Did you know that Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis
duked it out at Niagara Falls during the Civil War?
Well, not the
two presidents anyways. The story goes that according to a South Carolina newspaper, the Yorkville Enquirer, published on October
1, 1862, two ships christened after the presidents of the United States and Confederate
States were sent adrift down Niagara Falls to show the fate of each other’s
government. The newspaper’s sources, Confederate Officers released from a
Federal prison in the area of the supposed incident, said the Yankees at
Niagara Falls obtained an old ship and hoped to demonstrate the destiny of the Southern
States. These Northerners “painted the name of ‘Jeff Davis’ on her; then they hoisted a Confederate flag on her
mast” and sent her down the river towards the falls.[1]
Despite all the
huzzas and jeers from the crowd for old “Jeff
Davis,” neither the ship nor the river cooperated as planned for the
Northerners. Soon they all stood staring at the defiant “Confederate” ship as
it became “lodged on the rocks above the precipice...with her noble flag flying
proudly to the breeze.”[2]
Angered and humiliated by the stubborn ship, people present for the spectacle began
to discuss sending for a battery from Buffalo “to dislodge her.”[3]
Not to be
outdone, Confederate sympathizers and local Canadians obtained their own vessel
and dubbed it the “Abe Lincoln.”[4]
In the same spirit of resentment toward the other’s government, they raised the
“Stars and Stripes” on Abe Lincoln
and turned it “loose to the current;” however, this Union vessel “made the mad
leap and was dashed into a thousand fragments.”[5]
Naturally, this Southern newspaper hoped the story was a premonition for the
fate of the United States government.
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