Editing Steamboat (section)

====Civil War====
[[File:The Monitor and Merrimac.jpg|thumb|Chromolithograph depicting the [[Battle of Hampton Roads|''Monitor'' and the ''Merrimack'']]]]
[[File:U.S. gunboat Cairo (a.k.a. USS Cairo) - Mississippi River Fleet - Original.tiff|thumb|[[USS Cairo|USS ''Cairo'']]]]
During the [[US Civil War]] the [[Battle of Hampton Roads]], often referred to as either the Battle of the ''[[USS Monitor|Monitor]]'' and [[CSS Virginia|''Merrimack'']] or the ''Battle of Ironclads'', was fought over two days with steam-powered [[ironclad warships]], 8–9 March 1862. The battle occurred in [[Hampton Roads]], a [[roadstead]] in Virginia where the [[Elizabeth River (Virginia)|Elizabeth]] and [[Nansemond River]]s meet the [[James River]] just before it enters [[Chesapeake Bay]] adjacent to the city of [[Norfolk, VA|Norfolk]]. The battle was a part of the effort of the [[Confederate States of America]] to break the Union Naval blockade, which had cut off Virginia from all international trade.<ref>Musicant 1995, pp. 134–178; Anderson 1962, pp. 71–77; Tucker 2006, p. 151{{clarify|reason=These short form references are missing matching citations;|date=July 2014}}</ref><ref name=DeMeissner>{{cite book |last=de Meissner |first=Sophie Radford |title=Old Naval Days |url=https://archive.org/details/oldnavaldayssket00meisrich |date=1920 |publisher=Henry Holt |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/oldnavaldayssket00meisrich/page/244 244]–251}}</ref>

The Civil War in the West was fought to control major rivers, especially the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers using paddlewheelers. Only the Union had them (the Confederacy captured a few, but were unable to use them.) The [[Battle of Vicksburg]] involved [[Monitor (warship)|monitors]] and ironclad riverboats. The USS ''Cairo'' is a survivor of the Vicksburg battle. Trade on the river was suspended for two years because of a Confederate's Mississippi blockade before the union victory at Vicksburg reopened the river on 4 July 1863. The triumph of Eads ironclads, and Farragut's seizure of New Orleans, secured the river for the Union North.

Although Union forces gained control of Mississippi River tributaries, travel there was still subject to interdiction by the Confederates. The [[Ambush of the steamboat J. R. Williams]], which was carrying supplies from [[Fort Smith National Historic Site|Fort Smith]] to [[Fort Gibson]] along the Arkansas River on 16 July 1863 demonstrated this. The steamboat was destroyed, the cargo was lost, and the tiny Union escort was run off. The loss did not affect the Union war effort, however.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/W/WA041.html |title=Watie's Regiment |last1=Franks |first1=Kenny A |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture |year=2007 |access-date=31 October 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102050901/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/W/WA041.html |archive-date=2 November 2013 }}</ref>

The worst of all steamboat accidents occurred at the end of the Civil War in April 1865, when the steamboat ''[[SS Sultana|Sultana]]'', carrying an over-capacity load of returning Union soldiers recently freed from a Confederate prison camp, blew up, causing more than 1,700 deaths.

[[File:Sultana Disaster.jpg|right|thumb|The ''Sultana'' on fire, from ''Harpers Weekly'']]