Talk:Ambush of the steamboat J. R. Williams

Steam boat design
According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture, river steamboats differed greatly from ocean-going steamboasts. The river boats were narrow, shallow-draft pontoons which had the boilers on the main deck and cargoes loaded on decks built above the boilers. The boilers produced steam that turned paddle wheels to propel the craft. Some boats had paddle wheels mounted on the sides, and were called sidewheelers. Others, called stern wheelers, had a single paddle wheel on the stern. The former generally provided smoother ride for passengers and somewhat easier steering. The latter tended to be more efficient and were protected from more damage by objects in or along the river. Both were common before the Civil War.It is unclear what specific design was used for the J. R. Williams, since no photographs or other authoritative information has survived. Stern wheelers became more common in the late 19th and early 20th Century for pushing freight barges.

There is anecdotal information that indicates wood was the fuel for inland steamboats. Coal and oil became more important after the Civil War (and with the depletion of American forests near the waterways, (Note: the fact that wood was used as fuel is mentioned in at least two other Wikipedia articles Steamboats and Steamboats of the Mississippi without citations. Apparently no one has required in-line citations of this fact.) Bruin2 (talk) 22:21, 7 December 2014 (UTC)

casualties?
The summary box indicates that the Union forces sustained four killed and two captured, but the final section of the article ("Aftermath and impact")  indicates that Waite reported having captured six prisoners and killing four. Which is it? Terry Thorgaard (talk) 20:54, 6 January 2015 (UTC)
 * You have correctly summarized the inconsistent accounts, which are accurately reported in the article. Who knows?  All the participants are long since dead.  These both come from WP:RS.  WP:Truth seems to be the answer.  See WP:Verifiable.  This all seems to come under the rubric of The Fog of War.  7&amp;6=thirteen (☎) 21:49, 6 January 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Ambush of the steamboat J. R. Williams. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20131102050901/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/W/WA041.html to http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/W/WA041.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 12:57, 3 July 2017 (UTC)