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ACGSI Hybrid Program: The Explosion of the Steamer Eclipse:

A Forgotten Civil War Disaster

Join us in-person OR virtually on Wednesday, March 13th at 7:00 PM ET!

A descriptive history of the explosion of the Union transport ship the Eclipse that occurred during the early morning hours of January 25, 1865, on the Tennessee River near Johnsonville, Tennessee. Over 100 soldiers and deckhands were declared killed, wounded or missing and was the worst maritime accident to occur on the western rivers during the Civil War. The presentation will discuss the history of the vessel, its civil and military service, and the men (mostly from Indiana) that were on the ship prior to the blast. Dieter will explain how military event documentation aids in genealogical research.

Dieter Ullrich serves as the Director of Special Collections and Archives at Morehead State University in Kentucky. He has conducted extensive research on the Civil War in the Jackson Purchase region of southwest Kentucky and northeast Tennessee and has contributed numerous articles on the subject to scholarly journals, He is also the co-author of General E. A. Paine in Western Kentucky: Assessing the Reign of Terror of the Summer of 1864 and Unconditional Unionist: The Hazardous Life of Lucian Anderson.

Program offered through the Allen County Genealogical Society of Indiana: https://www.acgsi.org/