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Catastrophe on
the Potomac!
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- August
13, 1862. Two government leased steamers collided and 77
people perished -- 73 soldiers, 3 soldiers' wives, and 6-yr. old
Arthur Dort. One steamer - the "George Peabody" - was
heading south from Aquia, Virginia. The other, the "West
Point" - was heading north to Alexandria, Virginia from Newport News
with 258 wounded soldiers and some of their family members.
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Seventy-seven people died when the "West Point" sank in about
twenty-four feet of water about a mile from the Maryland shore of
the Potomac River. Some were rescued and taken to a local hospital.
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