In Louisiana, a Mississippi steamboat's boiler ruptures and scalds forty-five people aboard to death

Late in the night on the Mississippi near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the steamboat H.W.R. Hill, bound from Memphis to New Orleans suffered a massive rupture of its boiler head.  This sprayed massive amounts of steam onto the deck where passengers and crew were sleeping. In all, forty-five people were reported killed with a dozen others scalded seriously.  The H.W.R. Hill later served in the Confederate river fleet.   (By John Osborne)   
Source Citation
"Loss of Life in Steamboats in 1860," Scientific American, December 8, 1860, p. 371. 
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Type
    Crime/Disasters
    How to Cite This Page: "In Louisiana, a Mississippi steamboat's boiler ruptures and scalds forty-five people aboard to death," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/34623.