Part 1 - Background On The Steamer Maple Leaf

The Maple Leaf Incident is one of the most fascinating, and relatively unknown events of the Civil War.  I came across references to it when I was working on the genealogy of my husbands great-great uncle John Webre, Jr., who was a prisoner aboard the ship.  Since that time, I have had an obsession with finding out everything I can about the events of this amazing venture.

The Maple Leaf started life as a steamboat on Lake Ontario.  By the time of the United States Civil War the excursion business on the lake had declined, profits were hard to come by, and Canadians were sympathetic to the Southern cause, which further drove profits down. 

On the last trip of the Maple Leaf, which was a July Fourth excursion, Confederate sympathizers began throwing sticks at the ship from the dock when the band aboard started playing 'Yankee Doodle.'  Two days later when the ship returned to dock to discharge its passengers, sympathizers threw eggs at the band and cheered for Jefferson Davis and P.G.T Beauregard.  This was the last straw for the owners of the ship and in August 1862 she was sold to a brokerage firm in Boston who chartered her to the United States government. 

The Maple Leaf was overhauled for service and on September 8^th 1862 she arrived at Fort Monroe, Virginia where she began her military transport career.  She ran routine service along the Atlantic coast ferrying troops back and forth, and running troop supplies along the Eastern seaboard.  Occasionally she would transport Confederate prisoners of war.  Life for the Maple Leaf was pretty routine until the events of June 9, 1863.