INTRODUCTION

Steam power was a major product of the Industrial Revolution, and among its earliest applications were steam-powered vessels that could efficiently traverse oceans, lakes, and rivers.   Steamboats revolutionized Tennessee's river transportation early in the nineteenth century, and by mid-century continued to play a vital role in the state's economy through interconnections with Tennessee railroads (another product of the Industrial Revolution, representing the application of steam power to land transportation).

Tennessee's strategic location between the northern and southern states, with its major rivers giving access to the state's interior, ensured that its river transportation system would play an important role in the Civil War.  River-based combat and transport steamboat operations would heavily affect both the military and civilian experience of Tennesseans during the war years.

(Edward A. Johnson, of Athens, Georgia, is the primary author of the river transportation pages.)

Last update:  December 4, 2001