The Sultana Disaster

“Of 2,156 souls aboard not more than 700 had been rescued. Five hundred rescued are now in hospitals, and 200 or 300 uninjured at the Soldier’s Home. Captain Mason, of the Sultana, is supposed lost. At 4 o'clock this morning the river in front of Memphis was covered with soldiers struggling for life, many badly scalded. Boats immediately went to their rescue, and are still engaged in picking them up. Gen. Washburne immediately organized a board of officers to investigate the affair, and they are now at work doing so.” The Daily Ohio, April 29, 1865.

Welcome to Civics and Coffee. My name is Alycia and I am a self-professed history nerd. Each week, I am going to chat about a topic on U.S history and give you both the highlights and occasionally break down some of the complexities in history; and share stories you may not remember learning in high school. All in the time it takes to enjoy a cup of coffee. 

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Hey everyone. Welcome back.

Last week, I concluded my official coverage of the Civil War by sharing the story of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9th, 1865. Before we head into the nuances of reconstruction, I wanted to share a story that bridges the gap between the Civil War and Reconstruction. 

The close of the Civil War brought about several logistical questions, however, the most pressing was how to transport the thousands of former prisoners of war wasting away in overcrowded Confederate POW camps. Lacking options and resources, the steamship was seen as the fastest and most economical choice for getting men home. The decision to load thousands of Union men aboard the Sultana would soon become something official regretted when it exploded in the middle of the night, killing hundreds instantly.

So this week, I am diving into the sinking of The Sultana. What happened? Who was responsible? And why does it remain such an undercovered event in American history? 

Grab your cup of coffee, peeps. Let's do this. 

As the news of Lee’s surrender spread throughout the Confederacy, it became clear that plans would be needed to transport the thousands of former Union soldiers held as prisoners of war. Many of those captured were housed in primarily two Confederate camps - Andersonville and Cahaba - both located in Georgia. The conditions of these camps were abysmal and union prisoners suffered from lack of food and tight quarters, leading to a rapid spread of disease. Death inside the camps was rampant, with upwards of 100 soldiers dying in a single day. 

Given the lack of food and pervasive dysentery, those who had managed to survive were incredibly frail and thin. Transporting thousands of Union soldiers north would be problematic in the best of circumstances as much of the limited railroad tracks in the southern part of the country had been destroyed during the war. Dealing with men who could barely walk meant that any travel arrangements had to be easy on the body - attempting to go via horses or marching by foot was not exactly a viable option. Nearly 4,000 steamships sailed during the Civil War, making them a popular alternative to the railroad. Rivers were crucial methods of transportation during the war as telegraph lines and rail lines were often destroyed or otherwise hard to get to throughout the conflict. Despite their popularity, steamships had short lifespans and were frequently lost to accidents. 

After the former POWs made their way from Georgia to Camp Fisk, they were re-classified and ordered to muster out of the Union army. Union officer and head of the Department of Mississippi Major General Napoleon Jackson Tecumseh Dana decided that the best way to transport the men was via the river on a steamship. The men sitting at Camp Fisk were understandably excited to be on the final leg of their journey, so close to the sweet taste of freedom. Several of the men wrote to their families to share that they would be home soon and were only waiting on their ship’s arrival. 

The Sultana was built in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1862 and was the fifth boat to carry the name. In perhaps an omen of things to come, the previous four iterations of the luxury boat carrying the moniker had all perished due to a fire. Measuring 260 feet long and 42 feet wide, The Sultana was considered one of the most modern ships of its era. Built to carry up to 376 passengers and 80 crew members, The Sultana had previous experience with transporting soldiers, helping move men during the Vicksburg campaign in the winter of 1862-1863. When not transporting soldiers, the Sultana made frequent runs up and down the Mississippi between St. Louis and New Orleans. 

The Sultana docked in Vicksburg on April 23rd carrying just 40 passengers and 80 crew. Upon his arrival, Captain James Mason was approached by quartermaster Col. Ruben Hatch who proposed a deal. The federal government was paying steamboat captains $5 per enlisted man and $10 per union officer for transport aboard their ships. Hatch promised Mason that he would guarantee Mason a full boat of Union soldiers at the government rate if Mason agreed to pay Hatch a small kickback in return. Mason, who was in desperate need of cash, was all too eager to accept. However, there was just one small problem - his ship had a faulty boiler. 

The Sultana had been experiencing issues with its boilers, which required two major repairs. Upon inspection, while docked in Vicksburg, it was discovered that the middle boiler had developed a leak. In reviewing the problem, local boiler repairman R.G. Taylor advised Mason that the boat was not safe to continue on its journey and that the boiler needed an extensive repair that would take several days to complete. Worried that delaying his departure to complete the repair would cause him to lose out on the commission, Mason attempted to convince Taylor that any major repairs could be delayed until they returned to St. Louis and suggested Taylor apply a patch instead. Taylor initially refused and walked off the boat, but eventually agreed and applied a small thin patch to the impacted portion of the boiler. In addition to the patch, two burned plates were sorely in need of replacement, but again Captain Mason decided it was better to worry about any significant repairs later. 

Making matters worse, rumors about bribes with steamboat captains had made their way to one of the men responsible for overseeing their transport, Captain George Williams. To blunt any further bribery attempts, Williams ordered every remaining man waiting in Vicksburg to be loaded onto the Sultana. Williams believed that no more than 1500 men would be boarded, when in actuality that number ran over 2,000 including 1900 Union men. This was all on a ship that was built to transport less than 400 individuals, including crew. Not only was the Sultana combatting a faulty boiler desperately in need of repair, but it was also extremely overcrowded and so overloaded that the upper decks began to sag, requiring braces to reinforce the ship. 

The boarding process was a bit chaotic and no one from the army knew exactly how many men were on board, but were fully aware that the ship was over its capacity. This feels like an unnecessarily stubborn decision as there were other boats docked that could take on a few more passengers and lighten the Sultana’s load. Despite the safety risk, Captain Williams remained resolute in his decision to send all of the men aboard the Sultana and remarkably watched as another ship, the Lady Gay, left Vicksburg with no passengers. 

Finally, after a full day of loading, the Sultana left port at 9 pm with over 2500 souls on board, attempting to transport the largest number of people in a single vessel in the history of the Mississippi River. As if the situation wasn’t precarious enough, the Sultana was also traveling against the current. The spring thaw caused the current to be stronger than usual, slowing the speed of the vessel. Mason, dedicated to maintaining the boat’s average rate of speed, instructed his men below to push the boilers as hard as they could go. These were the same boilers that were under duress and in need of extensive repair. 

The Sultana arrived in Memphis where it unloaded four hundred thousand pounds of sugar from the deck hold, making the ship even more top-heavy than it was before. After unloading its cargo and some passengers, the ship once again departed, continuing on its northern path. Shortly after 2 am on April 27th, three out of the four boilers exploded, destroying the center of the ship and killing 400 passengers instantly. When loading the ship, the sickest of the Union men were placed closest to the boilers to keep them warm. When the boilers exploded, these men were killed instantly. The upper deck collapsed, folding like a deck of cards, trapping people on the decks below. Immediately, survivors began breaking off pieces of the ship to use as flotation devices, jumping into the frigid Mississippi waters. Some on board thought they might be able to mitigate some of the damage if they could get the fire out and went searching for the water buckets only to find they weren’t there. 

As the ship burned, it became less stable and eventually the two smoke stacks buckled, falling in opposite directions. Those remaining on board decided quickly whether they were going to risk staying on board until help could arrive or take their chances in the water. Captain Mason, the man who decided to risk the safety of everyone on board to ensure a hefty payday, survived the initial blast and spent his remaining minutes helping passengers by tossing pieces of the boat into the river. It is believed he went down with the ship. 

After burning end to end, The Sultana eventually succumbed, slowly sinking beneath the river’s surface. Passengers who jumped in the water floated south back toward Memphis, trying to avoid hypothermia. Rescue efforts started quickly, and over 300 people were pulled from the river, many of them badly burned. Of the 700 who were rescued, almost a third of them died within days of the accident, mostly due to injuries they suffered during the initial blast. 

Those who went down with the ship rose to the surface and floated downriver. Memphis residents rallied to pull the bodies from the water, eventually running out of the prepared caskets. Those who survived rested in hospital beds in town or boarded in nearby homes. Some required less recovery time than others and were eager to continue on their journey home, although they were understandably less excited with their transportation options. Regardless of the accident, traveling via steamship remained the fastest, easiest way to get to St. Louis. Any union men who hoped to get home quickly had to overcome any fear or trepidation and board yet another steamship and simply pray history would not repeat itself. If boarding the ship was not triggering enough, passengers had to also sail past the site of the accident as there were no alternative routes to take. Many men who lived in Tennessee decided they would rather walk home than board another ship, but hundreds of survivors inevitably took to the river one final time in their quest to get home. 

Of the over 2,000 individuals who were on board the Sultana at the time of the explosion, nearly 1800 died, making it the deadliest maritime disaster in U.S. history. For context, when the Titanic sank in 1912, 1,517 people died. The sources differ on exactly how many people died, but most estimates I found listed between 1600 and 1800 people. Despite the massive loss of life, the story of the Sultana explosion failed to make front-page news. Suspected presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth had just been captured on April 26th and his arrest dominated news coverage. Steamboat corporations also helped to suppress the story, using their close relationships with newspapers to minimize their coverage of the story. 

Investigations into the cause of the accident started right away, but ultimately no one would be held accountable. Captain George Williams, who had ordered the men in port to board The Sultana despite concerns about overloading, was spared due to his military service. Col. Hatch, the man who made the financial arrangement with Captain Mason, resigned from his post in the army to avoid charges, and the ship’s captain went down with the Sultana. Only Frederic Speed was charged with overcrowding the ship, but even his conviction was overturned by the Judge Advocate General of the army since Speed was not in town the day the men were loaded and therefore had not placed anyone on board the ship. 

In the accident’s aftermath, more attention was given to steamboat safety, especially boiler production, and by 1866, a new insurance and inspection company was established to provide steamboat corporations with an official seal of approval. In 1892, memories of the survivors of the Sultana were collected and published by Rev. C. P. Berry in an attempt to keep the story of the accident alive. Like so many events in our past, the history of the Sultana quickly faded from public memory and was only dug up after an attorney learned of the disaster and started the descendants of the men of the Sultana. In 2015, a temporary museum dedicated to the accident opened in Marion, Arkansas with hopes of opening a larger, more permanent museum in the future. The organization behind the museum is accepting donations as of this recording in 2024, so it remains to be seen when the permanent museum will open. 

The Civil War caused large-scale devastation and took the lives of over 600,000 Americans. Learning the end was near and freedom just a boat ride away, thousands of former Union men eagerly boarded The Sultana, confident they would soon be reunited with their loved ones. Unfortunately for them, greed overran safety and many who boarded that final leg of freedom never reached home. 

If you’ve been following the social media for the podcast, then you know I’ve started my collection of reconstruction topics. I am excited to dive in and see what new stories I can share with you all. As always, if you ever have a topic you want me to cover, let me know. I always love fielding your requests and they are some of the funnest episodes to put together. You can get a hold of me on most of the standard social media spaces or through my website at www civics and coffee dot com. The website is also where you can subscribe to the monthly newsletter, see source materials and transcripts, and learn how you can help support the pod. 

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Thanks, peeps. I will see you next week.

Thanks for tuning and I hope you enjoyed this episode of Civics & Coffee. If you want to hear more small snippets from american history, be sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for listening and I look forward to our next cup of coffee together. 

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