The Hannibal City was a sidewheel steamboat named in honor of Missouri’s leading port north of St. Louis. The sidewheeler belonged to the fleet of the St. Louis & Keokuk Packet Company.
When the Civil War broke out, the Hannibal City continued its packet runs on the Upper Mississippi, but in April 1862, the boat was pressed into service on behalf of the Union. After the surrender of Confederate forces at Island No. 10, the Hannibal City transported members of the 11th Missouri Volunteer Infantry from New Madrid to Mosquito Point, Arkansas. A few days later, the boat took them up the Tennessee River to Hamburg Landing to join the Army of the Mississippi. Upon completing the assignment, the Hannibal City resumed her schedule on the Upper Mississippi, but five months later, she ran onto a sunken log raft just below the town of Louisiana and sank in seven or eight feet of water. No lives were lost. All the machinery and upper works were salvaged, but the accident ended the four-year life of the Hannibal City.