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As commerce built on the Mississippi, so had technology and steamboats began to appear all up and down the river. The speed of a steamboat was an important factor to customers when shipping goods; it was also an interesting entertainment for the captains. In time, the faster steamboats garnered more respect, so it seemed important to be the fastest. Names of these crafts were known to residents all along the river, especially names of the faster one. The Sultana was known at one time as being a fast steamship, but it was the one remembered for its terrible boiler explosion at the end of the Civil War. There was one, the sixth Natchez, owned and commanded by Captain Thomas P. Leathers. If there was a faster boat on the Mississippi, nobody had proven it by 1870.

Captain Leathers was involved in a lot of races and was considered a bit of a showy person, who was known to get ahead of his competitor in a race, then cut sharply across in front of its bow, startling the opposing captain, crew and passengers! Not a lot could be said for passenger safety when a steamboat race broke out! But, as often as not, the passengers themselves would be on deck, cheering on their boat, while shouting insults to the competitors. Upon docking, fights would sometimes break out between different factions of opposing boats! The newspapers started carrying articles explaining the advantages of one boat over another, one captain over another and one crew over another.

This sort of industrial sport acquired a degree of fame, as names of steamships and their captains were spoken all around the US and then Europe. The captains were recognized as a breed of daredevil and in fact, they were! Some were known to affix an anvil to a relief valve handle, so the boiler couldn’t release steam in an over pressurized condition. This act made the engine run faster, even though it risked an explosion of the boiler! During the height of steamboat racing on the Mississippi, many boilers exploded. People in distant areas nowhere near the Mississippi were known to get into arguments over which of the famous boats were faster. More than a few barroom fights were started by a conversation over steamboat racing! Bets were placed worldwide over the bigger steamboat races; fortunes were won and lost among gamblers.

There was another boat with a reputation for speed named the Robert E. Lee, commanded by Captain John W. Cannon. Though the Robert E. Lee had been around a few years longer that the most recent Natchez neither, Cannon nor his crew would sit idly by if Leathers or anyone else insulted her! There had been many arguments over which was faster. With two such reputations operating in the same region, a race was inevitable! Finally, an announcement was made, declaring that there was to be a race between the Robert E. Lee and the newest Natchez. The race was to start on June 30, 1870 at 5 PM in New Orleans and would end in St. Louis, Missouri.

Immediately newspapers around the world picked up on it. Articles appeared telling why the Robert E. Lee couldn’t possibly defeat the Natchez or the other way around! In Europe, gamblers were already placing bets, some quite large. In the US, the effect was the same.

For a few days prior to the race, the Robert E. Lee wasn’t seen much plying the river as usual, but then this was not to have been any ordinary race. The newspapers were referring to it as the race of the century!

On June 30, 1870, the Natchez was loaded with northbound passengers and cargo, docked was the Robert E. Lee. All around were spectators, some of which noted that there were only a few passengers seen on the Lee. At 5 PM, the starting shot rang out and the race was on. Immediately, the Robert E. Lee jumped into the lead with fans cheering from the docks and shoreline. Captain Leathers was not expecting this! It would be four minutes later before his boat left the starting line. This was frequently a ploy, used by Captain Leathers to show the opposition that he wasn’t worried at all about him. Finally, as the Natchez got underway, another loud cheer went up from its supporters! New Orleans would soon be behind them.

Aboard the Robert E. Lee, there were only a very few passengers, all of them going to Cairo, Illinois. The Robert E. Lee had only one scheduled stop along its way, Cairo! All its furniture had been removed and put in storage. There were no chandeliers, lighting fixtures or anything of weight, unless it was a necessary part of the steamboat. It was basically a floating hull with a steam power plant! Captain Cannon knew that in order to stay ahead of the newer, faster Natchez and its boastful captain, he would have to lighten his load and minimize his stops.

Posted along the river's shoreline were timekeepers, who made notes of who was in the lead at various points along the river, then they would take that information to the nearest telegraph office and send it to the newspapers.

The Robert E. Lee was holding the lead as it was the first of the two steamboats to reach Baton Rouge at 8:25 p.m. The Natchez was running 6 minutes behind the Lee. Captain Leathers was furious. He ordered his firemen to throw more pine and pine resin into the furnaces. This appeared to have been working; the Natchez began to close in on the Lee.