Chicot County is a county located in the southeastern corner of the U.S. state of Arkansas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 10,208. The county seat is Lake Village. Chicot County is Arkansas's 10th county, formed on October 25, 1823, and named after Point Chicot on the Mississippi River. It is part of the Arkansas Delta, lowlands along the river that have been historically important as an area for large-scale cotton cultivation.
Sultana was a commercial side-wheel steamboat which exploded and sank on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865, killing 1,167 people in what remains the worst maritime disaster in United States history.
USS Tyler was originally a merchant steamboat named A. O. Tyler, a commercial side-wheel steamboat with twin stacks and covered paddles positioned aft. Constructed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1857, it was acquired by the United States Navy, 5 June 1861 for service in the American Civil War and converted into the gunboat USS Tyler on 5 June 1861. She was commissioned in September 1861. She was protected with thick wooden bulwarks.
USS Monarch was a United States Army sidewheel ram that saw service in the American Civil War as part of the United States Ram Fleet and the Mississippi Marine Brigade. She operated on the Mississippi River and Yazoo River during 1862 and 1863.
Mississippi was the second southern state to declare its secession from the United States, doing so on January 9, 1861. It joined with six other southern states to form the Confederacy on February 4, 1861. Mississippi's location along the lengthy Mississippi River made it strategically important to both the Union and the Confederacy; dozens of battles were fought in the state as armies repeatedly clashed near key towns and transportation nodes.
Steamboats on the Columbia River system were wrecked for many reasons, including striking rocks or logs ("snags"), fire, boiler explosion, or puncture or crushing by ice. Sometimes boats could be salvaged, and sometimes not.
The Lucy Walker steamboat disaster was an 1844 steamboat accident caused by the explosion of the boilers of the steamboat Lucy Walker near New Albany, Indiana, on the Ohio River. The explosion occurred on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 23, 1844, when the steamer's three boilers exploded, set the vessel on fire, and sank it. It was one of a number of similar accidents of early 19th-century riverine transportation that led to important federal legislation and safety regulations. The vessel's owner was a Native American; her crew were African-American slaves, and her passengers represented a cross-section of frontier travelers.
The 1st Kansas Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment that served in the Union Army during the American Civil War. On August 10, 1861, at the Battle of Wilson's Creek, Missouri, the regiment suffered 106 soldiers killed in action or mortally wounded, one of the highest numbers of fatalities suffered by any Union infantry regiment in a single engagement during the American Civil War.
The 70th Ohio Infantry Regiment was an infantry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Princeton is a ghost town located in Washington County, Mississippi, United States.
Isaac H. Hilliard (1811-1868) was an American planter and cotton factor in the Antebellum South. He was an advocate of the Confederate States of America. During the American Civil War of 1861–1865, he moved his family slaves to Texas and later Louisiana. After the war, he was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson and liquidated his cotton-factoring business. His Arkansas plantation was inherited by his sons.
The Sunnyside Plantation was a former cotton plantation and is a historic site, located near Lake Village in Chicot County, Arkansas, in the Arkansas Delta region.
CSS Tuscarora was a sidewheel steamer that briefly served as a gunboat in the Confederate States Navy at the beginning of the American Civil War. She was about 100 feet (30 m) long, displaced 400 short tons, and was manned by a 25-man crew. The vessel was purchased in 1861 from the Southern Steamship Company by Confederate authorities in New Orleans, Louisiana. Armed with two cannons, Tuscarora was engaged in the Battle of the Head of Passes on October 12, 1861. Ordered up the Mississippi River to Columbus, Kentucky, in November, she was destroyed on November 23, 1861, when a fire of unknown origin started in her boilers and spread to the ship's munitions.
Capt. Montgomery Little, CSA was an American slave trader and a Confederate Army cavalry officer who served in Nathan Bedford Forrest's Escort Company. Little was killed in action during the American Civil War at the Battle of Thompson's Station.
The Kentucky was a 19th-century sidewheel steamboat of the Ohio River, Mississippi River, and Red River of the South in the United States. Kentucky was involved in not one, not two, but three serious accidents over her lifespan (1856–1865), which resulted in the deaths of one, 20+, and 50+ people, respectively. She was built in Cincinnati, and her length was 222 ft (68 m) with a capacity of 375 short tons (340,000 kg).
David White was a Mississippi River steamboat that exploded her boilers opposite Port Chicot near Columbia, Arkansas on February 17, 1867. There were an estimated 50 to 65 fatalities. David White was racing Mollie Able at the time of the explosion.
Simeon G. "Sim" Eddins was a 19th-century farmer and slave trader. He primarily traded in the Middle Tennessee region of the United States, but he also purchased enslaved people in Virginia, and sold people in Alabama. Among the children he bought and sold was nine-year-old Henry McDaniel, who as an adult became the father of Academy Award-winning actress Hattie McDaniel. Sim Eddins was killed in 1861 in a Mississippi River steamboat boiler explosion.
Skipwith's Landing was a 19th-century boat landing and human settlement on the east bank of the Mississippi River, located in the county of Issaquena in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Skipwith's Landing was situated about 55 mi (89 km) to 100 mi (160 km) north of Vicksburg, Mississippi, depending on mode of travel. Circa 1866, a witness at a U.S. Congressional hearing described Skipwith's Landing as being among the most sparsely populated sections of the state with no village or town in proximity. Circa 1867, there were no roads leading to or from Skipwith's Landing; the only access was by the river. For a time there was a cut made by the river that was known as Skipwith's Chute. Another related placename was Skipwith Crevasse. There was a U.S. post office at Skipwith's in 1870.
Lloyd's Steamboat Directory, and Disasters on the Western Waters is a book published in 1856 listing steamboat businesses in the United States, along with an illustrated catalog of American maritime disasters. It covers "mainly river material, with a substantial scattering of lake items."
Gaines Landing is an extinct settlement in Chicot County, Arkansas, United States that once hosted a boat landing along the Mississippi River. The location played a role in the story of fugitive slave Margaret Garner, and was used for troop movements during the American Civil War.
