The steamboat Miami, bound for Little Rock, Arkansas from Memphis, Tennessee with a full load of goods and passengers, including thirty regular army troops, exploded one of its boilers and caught fire on the Arkansas River at around seven o'clock in the evening. Despite the help of the steamboat Henry Ames, which arrived a few hours later, at least 130 people lost their lives in the disaster. (By John Osborne)
Source Citation
"Loss of the Miami," Fort Wayne (IN) Gazette, February 2, 1866.
William C. Cochran, "Perils of River Navigation," Proceedings of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association; Volume X Part II, for the Year 1919-1920; 1921; p. 326.