Packet Boat Marshall
N 37° 26.367 W 079° 09.767
17S E 662530 N 4145207
The remains of the former "Queen of the James". The hull of the Packet Boat Marshall has been in residence in Riverside Park since 1936.
Waymark Code: WMB5P9
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 04/08/2011
Views: 3
From the Civil War Trails Plaque in Rivermont Park:
Packet Boat Marshall: Bringing Stonewall Jackson Home
After Gen. Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson died on May 10, 1863, as a result of wounds suffered a week earlier in the Battle of Chancellorsville, his body was transported first to Richmond for public mourning, and then to Lexington for burial. Much of the journey home was by train, but the last leg was by water, aboard the James River and Kanawha Canal packet boat Marshall.
On Wednesday, May 13, the train bearing Jackson's remains pulled into Lynchburg's Orange and Alexandria railroad station at 6:30 P.M. Businesses were closed, church bells tolled, and cannons were fired as large crowds gathered to pay their respects. An evening service was held in First Presbyterian Church. The coffin was then placed aboard the Marshall and mules connected to the vessel by towlines pulled it slowly upriver. The boat, which also bore Jackson's widow, Anna Morrison Jackson, reached Lexington the next morning.
The packet boat Marshall was damaged in Lexington in June 1864 during Union Gen. David Hunter's raid. Repaired the next year it continued in service until 1880, when the canal company went out of business and the old towpath became a railroad bed. The Marshall was docked near early street and served as the home of Corbin Spencer and his sister. In 1913 a flood buried the vessel in mud. The iron hull was excavated in 1936 and placed in Riverside Park. In 2006 the Lynchburg Historical Foundation restored the hull and placed it in this protective structure.
The packet boat Marshall was commissioned in 1861 to carry mail and passangers on the James River and Kanawha Canal. It was 90 feet long, 14 feet wide, and with a handmade 3/16-inch-thick iron hull. The cabin interior, paneled with Dominican mahagony, had staterooms for male and female passengers, and a dining room in which were huge canvas sleeping berths at night.
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