River Queen

The River Queen was a sidewheel steamer launched in 1864. It soon became closely associated with President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant while operating on the Potomac River, and was used for an unsuccessful peace conference in 1865 during the last year of the American Civil War. Later it operated as a ferry serving the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket during the late 19th century. Late in its career, it returned to the Potomac as an excursion vessel, and in 1911, it was destroyed in a fire. Construction River Queen was built at Keyport, New Jersey in 1864. She was initially owned by Alfred Van Santvoord, and later was one of four steamers operating for the New Bedford, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket Steamboat Co when that concern was organized in March 1886. (The other three vessels were Island Home, Martha's Vineyard and Monohansett.) River Queen had sailed this route since 1871 for the company's predecessors. Civil War service Chartered by the U.S. Department of War, the River Queen was used by General Ulysses S. Grant as his private dispatch boat on the Potomac River in 1865. On February 3, 1865, the Hampton Roads Conference took place on the River Queen in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate an end to the American Civil War. While the conference was being held in the saloon of the ship, the River Queen was lashed to the Mary Martin, another ship. In March 1865, Abraham Lincoln met with General William T. Sherman, Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter and General Grant aboard the River Queen to discuss strategy for the end of the Civil War. Both Lincoln and Grant liked this vessel; Lincoln rode aboard her two days before his assassination in April. Capt. Nathan B. Saunders of the Fall River steamer line was captain of the River Queen during its Civil War service.