who was the captain of the ss sultana

In order to save time, they would set the people off in treetops, and go back to the boat to take more off.. Marion, across the river from Memphis, Tenn., is near the spot where the 260-foot side-wheeler came to rest. Credit: Library of Congress Photo Collection, 1840-2000/Ancestry.com, April 27, 1865, Helena, Arkansas. The Library of CongressThe sinking of the Sultana claimed more victims than the Titanic. (LogOut/ 'Death's Head Units') was the Schutzstaffel (SS) organization responsible for administering the Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps for Nazi Germany, among similar duties. There were so many mistakes that could have been prevented by government oversight, it is possible that officials wanted to keep things quiet. Jerry O. Potter, author of The Sultana Tragedy, tells the tragic story of the men of the 6th Kentucky Cavalry. Some of the rescuers had been Confederate soldiers who lived in the area by the river near where the Sultana had sunk. On April 25, 1865, the Sultana left New Orleans with 100 passengers. The two smokestacks toppled down upon the now burning decks, crushing many. 2022 Mike Sirota | Designed by Media Fastlanes, Imagine that youre a Union soldier imprisoned by the Confederacy during the Civil War. The explosion threw some passengers into the water and destroyed a large section of the boat. He had studied the Civil War in Tennessee for years, but he'd never heard of the event portrayed in a painting at a local bank. A widowed history geek and sometimes curmudgeon, who still likes to learn new things. [11] The official count by the United States Customs Service was 1,547. 700 were plucked from the water and taken to Memphis hospitals of whom 200 later died of burns or exposure. Some cargo was unloaded, and about 200 men disembarked. Weve done a lot to keep the story and to spread the story, said Norman Shaw, who founded the Association of Sultana Descendants and Friends. Historian John Burke has estimated that 233 boiler explosions occurred on steamboats between 1816 and 1848. Without a pilot to steer the boat, Sultana became a drifting, burning hulk. The American Battlefield Trust is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. 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. Mason was part owner of the riverboat, and he and the other owners were anxious to pick up discharged Union prisoners at Vicksburg. With a bulging seam on her boiler, the ships mechanic wanted to cut it out and install a new plate, easily three days work. Chugging up the muddy Mississippi River in the spring of 1865, the SS Sultana steamer was dangerously overcrowded, carrying 2,300 Union soldiers just released from prison camps in the South. It was he who sent 2,100 prisoners from their parole camp into Vicksburg, but his conviction was later overturned. Mason didnt have time to worry about boiler repairs. A depiction of the devastating explosion. His chief engineer convinced the mechanic to do a patchwork job so that they could get underway. "The wind blew the fire to the rear, burned that out," Frank Fogelman says. Hatch could guarantee up to 1,400 men, and of course he would receive a kickback. There was a big competition among the boats to get a load of prisoners, Potter said. At some places, the river overflowed the banks and spread out three miles wide. [4]:40, Although Hatch had suggested that Mason might get as many as 1,400 released Union prisoners, a mix-up with the parole camp books and suspicion of bribery from other steamboat captains caused the Union officer in charge of the loading, Captain George Augustus Williams, to place every man at the parole camp on board Sultana, believing the number to be less than 1,500. Please log in using one of these methods to post your comment: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. This is a book of about 25 case studies that. [4]:198,200,202, Monuments and historical markers to Sultana and her victims have been erected at Memphis, Tennessee;[25] Muncie, Indiana;[26] Marion, Arkansas;[27] Vicksburg, Mississippi;[28] Cincinnati, Ohio;[29] Knoxville, Tennessee;[30] Hillsdale, Michigan[31] and Mansfield, Ohio. She arrived at Memphis on the evening of the 26th, unloading 120 tons of sugar from her holds. By one account, a known Confederate saboteur named Robert Louden had claimed to have actually launched a coal torpedo at the ship in an attempt to kill the enemy Union soldiers aboard. Captain James Mason and many of his officers were among the dead. However, Sultana was a coal-burning boat and not a wood-burner. Decks sagged under the weight of the men. He died in 1871, having escaped justice because of his numerous highly placed patronsincluding two presidents. [7] Many died of drowning or hypothermia. It just hurts my heart. The Sultana was launched from Cincinnati in 1863. Thousands of recently released Union prisoners now occupied a parole camp outside Vicksburg. When the Sultana left Vicksburg, it carried 2,100 troops and 200 civilians, more than six times its capacity. Donations to the Trust are tax deductible to the full extent allowable under the law. The areas between the many flues clogged easily, especially since dirty river water carried much sediment, and were difficult to clean. Remember the Sultana (2018) - IMDb Cast & crew User reviews Trivia IMDbPro All topics Remember the Sultana 2018 1h 36m IMDb RATING 7.3 /10 201 YOUR RATING Rate Documentary History The Sultana was a river boat that exploded in 1865 killing many passengers, mostly Union Soldiers. Most obvious is the extreme overcrowding on board made possible by a bribe to officials and the severe weather conditions that the boat then faced. The SS Sultana, a Mississippi River paddlewheeler, exploded on April 27, 1865, killing an estimated 1,800 people, a death toll far higher than on the later, more famous Titanic. By comparison, the sinking of the Titanic took a little over 1,500 lives. Many of the Kentucky prisoners were placed on the boiler deck and were killed in the initial explosion. This effect of careening could have been minimized by maintaining high water levels in the boilers. He wanted the seam hammered back into place and covered with a patch and he wanted it done, in a day. General Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant on the 9th. "Lincoln had just been assassinated. But amid the wreckage of the Sultana disaster, they were on each others sides. 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 ). The Sultana made it only a few miles north of Memphis. The sediment tended to settle on the bottom of the boilers or clog between the flues and leave hotspots. The Mississippi River was experiencing high water levels as melting snow from up north flooded its banks. My father would have never been born. 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. At 2 a.m. on April 27, three of the four steamship boilers exploded. At 2 in the morning on April 27, 1865, the leaking boiler exploded and ignited two other boilers. 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. Now that youve learned about the sinking of the Sultana, the worst maritime disaster in American history, read these 12 harrowing tales from Titanic survivors. I do this because I want to. On April 23, 1865, the vessel docked in Vicksburg to address issues with the boiler during a routine journey from New Orleans. Try My Sights, Roadside America app for iPhone, iPad. Since there was no accurate record of all those aboard, identifying the number of dead proved difficult. In the year 1865, following the culmination of the civil war, steamer vessels of the ilk of the Sultana were utilised to ferry the captured Northern army men to dock facilities in the Northern provinces. Sultana was the worst maritime disaster in American history, though her memory was swept away in the tide of events, that April. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Mason quickly agreed to Hatch's offer, hoping to gain much money through this deal. April 27, 1865 SS Sultana - Today in History While in port, it was contracted by the U.S. Government to carry former Union prisoners of war from Confederate prisons, such as Andersonville and Cahaba, back into Northern territory. The forward area of the upper decks collapsed into the exposed furnace boxes, which soon caught fire and turned the remaining boat into an inferno. It is incredible to think that only a few weeks before the incident these men would have been at each others throats. This segment is part of Kentucky Life episode #2008 which originally aired on January 31, 2015. Some theorize that the ship was deliberately blown up by vengeful Confederates, but most believe that a boiler exploded. The military determined while the boat was overcrowded, it was not overloaded. 2) The use of the sediment-laden Mississippi River water to feed the boilers. 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. I started "Today in History" back in 2013, thinking Id learn a thing or two. More than two decades later, survivors of the Sultana from across the country have met annually around the anniversary of the ships sinking to pay hommage. Most of the victims were recently-released Union POWs returning north from the Civil War. [33] The museum is only temporary until enough funds can be raised to build a permanent museum. Bodies continued to be found downriver for months thereafter, while others never turned up. Under limited pressure the paddle-wheeler arrived at Vicksburg to pick up the freed prisoners, and to have the boiler repaired. The report blamed quartermaster Capt. Changing the day will navigate the page to that given day in history. The soldiers aboard the Sultana, having just survived a bloody Civil War and horrendous conditions during their imprisonment as prisoners, were now dealt with another traumatic blow as the boat continued to catch fire and disappear into the Mississippi River. Credit: Library of Congress Photo Collection, 1840-2000/Ancestry.com, April 27, 1865, Helena, Arkansas. Like they never even happened. 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. The last northern survivor, Private Jordan Barr of the 15th Michigan Volunteer Infantry Regiment, died on May 16, 1938, at age 93. Constructed of wood in 1863 by the John Litherbury Boatyard[1] in Cincinnati, Ohio, Sultana was intended for the lower Mississippi cotton trade. While some were recovered, many were never found. [4]:7985, While the Sultana burned, and the men on the steamboat were either already dead or fighting for their lives, the southbound steamer Bostona (No. As I write this, Im well over a thousand. Since then, he says, studying the Sultana has become an obsession. The 1,400 soldiers that Mason expected somehow turned into about 1,900. Captain Williams, the officer who actually put all those people onboard, was a West Point graduate and regular army officer. By 1 a.m. the Sultana headed north again. We strive for accuracy and fairness. 600 Cooper Drive, Lexington, KY 40502859.258.7000800.432.0951, It appears your browser is using an ad blocker. The Sinking Of The Sultana: The Worst Maritime Disaster In U.S. History Most boarded the Sultana, headed for Cairo, Illinois . John Lowrey A lot of family trees have a fork connected in some way to the Civil War. Stanley Lord - Wikipedia At 2:00am on April 27, Masons temporary boiler patch exploded. In the end, no one was ever held accountable for what remains the deadliest maritime disaster in United States history. The worst Civil War tragedy few remember A board of inquiry later determined the cause to be insufficient water in the boilerovercrowding was not listed as a cause. This one, although hundreds of miles from the disaster, was erected in 1916 by a small group of local survivors to memorialize Tennessee's victims. As it steamed up the river above Memphis, a thunderous explosion tore through the boat. No one was ever held accountable for the tragedy. Hatch would guarantee a minimum of 1,400 passengers and theyd both walk away, with a pocketful of cash. The name "Sultana" is derived from the original Arabic word for a wife, mother, or sister of a sultan. Reuben Hatch, the guy who concocted the whole scheme in the first place, resigned shortly after the disaster, thereby putting himself outside the reach of a military tribunal. [4]:79 First one boiler exploded, followed a split-second later by two more. The SS Sultana - 148 Words | Cram Further back, the collapsing decks formed a slope that led down into the exposed furnace boxes. An engraving of the Sultana explosion, published in Harpers Weekly, May 20, 1865. Tragically, the disaster was overshadowed by other events. A plaque in Memphis remembers the victims aboard the, the assassination of then-president Abraham Lincoln. Experts believe the horrific tragedy was overshadowed by Lincolns assassination. The sidewheel steamboat Sultana left New Orleans with about 100 passengers and a few head of livestock, pulling into Vicksburg Mississippi on the 21st to repair a damaged boiler and pick up a promised load of passengers. Stay up-to-date on our FREE educational resources & professional development opportunities, all designed to support your work teaching American history. Copyright 1996-2023 Doug Kirby, Ken Smith, Mike Wilkins. [4]:146147,168176, Passengers who survived the initial explosion had to risk their lives in the icy spring runoff of the Mississippi or burn with the boat. They were so close to being home, Potter said. It remains the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history. In April of 1865, shortly after the assassination of President Lincoln, the vessel, under the command of Captain James Mason, headed south, bound for New Orleans. One minute they were sleeping and the next they found themselves struggling to swim in the very cold Mississippi River. Mason readily agreed, saying that he would pick up the group on his way back from New Orleans. Show your pride in battlefield preservation by shopping in our store. The SS Sultana, prior to departing Vicksburg. Credit: US Civil War Photos, 1860-1865/Ancestry.com, 1866. Credit: MPI/Archive Photos/Getty Images, May 10, 1865, Lima, Ohio. Captain Mason, lured by the promise of a handsome payday, seized the opportunity and accepted a bribe from an officer to transport as many paroled Union prisoners as he could fit onto the Sultana. SS and police leader - Wikipedia Despite concerns of overloading from several officers, Williams refused to divide the men, insisting that they travel on one vessel. My family tree's connection was my great-great grandfather, Captain Deming Norton Lowrey and a disaster on the Mississippi River you've probably never heard about. [12] In 1880, the War Department placed the number of survivors at 931, but the most recent research places the number at 961. Who Was John Wilkes Booth Before He Became Lincoln's Assassin. It's the oldest and the best. The army didnt seem to want to go after one of its own. At 2 a.m. on April 27, 1865, about seven miles north of Memphis, its boilers exploded, one after another. And the boat was filled with enlisted men primarily men who really hadn't made a mark in history or a mark in life." Thank you for sharing this. But perhaps the best explanation is that after years of bloody conflict, the nation was simply tired of hearing about war and death. SS Sultana Explodes Carrying 2,400 Released Union Prisoners in 1865 In 1865, the Civil War was winding down and the country was reeling from Lincoln's assassination. This included the release of war prisoners from both sides. 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. Wikimedia CommonsThe Sultana, photographed a day before it sunk to the bottom of the Mississippi River. Charcoal Hammered No. As the steamboat made her way north following the twists and turns of the river, she listed severely from side to side. One wall is decorated with the names of every soldier, crewmember, and passenger on the boat on April 27, 1865. "It's clear that he had bribed an officer at Vicksburg to ensure that he would get a large load of prisoners," Potter says. Before reaching Vicksburg, one of its four boilers began leaking. Steam, then flames, ripped through the crowded deck, as well as the pilot house, leaving no one to steer the vessel. [13] The dead soldiers were interred at the Fort Pickering cemetery, located on the south shore of Memphis. On April 24, 1865, three steamboats stood ready in Vicksburg, Mississippi, to take on former POWs. Within a few minutes, 1,517 lives had been lost. Barrett was a veteran of the MexicanAmerican War and had been captured at the Battle of Franklin. Evidence like that may have led the government to downplay the Sultana tragedy, Potter says. Such a terrible, awful disaster. Wartime transport was big business. The Explosion of the SS Sultana - NoonPi For example, many believe that the incident was not heard of because the government had intentionally downplayed the number of casualties. Fogelmans descendant, current Marion Mayor Frank Fogelman said that the boats direction had caused the wind to blow fire toward the rear of the ship. 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. The event remains the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history (the sinking of the Titanic killed 1,512 people). 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. The American Battlefield Trust and our members have saved more than 56,000 acres in 25 states! When the war ends you and your fellow prisoners are freed, and youre finally going home! No one was held accountable. On the morning of 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. 1, which tends to become brittle with prolonged heating and cooling. Soldiers from Kentucky and Tennessee were among the first to die, he says, "because they'd been packed in next to the boilers. Sultana backed away from the dock on April 24 with 2,427 passengers. And the shrapnel, the steam and the boiling water killed hundreds. Hatch could guarantee up to 1,400 men, and of course he would receive a kickback. The Sultana, a 250-foot-long steamboat built in Cincinnati in 1863, was designed to carry only 376 passengers. Near midnight, Sultana left Memphis, leaving behind about 200 men. The SS Sultana Disaster, 1865 - LinkedIn HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Roughly 100 of the survivors grandchildren and great-grandchildren meet every year on their behalf. 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. It remains the worst maritime disaster in U.S. history. My grandfather could have died in Cahaba prison when he was 16, Mason said. Although the mechanic wanted to cut out and replace a ruptured seam, Mason knew such a job would take a few days and cost him his precious load of prisoners. Potter says 1,000 men, at $5 a head, meant $5,000a princely sum. Frank Barton is the descendant of one of those Confederate soldiers, a man named Franklin Hardin Barton. hide caption. Newspaper reports indicate that a local man, John Fogelman, and his sons were among these rescuers. She also carried a crew of 85. Wikimedia CommonsThe boat carried 2,500 men, mainly newly paroled Union soldiers from the war. I offer these "Today in History" stories in hopes that you'll enjoy reading them, as much as Ive enjoyed writing them. Thousands of newly paroled Union soldiers who had been held in the Confederate prison camps of Cahaba near Selma, Alabama, and Andersonville, in southwest Georgia, had all been brought to a smaller camp outside of Vicksburg, Mississippi. But there were many other reasons the event didn't get much attention at the time. The force of the explosion hurled hundreds into the icy black water. 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. by mike | Sep 20, 2021 | Death, Disasters, Uncategorized | 0 comments. There is no apparent motive for him to have blown up the boat, especially while on board. The Sultana ' s captain know one of the four boilers was leaking and not safe, he says, yet officials ignored the danger . RoadsideAmerica.comYour Online Guide to Offbeat Tourist Attractions. Some passengers burned on the boat, wrote Potter. The sinking of the Sultana claimed more victims than the Titanic, yet the tragedy remains largely forgotten in American history. Introduced in 1848, they could generate twice as much steam per fuel load as conventional boilers. The fires still going against the empty boiler created hot spots. This quiz has 2 formats: you can play it as a Timed Quiz Game or as shown below. The sidewheel steamboat Sultana left New Orleans with about 100 passengers and a few head of livestock, pulling into Vicksburg Mississippi on the 21st to repair a damaged boiler and pick up a promised load of passengers. The Sultana descended into chaos. Instead of taking two or three days, the temporary repair took only one. The Unforgettable Maritime Accident of SS Sultana - Marine Insight The location of the explosion, from the top rear of the boilers and far away from the fireboxes, tends to indicate that Louden's claim of sabotage of an exploding coal torpedo in the firebox was pure bravado. Natasha Ishak is a staff writer at All That's Interesting. In the early hours of April 27th, 1865, mere days after the end of the Civil War, the Sultana burst into flames along the Mississippi River. No portion of this document may be reproduced, copied or revised without written permission of the authors. 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. Trees along the river bank were almost completely covered until only the very tops of the trees were visible above the swirling, powerful water. We Just GotHere. SS Kentucky Disaster - 64 Parishes
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