Str Kenton Receipt during Civil War (Ohio State University)
The str Kenton and its crew were chartered for service by the Quartermaster from 27 Dec 1861 to 5 Jan 1862 and from 6 Jan for an unknown duration of time[1]. The str
Kenton receipts for three round trips between Pittsburgh and Louisville and Pittsburgh and Cincinnati were in the papers of Capt William B Anderson (civilian riverboat captain and pilot) in the Ohio State University Rare Books Collection. Trip number 13 was dated 24 Apr 1862; trip number 10 was undated but signed by Standish Peppard (owner and first clerk of the str Kenton), and the third receipt was neither dated nor signed. Capt Anderson was quite probably one of the pilots of the str Kenton on these trips. In letters to his wife dated after 24 Apr 1862 Capt Anderson wrote of the str Kenton in the past tense which suggests he had moved to another packet. In the letters, he also expressed his concern about being drafted while between government contracts and paying a $1,000 fine about avoiding the draft. He also wrote about two captains, Capt Adams and the captain of the Florence Miller, arrested for cowardice by General Wright. The Florence Miller was a tinclad packet. The conflict between military and commercial control of the vessels was real.
References.
[1] Charles Dana Gibson and E Kay Gibson, Dictionary of Transports and Combatant Vessels Steam and Sail Employed by the Uniion Army 1861 – 1868, (Ensign Press, Cambridge, MA 1995), p 189.
Copyright © 2012 Francis W Nash
All Rights Reserved
Tags: capt george w ebert, CivWar150, georgetown, ohio river steamboats, standish perppard, str kenton, tinclad