Today’s Overcrowded Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
In the 1830s, some 18,000 Creek Indians were moved from Georgia and Alabama to new Western lands. A group of 1,600 Creeks marched in the summer of 1837 to Mobile Point, Ala., and later to Pass Christian, Ala. A yellow fever epidemic killed more than 100 of those Indians while they waited at the two posts. When the time came in the fall to move the survivors to the territory in the West, the U.S. Army contracted three steamboats: John Newton, Yazoo, and Monmouth. The Creeks were put aboard to start their journey up the Mississippi on the night of October 27, 1837 (the exact date in October varies in different accounts). Monmouth was a small steamer weighing 135 tons. Her human cargo, it was said, was crammed onto the boat without regard to comfort or safety. About 700 Creeks managed to get aboard.
The three boats made fairly good time on a cold, rainy night. They steamed north of present day Baton Rouge, La., without any trouble. The prevailing practice of boats going upriver was to stay in the slack water close to the banks and, at the bends, to cross to the far banks where the water moved slowest. Boats moving downriver were expected to follow the river channel out toward the middle, where the current moved fastest. But whether or not Monmouth was where it should have been or exactly what happened to cause the collision will probably never be known. It is known that the accident occurred at Prophet Island Bend (today called Profit Island Bend) and that Monmouth was struck by the sailboat Trenton, which was being towed by the steamboat Warren. The violent impact threw hundreds of unsuspecting Creeks into the deep river.
Those Indians not immediately swept away struggled desperately for something solid to grasp. The men aboard Warren tried to help, as did the men of Yazoo, which had circled around and rushed to the rescue. Those two steamers picked up whatever survivors they could reach. The cabin of Monmouth had broken off and floated downstream with the crew and about 200 Indians aboard. Alter floating some distance, the cabin also broke in two parts, spilling them into the river. Some of those men were picked up.
Exactly how many Indians drowned is uncertain. Some reports said 240, others about 360, while yet another report put the drowned at more than 400. The most commonly quoted estimate, 311 Indians drowned, comes from the book Indian Removal, by Grant Foreman. There were also two non-Indians lost the Monmouth barkeeper and a fireman.
Culled from: Ancestry.Com