[Autograph letter, signed, from a New York passenger aboard the famous steamer Natchez on the Mississippi River.]

Aboard the steamer Natchez, Mississippi River, 3 February 1885. 2 pp. in ink on pictorial Natchez letterhead (11” x 8.5”), with pictorial Natchez envelope. CONDITION: Good+, .5” split at one central fold; envelope chipped.

A letter written aboard the steamer Natchez from Vicksburg to New Orleans in 1885, describing events and conversations on board as well as the countryside, agriculture, and Civil War sites along the route.

This letter from New York State apple grower Silas Seward Hopkins is written on Natchez letterhead showing an ax-bearing Natchez Indian figure in the foreground with the steamer in the background. The letter discusses sightseeing between Jackson and Vicksburg (“we passed through where the hardest part of the Battle was fought before Vicksburg, it was a tough place for such an engagement. The remains of the old fort is in existence in the center of the city…”); the Natchez itself (“They have on board 2,000 bales of cotton, 1500 tons of cotton seed meal and taking aboard more at every landing…”); incidents with the African American crew (“I saw a n[—] fall overboard in 30 feet of water, the mate said pull him out. And paid no more attention to him”); local agriculture (“A Southern planter told me last evening that his planation had not been overflowed for 30 years previous to 1882 then it was 7 feet under water. You will see nothing but cotton plants for 2 miles back”); and conversations with fellow passengers as well as Captain Leathers himself (who “told me they had never had an accident on this boat”). Hopkins was a descendent of an early and prominent settler of Niagara County, New York, of the same name.

The Natchez was captained by the steamboat captain Thomas P. Leathers (1816–1896), who, between 1846 and 1879, built seven of the nine steamboats of that name. Leathers was known for his “flamboyant appearance and personality” (“Captain Thomas P. Leathers”) as well as for his staunch support of the South. The sixth Natchez carried Jefferson Davis home after he had been named president of the Confederacy, and, rather than let the steamer be captured by the Union in 1862, Leathers burned it. The seventh Natchez became famous for its legendary 1870 race against the steamer Robert E. Lee, an event pictured in the Currier and Ives lithograph “The Great Mississippi Steamboat Race.” This letter was written from the eighth Natchez, which was built in 1879. It was decorated with paintings and stained glass windows of the Natchez People, who were driven out of the southwestern Mississippi in the early 1730s. In March, 1885, shortly after Hopkins wrote this letter, Leathers raised the American flag for the first time since before the start of the Civil War. When the eighth Natchez burned in 1889, Jefferson Davis sent his condolences and Leathers decided to retire.

REFERENCES: “Captain Thomas P. Leathers,” National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium online.