4. The loss of the steamer Lady Elgin changed Milwaukee politics
Lady Elgin was a passenger steamer on the Great Lakes prior to the Civil War. The vessel was a hard-luck ship during its relatively short career, including being sunk once, raised and refitted, stranded on a reef, and damaged by fire. Nonetheless, the vessel was known for its luxurious fittings and was a popular passenger and excursion vessel. In September 1860, the vessel departed Milwaukee carrying a large contingent of that city’s mostly Irish political leadership, bound for Chicago where the group were to hear a speech by Stephen A. Douglas. After a day of campaigning the vessel was returning to Milwaukee when it was rammed by Augusta of Oswego, a poorly lighted schooner.
In the prevailing high winds and low visibility, the schooner maintained its course for Chicago. Lady Elgin quickly broke apart, and of the passengers and crew aboard 98 survived. More than 300 perished. Of the survivors, one was a drummer for a band on board which had played during the campaign rally in Chicago; he used one of his drums as a flotation device. Many of the dead were killed when the stormy waters crushed them against the rocky shoreline. So many of the Irish political leaders of Milwaukee were killed in the disaster that the Germans became the leading ethnic group in city politics following the sinking. The Lady Elgin disaster was the largest loss of life on the Great Lakes, and remains so as of 2018.
