The General Lyon was a 1,026-ton screw steamer and United States Army transport built at East Haddam, Connecticut[1] and chartered by the Federal government in March 1864.
It was used as a troop transport on the eastern seaboard during the American Civil War, taking part in the campaigns against Battery Wagner, the Bermuda Hundred and Fort Fisher.
[2] Late in the war, General Lyon was used extensively by the Union Army to carry Federal troops from Wilmington, North Carolina to Fortress Monroe, Virginia and New York.
The ship anchored for the night off Smithville (present-day Southport) near the mouth of the Cape Fear River, waiting for high tide to cross the bar.
Of the passengers on board, approximately 500 lost their lives, including all but five members of a 205-man contingent of the U.S. 56th Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment.