The Mississippi steamboat Fashion was heading down-river from Vicksburg to New Orleans with 175 passengers and 2,700 bales of cotton when fire broke out at around 3:30 a.m. approximately fifty miles above Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The captain drove the vessel aground to enable passengers to get ashore but the fire, mostly in the cargo, left those in the stern with only the option of jumping into the river. Forty-three passengers and crew lost their lives and the Fashion was completely destroyed. (By John Osborne)
House of Representatives, Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the State of Finances for the Year 1868 (Washington, DC; Government Printing Office, 1868), 322.
"Burning of the Steamer Fashion on the Mississippi River," Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, January 19, 1867, 285.
