Thomas Francis Meagher - Disappearance

Disappearance

In the summer of 1867, Meagher traveled to Fort Benton, Montana, to receive a shipment of guns and ammunition sent by General Sherman for use by the Montana Militia. On the way to Fort Benton, the Missouri River terminus for steamboat travel, Meagher fell ill and stopped for six days to recuperate. When he reached Fort Benton, he was reportedly still ill. Sometime in the early evening of July 1, 1867, Meagher fell overboard from the steamboat G. A. Thompson, into the Missouri. The pilot described the waters as "...instant death – water twelve feet deep and rushing at the rate of ten miles an hour" (i.e., 3.6 m deep at a rate of 16 km/h or about 4.5 m/s). His body was never recovered.

Because Meagher was outspoken and controversial, some believed his death to be suspicious. Since people prefer conspiracy and his body was never recovered, many theories circulated about his death. In 1913 a man claimed to have carried out the murder of Meagher for the price of $8000, but then recanted. Some said that Meagher had been drinking, and simply fell overboard. Others have suggested that he might have been murdered by Montana political enemies or perhaps by a Confederate soldier from the war, and some have supposed that Native Americans were responsible.

Meagher was survived by his second wife, Elizabeth Townsend (1840–1906), and his son by his first wife Katherine Bennett. His son grew up in Ireland and never knew his father.