Carrying over 2200 passengers and crew, and with an improperly repaired boiler, the Sultana left Vicksburg heading north up the Mississippi River. In the early morning hours of April 27th, 1865, three out of the four boilers suddenly exploded. Despite rescue efforts, about 1200 people lost their lives. Jerry Potter, author of The Sultana Tragedy: America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster, joins me again.
Recommended reading:
The Sultana Tragedy
America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster
by Jerry Potter
Photos
Colonel Reuben Hatch
115th Ohio Volunteer Infantry
in Memphis National Cemetery
Sources:
- Potter, Jerry O. The Sultana Tragedy : America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster. Gretna La., Pelican Pub. Co, 1992.
- Berry, Chester D., Loss of the Sultana and Reminiscences of Survivors. Lansing, Michigan: Darius D. Thorp, 1892.
- https://www.npr.org/2015/04/27/402515205/the-shipwreck-that-led-confederate-veterans-to-risk-all-for-union-lives
- https://mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/issue/surviving-the-worst-the-wreck-of-the-sultana
- https://ualrexhibits.org/steamboats/virtual-exhibit/understanding-the-sultana-tragedy-the-long-way-home/
- https://sharetngov.tnsosfiles.com/tsla/exhibits/disasters/sultana.htm
- https://www.history.com/news/why-the-civil-war-actually-ended-16-months-after-lee-surrendered
- http://www.mifamilyhistory.org/civilwar/sultana/berry_chester_d.aspx
- https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-prisoner-of-war-disaster-overshadowed-by-lincolns-death
- https://www.usni.org/magazines/naval-history-magazine/2009/august/death-river
- https://icl.coop/the-worst-civil-war-tragedy-few-remember/
- https://www.historynet.com/sultana-a-tragic-postscript-to-the-civil-war/