River News

Captain John W. Cannon is in the city, looking after the interests of his great steamer the Robert E. Lee, building here by Hill, Roberts, & Co., and Stuckey, Twomey, & Co. This boat will be, when completed, the most superb and the fastest steamer ever built on the western rivers, and worthy the fame of Captain Cannon as a steamboatman.. [Note: This is the first news article in which we find the name "Robert E. Lee" attached to this boat. The press showed great interest in this boat, and articles appear in the River News column with regularity. See also May 2, 1866, May 5, 1866, July 16, 1866, July 31, 1866, Oct. 9, 1866, and probably other days that were not indexed.]