I didn't expect a book about the Mississippi River to start in Chicago.  But the city is journalist Lee Sandlin's hometown and a small tributary originates under the pavement in his neighborhood.  It flows on to the Illinois River which dumps into the Mississippi after traveling across its home state.   This fully urbanized trickle serves as an extreme counterpoint to Wicked River, Sandlin's history of the Mississippi River before it was tamed by technology. 

Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States began expanding with abandon and the Mississippi served as the central axis of that first great American migration.  Sandlin's story starts here, describing the birth of St. Louis and New Orleans, and ends shortly after the Civil War when the Eads Bridge - an acclaimed engineering marvel - was completed, spanning the river at St. Louis and bringing an end to the river's role as the center of the region's economy and culture. 

Most of Sandlin's narrative revolves around various individuals caught up in the often tumultuous events.   He includes the usual suspects like Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain - both river rats in their youth - and heroes like Davy Crockett and General U.S. Grant.  But most of the book is focused on people I'd never heard of before like George Byron Merrick, who grew up on the river in the remote hamlet of Prescott, Wisconsin; Harvard graduate and missionary Timothy Flint, who traveled the river founding churches; Natchez barber and businessman William Johnson, a free man of color who made his livelihood promoting "steam medicine"; and Mary Loughborough, the wife of a Confederate officer and survivor of the siege of Vicksburg. 

In addition to the individual stories, Sandlin includes vivid descriptions of the seemingly constant frontier chaos, focusing primarily on the southern valley.  Fist fights, drunkenness, gambling and prostitution were accepted as normal parts of everyday life and most "justice" was hastily administered by "lynching courts".  He also includes some of the finer points of dueling with pistols, known as the "Code Duello", not information I plan on using, but interesting nonetheless. 

As one would expect, Sandlin relies on dozens of first hand and eye witness accounts of the events he discusses and like all great history writers he is able to put the myriad pieces together in a consistently coherent fashion.  I found the 250 page journey to be a smooth and enthralling voyage, quickly racing to the end.  Both the siege of Vicksburg and the saga of the steamboat Sultana - the worst disaster in US naval history - are told with great tension and passion, keeping me riveted. 

Before reading this book, the little I knew about Mississippi River history was cobbled together from ancient childhood memories of Huck and Tom, boys not known for their historical rigor.  But Wicked River - as the title implies - paints a more complete and often somber picture of this vital, but dangerous, waterway of the American frontier landscape.  Sandlin delivers a thoroughly entertaining account of this fascinating part of the American birth story, earning my strong recommendation.


Other 19th century American history reviews:

Lincoln: A Novel
Meeting Mr. Lincoln
Empire of the Summer Moon
The Mysterious Private Thompson
The American West


Recommended: Yes