Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum

Learn about the legacy of the Black Diamond disaster from Museum Director Karen Stone a few weeks before its anniversary

Camp Parole – where many passengers aboard the Black Diamond originated from. Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Join Museum Director Karen Stone at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office on Thursday April 9 at 6:00 PM to learn about a forgotten maritime tragedy of the American Civil War – the sinking of the Black Diamond.

On April 22, 1865, after the war had essentially come to a close, approximately 300 soldiers got on board a steamer in Alexandria to return to their various regiments. They had survived Andersonville Prison and been nursed back to health at Camp Parole, MD and other hospitals in the area, and were just waiting to be mustered out. But fate was not kind, and a number of them died early the next morning in a forgotten tragedy on the Lower Potomac River. Come learn the tragic story of these men and the all but forgotten accident between the Massachusetts and the Black Diamond during the hunt for John Wilkes Booth.

Just a few weeks later, on April 26, NMCWM Executive Director David Price will speak at the commemoration of the sinking of the Black Diamond on the anniversary at St. Clements Island Museum.

The program begins at 6:00 PM at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum and will be a pay-what-you-please presentation.

Karen E. Stone is the Director of the Museums Division of St. Mary’s County Government. She oversees three distinct sites in the county, and is responsible for strategic planning, fundraising, creating partnerships, overseeing museum operations, and more. She recently published an article about the Black Diamond disaster in America’s Civil War Magazine entitled Peril on the Potomac.