They were aboard the steamer General Lyon for the first leg of a journey that would take them home after three years of war. Two hundred did not make it. Gale force winds and rough seas spilled a barrel of kerosene, resulting in a fire. More than 500 passengers either perished in the fire or drowned, including 200 men of the Illinois 56th.
We forgot about the Lyon disaster. When director Mike Jones and curator Laura Varner found the death dates for the 200, they couldn’t believe they hadn’t heard about it before. The resulting memorial labyrinth and historical marker hope to correct the lack of knowledge about the disaster. Jones blames the forgetfulness on circumstance. Within two weeks of the disaster, General Robert E. Lee surrendered, and Abraham Lincoln died, resulting in the newspapers of the day focusing more on those stories than the disaster at sea.
The General Lyon video project has two parts. The first describes the story and the museum’s effort to build a memorial. The second part talks about the “In Memory” markers museum volunteers made possible.
Please visit our History Projects page to view the videos.