In April of 1865, the Civil War was coming to an end. Robert E. Lee surrendered, and soon other Confederate generals would surrender as well. Thousands of Union soldiers remained in Confederate prison camps, and the Confederare government agreed to release them. Many of these men were sent to Camp Fisk, a few miles from Vicksburg, Mississippi. Here, they would wait until steamboats could arrive to transport them back north to their homes. Jerry Potter, author of The Sultana Tragedy: America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster joins me.
Bribery, greed, and negligence, would set the stage for the disaster to come.
Recommended reading:
The Sultana Tragedy
America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster
by Jerry Potter
Original Theme Music by Sean Sigfried.
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/