Back in January, the Vicksburg Post ran an article about the replica of a Civil War steamer being added to the Vicksburg Battlefield Museum.
Back during the war, President Jefferson Davis asked Thomas P. Leathers, a steam boater, to head up the South's naval operations on the Mississippi River. He declined, but did transport troops and supplies in his vessels.
One of these was known as the Natchez No. 5. Now, almost 150 years later it is back, only smaller.
Bill Atteridge built it at the museum's request after the discovery of its likely remnants in the Yazoo River where it was scuttled in March, 1863.
It joins about 250 other boat and ship models at the museum and is the fifth ship by that name (as the name implies). It was named after the Natchez Indians, not the city by that name.
It's successor, the Natchez No. 6 lost a famous 1870 Mississippi River race with the Robert E. Lee.
The No. 5 ferried Jefferson Davis to Vicksburg after he learned of his election as president of the Confederacy. It rested undiscovered until last summer when its wreckage was discovered.
Old B-Runner
The Battle of Fort Fisher, N.C.
