The sternwheel wooden hull packet named the Leonora was built for Capt Michael Davis in Woodland, VA in 1861.  The packet, named for his youngest daughter, worked the Wheeling to St Louis trade.  It was rated at 258 tons.  In Nov 1862, Capt Richard Calhoon purchased the vessel.  His nephew, Thomas Stevenson Calhoon, was the clerk. [1]

 

The Leonora with Richard Calhoon in command and Thomas S Calhoon in the office, served during the Civil War transporting troops and supplies on the Tennessee River.  She was part of the expedition to Pittsburg Landing in Apr 1862.  The Leonora was chartered from 28 Dec 1862 to 3 Jun 1863; hired from 5 Jun to 3 Aug 1863; pressed 1 Jul to 29 Nov 1864.  In Jun1865, the Leonora was one of six vessels was hired with orders issued to transport troops which had been demobilized.  The route traveled was from Memphis to points north on the Mississippi River system.  The orders included instructions designed to prevent a recurrence of the Sultana disaster. [2]  I do not know the technical differences between chartered, hired, and pressed.

 

After the war, the Leonora was sold to Capt Timothy Packard who ran the boat on the Missouri River.  On 29 May 1866, the Leonora burned at Ponce Landing, NB.[3]

 

 

 

References.

 

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[1]  Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 283.

[2]  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 198.

[3] Frederick Way, Jr.,Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994, (Ohio University Press, Athens 1994), p. 283.

 

 

 

 

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