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It is also about a rescue effort that brought together people who had been at war just weeks earlier. The explosion threw some passengers into the water and destroyed a large section of the boat. Following the end of the Civil War in 1865, both Confederates and Unionists scrambled to pick up the pieces left over by the bloody conflict. Jul 23 22 # Qns 10 Difficulty Average Avg Score 7 / 10 Plays 401 Awards Top 35% Quiz Last 3 plays: dmaxst ( 9/10 ), Guest 47 ( 9/10 ), ncterp ( 10/10 ). Rick Long, the Cape Cod Curmudgeon He died in 1871, having escaped justice because of his numerous highly placed patronsincluding two presidents. Fearing that his colleagues were taking bribes to transport prisoners on other boats, Union Army Captain George Williams, who oversaw the operation, hastily ordered that all former prisoners at the parole camp and hospital at Vicksburg be transported on the Sultana. When the tragedy struck, Warner managed to swim to the shore of the Mississippi River. Because your northward journey up the Mississippi River is aboard the ill-fated, Stopping in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Mason was approached by the citys quartermaster, Reuben Hatch, with an interesting proposition. [citation needed]. The First American President: Setting the Precedent, African Americans During the Revolutionary War, Help Save 125 Battlefield Acres in Virginia, Help Restore History at Gettysburg, Cold Harbor & More, Help Us Save Hallowed Ground in Tennessee and Kentucky, Help Save 820 Acres at Five Virginia Battlefields, Save 343 Acres at FIVE Battlefields in FOUR Western Theater States, Save 42 Historic Acres at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Support the American Battlefield Protection Program Enhancement Act, Stop the Largest Rezoning in Orange County History, On the Banks and Along Streams: Battlefield Preservations Positive Impact on Water Sources. The boat was 260 feet long and had an authorized capacity of 376 passengers and crew. And the shrapnel, the steam and the boiling water killed hundreds. A depiction of the devastating explosion. The title of SS and Police Leader ( SS und Polizeifhrer) designated a senior Nazi Party official who commanded various components of the SS and the German uniformed police ( Ordnungspolizei ), prior to and during World War II in the German Reich proper and in occupied territories. Sultana was a commercial side-wheel steamboat which exploded and sank on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865, killing 1,169 people in what remains the worst maritime disaster in United States history. Either way, the odds of survival were slim. It stopped at Vicksburg, Mississippi, for repair of a leaky boiler. When the boat tipped the other way, water rushing back into the empty boiler would hit the hot spots and flash instantly to steam, creating a sudden surge in pressure. The sediment tended to settle on the bottom of the boilers or clog between the flues and leave hotspots. The Schutzstaffel (SS; also stylized as with Armanen runes; German pronunciation: [tstafl] (); "Protection Squadron") was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II.. Sign up for our quarterly email series highlighting the environmental benefits of battlefield preservation. The government was paying $5 per enlisted man, $10 per officer, to carry men upriver from the South. With a bulging seam on her boiler, the ship's mechanic wanted to cut it out and install a new plate, easily three day's work. The Sultana was a sidewheel Mississippi steamboat carrying almost two thousand recently-released Union prisoners-of-war back north at the end of the Civil War. Try My Sights, Roadside America app for iPhone, iPad. When the Sultana left Vicksburg, it carried 2,100 troops and 200 civilians, more than six times its capacity. Under the command of Captain James Cass Mason of St. Louis, Sultana left St. Louis on April 13, 1865, bound for New Orleans. In his haste, Captain Mason chose not to repair the ships boiler as extensively as it required and chose instead to settle with a quick, temporary fix. Such a contract could pay huge dividends, and Mason convinced local military authorities to pick up the entire contingent despite the presence of two other steamboats at Vicksburg. Lieutenant Colonel Reuben Hatch, chief quartermaster at Vicksburg and one of the sleazier characters in this story, had approached Captain Mason with a deal. All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. Such a terrible, awful disaster. The disaster was overshadowed in the press by events surrounding the end of the Civil War, including the killing of President Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth just the day before. tourist attractions and odd sights in Tennessee. While some were recovered, many were never found. [33] The museum is only temporary until enough funds can be raised to build a permanent museum. However, the Judge Advocate General of the United States Army overturned the guilty verdict because Speed had been at the parole camp all day and had not personally placed a single soldier on board Sultana. The Federal government was paying $5 each to anyone bringing enlisted troops home, and $10 apiece for officers. The Sultana was a 260-foot-long wooden steamboat, built in Cincinnati in 1863, which regularly transported passengers and freight between St. Louis and New Orleans on the Mississippi River. While Lincolns shocking murder occurred nearly two weeks prior to the Sultanas demise, the ripples of his assassination lingered long after. Thank you for your interest in the history we all share. 3) The design of the boilers. The Forgotten Explosion Of The Sultana, The Worst Maritime Disaster In American History. These men had survived months and years of combat, and they were captured near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on April 1, 1865. I make every effort to get my facts straight, but I'm as good at being wrong, as anyone else. Aboard her overcrowded decks were some 1,960 paroled prisoners, 22 guards from the 58th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 70 paying cabin passengers, and 85 crew members. For two years, she ran a regular route between St. Louis and New Orleans and was frequently commissioned to carry troops during the American Civil War. All Rights Reserved. SS and police leader. James Cass Mason, King's German Legion "Blues in the Water" tells a stylized version of the, This page was last edited on 29 April 2023, at 19:15. "The paddle wheel fell off of one side, caused the boat to turn sideways; the other paddle wheel fell off.". The most recent investigation into the cause of the disaster by Pat Jennings, principal engineer of Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company, which came into existence in 1866 because of the Sultana explosion, determined that three main factors led to the disaster: 1) The type of metal used in the construction of the boilers Charcoal Hammered No. The boat had a legal carrying capacity of 376 passengers, Potter explained. Between 1825 and 1830, forty-two explosions killed 273 people in the United States, and between 1810 and 1840, nearly 4000 fatalities occurred on the Mississippi River alone. Today, though, the city of Marion, Ark., thinks people are ready to learn about the Sultana. ", Ancestry.com, Texas Death Certificates, 19031980, Jennings, Pat "What Happened to the Sultana? Mere weeks after the Civil War came to an end, the steamboat, Sultana exploded and sank in the Mississippi River, killing an estimated 1,200 to 1,800 Union soldiers who were released from prison and on their way home. Mason readily agreed, saying that he would pick up the group on his way back from New Orleans. "The boat had a legal carrying capacity of 376 passengers," he says, "and on its up-river trip it had over 2,500 aboard," in part because the government had agreed to pay $5 for each enlisted man and $10 for each officer who made the trip. Experts believe the horrific tragedy was overshadowed by Lincolns assassination. The 'Sultana' was carrying some 2,000 freed Union soldiers from Confederate prisons when three of its four boilers blew, sending the ship into flame and chaos. The St. Louis Daily Missouri Democrat, April 29, 1865, states that the "steamer Sultana left New Orleans on Friday evening the 21st, with about seventy cabin passengers, and about eighty five employees on the boat. All the Eastern troops will be sent to Annapolis. Directors Mark Marshall Mike Marshall Writers Brendan Hedges Apparently, Captain Mason and his chief engineer ordered one of their mechanics to do a quick (and likely faulty) repair in order to resume their voyage on the river. The Sultanas captain knew one of the four boilers was leaking and not safe, he says, yet officials ignored the danger. Many of the Kentucky prisoners were placed on the boiler deck and were killed in the initial explosion. "In order to save time, they would set the people off in treetops, and go back to the boat to take more off.". By comparison, the sinking of the Titanic took a little over 1,500 lives. Originally aired on May 01, 1998 - In part 192 of our Civil War series, Virginia Tech history professor James Robertson tells us that the greatest disaster in maritime history was overshadowed by. He was injured on Sultana and was honorably discharged in May 1865. One Union officer, Captain Frederick Speed, was found guilty of grossly overcrowding the riverboat. In fact, Potter says, the government even rejected a request from survivors to erect a monument to those who died in the tragedy. The Explosion of the SS Sultana - PEimpact - Recognizing the impact of PEs Under the command of Captain James Cass Mason of St. Louis, the SS Sultana left St. Louis on April 13, 1865 on a journey to New Orleans. Captain James Mason and many of his officers were among the dead. But amid the wreckage of the Sultana disaster, they were on each others sides. Tell me a truth, and I'll believe. Eventually, the group settled on meeting in the Toledo, Ohio area. One such vessel was the SS Sultana. The sinking of the Sultana claimed more victims than the Titanic, yet the tragedy remains largely forgotten in American history. The steamer registered 1,719 tons[2] and normally carried a crew of 85. . The decks creaked and sagged, as beams were installed to shore up the load. Charcoal Hammered No. He wrote further that the fortunate ones clung to debris in the river, or to horses and mules that had escaped the boat, hoping to make it to shore, which they could not see because it was dark and the flooded river was at that point almost five miles wide.. The passengers Mason was so afraid of losing were former prisoners of the Confederacy, and Confederate parolees, returning to their homes in Kentucky and Tennessee. In support of Louden's claim, what appeared to be a piece of an artillery shell was said to be recovered from the sunken wreck. [4]:197202 Captain George Williams, who had placed the men on board, was a regular Army officer, and the military refused to go after one of their own. Some passengers burned on the boat, wrote Potter. By the time the repairs would have been completed, the prisoners would have been sent home on other boats. On April 9, General Robert E. Lee surrendered, ending the Civil War; and five days later, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, who himself was killed on the 26th, the day before the Sultana exploded on the Mississippi. The Mississippi was already at flood stage, and the Sultana had only one lifeboat and a few life preservers. The SS Sultanawhat remained of itdrifted for six miles, finally sinking near Marion, Arkansas. In the days after the Civil War, the steamboat Sultana exploded and sank on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865, at Memphis, killing 1,800 passengers almost all of them former prisoners of war returning home from the South. [4]:50,5556 Although Sultana had a legal capacity of only 376, by the time she backed away from Vicksburg on the night of April 24, she was severely overcrowded with over 1,953 paroled prisoners, 22 guards from the 58th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, over 70 fare-paying cabin passengers, and 85 crew members, for a total of 2,130 people. Although brought up on courts-martial charges, Hatch managed to get letters of recommendation from no less reputable personages than President Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant. Thousands of recently released Union prisoners of war who had been held in the Confederate prison camps at Cahaba and Andersonville had been brought to a small parole camp outside of Vicksburg to await release to the northern states. Under reduced pressure, the steamboat limped into Vicksburg to get the boiler repaired and to pick up her promised load of prisoners. [4]:129 Eventually, the hulk of Sultana drifted about six miles (10km) to the west bank of the river and sank at around 7:00 AM near Mound City and present-day Marion, Arkansas, about five hours after the explosion. [7] Many died of drowning or hypothermia. During her time in port, and while the repairs were being made, Sultana took on the paroled prisoners. But there were many other reasons the event didn't get much attention at the time. Since there was no accurate record of all those aboard, identifying the number of dead proved difficult. An estimated 1,800 people died in the explosion and ensuing fire more than died in the sinking of the Titanic. [8], In 2015, on the 150th anniversary of the disaster, an interim Sultana Disaster Museum was opened in Marion, Arkansas, the closest town to the buried remains of the steamboat,[citation needed] across the Mississippi River from Memphis. HISTORY.com works with a wide range of writers and editors to create accurate and informative content. The temporary museum it has created near City Hall includes pictures, personal items from soldiers, pieces of the Sultana, and a 14-foot replica of the boat. On April 24, 1865, The Sultana was loaded with 1,978 paroled prisoners, 22 guards from the 58th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, 70 paying cabin passengers, and 85 crew members. The paddle wheel on one side fell off and caused the boat to turn sideways before the other paddle wheel succumbed as well. It just hurts my heart. The broken wood caught fire and turned the remaining superstructure into a raging inferno. At the same time, dozens of people began to float past the Memphis waterfront, calling for help until they were noticed by the crews of docked steamboats and U.S. warships, who immediately set about rescuing the survivors. Newspaper accounts indicate that the residents of Memphis had sympathy for the victims despite the ongoing Union occupation. Memorials and markers to the USA's number one Death Boat are scattered across several states. Strange and amusing destinations in the US and Canada are our specialty. In the end, no one was ever held accountable for what remains the deadliest maritime disaster in United States history. However, Courtenay's great-great-grandson, Joseph Thatcher, who wrote a book on Courtenay and the coal torpedo, denies that a coal torpedo was used in the Sultana disaster. Our FREE Virtual Teacher Institute is the can't miss online educator event of the summer. The story of the Sultana is largely forgotten, eclipsed by the news a day earlier that President Lincolns assassin, John Wilkes Booth, had been found and killed. Thousands of former POWs were being released from Confederate camps in Alabama and Georgia, and held in regional parole depots. During a stop in Vicksburg to address a boiler issue, the steamboat skipper received word that the U.S. government was willing to pay a princely fee $5 for each released soldier and $10 for each officer for the transport of former Union prisoners back North. The Chicago Opera Troupe, a minstrel group that had traveled upriver on Sultana before getting off at Memphis, staged a benefit performance, while the crew of the gunboat Essex raised US$1,000 (equivalent to $19,117 in 2022) [14], In December 1885, the survivors living in the northern states of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio began attending annual reunions, forming the National Sultana Survivors' Association. The first vessel to reach the site of the disaster arrived less than an hour after the explosion and managed to rescue a number of survivors. I'm not a "Historian". The letters reside in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. After the disaster, Reuben Benton Hatch refused three separate subpoenas to appear before Captain Speed's trial and give testimony. Many were unable to swim. Federal Identification Number (EIN): 54-1426643. . More on Sultana, Worst Death Boat in U.S. History. It was, to be brutally realistic, a relatively minor incident, the loss of one freighter among many claimed by the Great. Each fire-tube boiler was 18 feet (5.5m) long and 46 inches (120cm) in diameter and contained 24 five-inch (13cm) flues which ran from the firebox to the chimney.[3]. (LogOut/ "We feel like we're a part of this Civil War story, but we're the conclusion that no one heard," says Lisa O'Neal, a Marion resident and member of the Sultana Historic Preservation Society. Although it was designed to only hold 376 persons, more than 2,000 Union troops were crowded onto the steamboat - more than five times its legal carrying capacity. 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. [18] Louden, a former Confederate agent and saboteur who operated in and around St. Louis, had been responsible for the burning of the steamboat Ruth. This monument is located in Marion, Arkansas. The American Battlefield Trust is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The commercial paddle-wheel steamboat, SS Sultana, was first launched in 1863, its primary purpose to transport cotton between St. Louis and New Orleans. Yet few know the story of the Sultana's demise, or the ensuing rescue effort that included Confederate soldiers saving Union soldiers they might have shot just weeks earlier. The boat carried 2,500 men, mainly newly paroled Union soldiers from the war. Many of them instantly died from shrapnel, steam, and the boiling water released from the explosion. A further mixup with paper meant that the boat's capacity ballooned from the legal 376 to over 2300 passengers. T n the night of June 9, 1865, the SS Kentucky, a side-wheeler steamboat carrying a large number of paroled Confederate soldiers and their families, capsized in the Red River south of Shreveport after hitting a snag at Eagle Bend. This is a book of about 25 case studies that. By comparison, the Titanic was 882 feet long and 11 . They were so close to being home, Potter said. Copyright 1996-2023 Doug Kirby, Ken Smith, Mike Wilkins. Instead of taking two or three days, the temporary repair took only one. As a lawyer, Potter was well-equipped to investigate the mistakes and malfeasance that led to the Sultana disaster. But a more reasonable explanation as to why the disaster was so easily forgotten is that it had been overshadowed by a bigger, more historically significant tragedy the assassination of then-president Abraham Lincoln. [17], In 1888, a St. Louis resident named William Streetor claimed that his former business partner, Robert Louden, made a confession of having sabotaged Sultana by the use of a coal torpedo while they were drinking in a saloon. Find History on Facebook (Opens in a new window), Find History on Twitter (Opens in a new window), Find History on YouTube (Opens in a new window), Find History on Instagram (Opens in a new window), Find History on TikTok (Opens in a new window), Current one is: April 27.

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