In the Potomac Estuary, scores of soldiers drown after a midnight collision between steamships

Bound for Annapolis, the steamship Massachusetts had aboard hundreds of soldiers, many recently released from Confederate prison camps. Around midnight, she struck the packet-boat Black Diamond at the mouth of the Potomac.  The Black Diamond sank almost immediately and although the larger ship remained afloat, panic set in and many took to the waters of the estuary. An estimated sixty-five men drowned.  (By John Osborne)