alan

This outline is the one which I have relied upon as being the most correct. The "Blue Wing" when she was "recaptured" in Decemeber by the Confederates beside towing two coal barges was also carrying mail and ammunition to the Union forces at Vicksburg.

For some reason the Union authorities seemed to be very interested in recovering this mail and pursuing the "Blue Wing". This pursuit up the White River after the fall of Arkansas Post, by the Union Navy, is well documented in the navy reports in the OR's. They found some of the mail and ammunition at DeVall's Bluff, I believe.

It makes me wonder just what was the root cause for all this attention to the "Blue Wing". Was it the supposed conduct of the Captain? Or the loss of the ammunition and mail?

In any case the "Blue Wing" excaped by going up the White River and hiding in the shallower waters that the Union gunboats could float.

In February messages between Gen's Cabell and Marmaduke were again questioning the actions of the "Blue Wing's" and a man from Chrisman's Battalion was retained as a pilot on board the "Blue Wing". In April of 1863 the "Blue Wing" along with the "Tom Suggs" was used to carry supplies up the White River supporting one of Marmadukes raids into Missouri at that time.

According to the book "The Kentucky" by Thomas Clark chapter 5, Kentucky Steamboats, the "Blue Wing II" was 152.5 feet long with a 27 foot abeam, and a 5 foot hold. Its boilers was 42 inches in diameter and 22 feet long and the cylinders was 17 inches in diameter and had a 7 foot stroke. William French had designed and built the hull and Curry and Miller built the engines. The decks and cabins were described as looking like a birthday cake with all the elaborate scroll work and decorations. This Boat was used primarily on the Frankford, Ky to New Orleans run.

I have not been able to determine for sure if the "Blue Wing II" was the prewar boat we are looking for, or not. But with the advent of the "Blue Wing III" being contracted in January of 1865 it would seem to indicate that the "Blue Wing II" had been destroyed by that time.

If the "Blue Wing II" was in fact the boat involved in these incidents, I can understand why the captain would not wish to be captured by the federals and probably would not wish to risk his boat back on the Mississippi River. Where was he going to excape to?

The lack of identifiers such as "I, II, or III" in the Federal naval reports and Confederate orders and corresponndence leaves one to wonder as to which boat is involved. Personally the description of "Blue Wing II" seems to be a much larger boats than I had imagined the "Blue Wing" to be. But I don't know from what source or why I formed that impression.