In the course of time, steam was applied to the
propulsion of boats, and the flatboat yielded to the inevitable: the
palatial steamboat was supreme. But the days of the steamboat were
numbered when the civil war cast its blight over the land; and when
the years of strife were over, so also was the river traffic which had
created the floating palaces of the Mississippi. There were several
things that operated to prevent the reorganization of the fleet of
steamboats which for size, beauty and capacity were found in no other
part of the world. Many of these boats had been destroyed, and the
companies that owned them were financially ruined. Most of those
remaining were purchased or confiscated for military purposes, and
rebuilt either as transports or as gunboats. A period of unparalleled
railway construction began at the close of the war, and most of the
traffic was turned to the railway. Finally, it was discovered that a
puffy, wheezy tug, with its train of barges, costing but a few
thousand dollars, and equipped with half a score of men, could, at a
much less rate, tow a vastly greater cargo than the river steamer.
That discovery was the knell of the old-time steamboat, and the
beginning of a new era of navigation.
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