1865 — April 27, Steam Sultana explodes/burns, Miss. River, Redman Point, AR–1,538-1,947
–1,538-1,947 Blanchard estimated range.
— 2,300 Titusville Morning Herald (PA). “The Sultana Disaster,” Feb 8, 1871, 1.
–1,800-2,000 American Heritage. “Death…Dark River…Story of…Sultana Disaster in 1865.”
— >2,000 Collins, Ace. Tragedies of American History. 2003, p. 173.
— >2,000 Floyd. “Statement of William B. Floyd” in Elliott, p. 186.
–1,538-1,947 Gaines, W. Craig. Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks. 2008, p. 103.
–1,450-1,900 Coggins, Allen R. “Sultana Disaster of 1865.” Tennessee Encyclopedia. 1998.
— 1,900 Roziene letter, in Elliott. “The Sultana Disaster,” 1913, p. 168.
— 1,800 Hendricks, Nancy. “Sultana.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. 2007
— 1,800 The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. “Sultana (Steamboat).”
— >1,700 Potter. “Sultana…Tragic Postscript…Civil War.” American History Magazine. Aug 1998.
— 1,700 History.com. This Day in History. General Interest. “Apr 27, 1865: Tragedy…”
— ~1,700 Huffman. “Surviving the Worst…Wreck of the Sultana…End of…Civil War.”
— 1,700 Koster, John. “Death on the Mississippi.” Firehouse, Feb 1978, p. 29.
— ~1,700 Missouri State Times, Jefferson City. “The Explosion of the Sultana.” 5-6-1865, p. 1.
— <1,700 National Steamboat Monument, Cincinnati, OH. Sultana Marker/Monument.
-- >1,700 Ohio Historical Society. “The Sultana.” Remarkable Ohio: Marking Ohio’s…
— 1,700 Terrio. “Night of Horror on the Mississippi,” p. 30 in Kartman, Disaster! 2007.
–1,238-1,647 Gaines, W. Craig. Encyclopedia of Civil War Shipwrecks. 2008, p. 103.
— >1,600 National Railway Hist. Society, Inc. Railroad Historical Almanac 1860-1879, 7.
— 1,547 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 290.
— >1,547 Bragg. Historic Names and Places on the Lower Mississippi River. 1977, 74-75.
— 1,547 Cochran. “Perils…River Navigation…Sixties,” MVHA Proceedings. 1921, 318.
— 1,547 Crutchfield. It Happened on the Mississippi River, p. 109; cites US Customs Service.
— 1,547 History.com. This Day in History, Disaster. April 27, 1865. Civil War Vets…
— 1,547 Nash, Jay Robert. Darkest Hours. 1977, p. 685.
— 1,547 National Fire Protection Assoc., Key Dates in Fire History, 2008
— 1,547 NFPA. “The 20 Deadliest Fires and Explosions in U.S. History.” 2008
— 1,547 Insurance Info. Inst. “The Ten Most Catastrophic Multiple-Death Fires in U.S…”
— 1,547 Ryder. F. “Travel was a Gamble – II.” Greene County News, April 2, 1964.
— 1,547 Spignesi, Stephen J.. The 100 Greatest Disasters of All Time. 2007.
— 1,547 Way. Way’s Packet Directory, 1848-1994 (Revised Edition). 1994, p. 436.
— >1,500 NYT. “Events in 1865. Chronicle of Noteworthy Occurrences…” 12-30-1865.
— 1,500 NYT. “The Sultana Disaster. Fifteen Hundred Lives Lost.” 4-30-1865, p. 1.
— >1,500 Supervising Inspector of Steamboats (J. J. Witzig), 4th Supervising District, p216.
— 1,450 Berman, Bruce D. Encyclopedia of American Shipwrecks. 1972, p. 192.
— >1,400 Elliott. “The Sultana Disaster.” Indiana Historical Society Pubs., 1913, p. 177.
— 1,400 Indianapolis Daily Journal, IN. “Terrible Steamboat Explosion.” 4-29-1865, p. 1.
— 1,238 Hoffman (US Army). “Destruction of the Steamer ‘Sultana’…” In Elliott, p. 194.
— >1,238 The Locomotive. “The Boiler Explosion on the Sultana,” 27/5, Jan 1909, 129.
Breakout by States
Indiana –491 (Ohio Historical Society. “The Sultana.” Remarkable Ohio.)
Kentucky –194 (Ohio Historical Society. “The Sultana.” Remarkable Ohio.)
Ohio –791 (Ohio Historical Society. “The Sultana.” Remarkable Ohio.)
Narrative Information
Bragg: “Named for an early Arkansas settler, Redman Point had several steamboat landings and woodyards at the time of the Civil War. It was at Redman Point, between Harrison’s and Bradley’s landings, that the worst marine disaster in U.S. history occurred in 1865. The Civil War had just ended. At Vicksburg, Mississippi, Union soldiers released from southern prisons were waiting for transportation North. For reasons which were never fully understood, the Union officers, who had a choice of several boats, put more than 2,000 of the unlucky men on board the steamboat Sultana.
“The Sultana was a large boat, but hardly big enough to carry 2,000 men comfortably. The soldiers were so tightly packed on board that there was barely room for them to stand, much less to eat and sleep or rest. Few of them complained. The war was over, and they were anxious to return to their homes at long last.
“It was an extremely cold December night when the Sultana exploded her boilers and caught fire at Redman Point. The Union soldiers, enfeebled by long imprisonment and exhausted by the crowded conditions on board the boat, never had a chance. In the swift, cold currents of the Mississippi, most of them struggled only briefly before they drowned.
“For days after the accident, barges were sent out from Memphis on grim recovery missions. Hundreds of bodies were found, caught in piles of driftwood or lying on the edge of bars and islands. The final official estimate was that 1,547 men had died but there were probably more. Not all of those who made it to the shore survived, and not all the bodies of those who had drowned were recovered.
“The Sultana, burning furiously, had drifted down to Hen Island, in front of the little village of Mound City, Arkansas. There it sank, and the river piled sane around the hulk and mercifully obliterated all traces of the ill-fated boat.
“In the North, the press paid little attention to the fearful loss of life in the Sultana disaster. President Abraham Lincoln had just been assassinated, the public was crying out for vengeance, and the press had more sensations than it could handle. Later several books would be written about the tragedy, but at the time the nation was preoccupied with other matters.” (Bragg. Historic Names and Places on the Lower Mississippi River. 1977, 74-75.)
Cochran: “There is a striking parallel between this disaster [Titanic] and one which overtook the steamboat Sultana on the Mississippi river, on April 27, 1865. Both occurred during the early morning hours, when most of the passengers and at least half of the crew were asleep. In both cases, there was a total loss of boat and cargo. A total of 1,513 out of 2,224 on the Titanic, and 1,547 out of 2,175, on the Sultana, lost their lives. In both cases, the American people were afflicted and depressed, as though each individual had suffered a great personal loss.
“The Sultana disaster was more heart-rending, because the victims were nearly all burned to death and most of the survivors were badly burned or scalded. Over 2,000 of the passengers on the Sultana were union officers and soldiers, returning to their homes from the prison camp at Andersonville, and taken on at Vicksburg. Two-thirds of these were from Ohio and Indiana. They were weak and emaciated, but full of hope that, in two or three days, they would be reunited with their families. Without warning of any sort, a fearful explosion took place. Steam and hot water from the boilers scalded the men who were lying crowded together on the boiler deck, and many were killed outright by flying fragments of boilers and machinery. The steamer took fire instantly and, as one of the survivors testified, it was not twenty minutes until “the whole boat was an entire sheet of flame.” Those, only, escaped who leaped overboard and were either good swimmers or were able to snatch life-preservers, or loose doors and shutters, and thus keep afloat until picked up by the Bostona, from Cincinnati, which arrived on the scene, on its way to Memphis, just in time to save hundreds of lives….
“Only two weeks before this calamity, President Lincoln had been assassinated; and the general public, already wrought up to a high pitch of excitement and resentment, attributed the Sultana’s loss to the malicious placing of some high explosive in the coal which was taken on board at Memphis an hour or two before.
“So far as I know, no proof was ever furnished to confirm this suspicion. My own conclusion from the evidence taken before a military commission called to investigate the cause of the loss is that a series of rivet holes made in one of the boilers at Vicksburg, in order to fasten a patch upon it and stop its leaking, had so weakened the boiler that the enclosed section — patch and all — gave way, and both boilers were blown up, scalding and killing many outright and scattering red-hot coals all over the boat.” (Cochran. “Perils…River Navigation…Sixties,” MVHA Proceedings. 1921.)
Crutchfield: “United States Customs Service records at Memphis later revealed that a total of 1,547 victims died in the Sultana tragedy. The official army figure was only 1,238. The true figure can never be known with precise accuracy, since the loading procedures at Vicksburg were so haphazard that reliable records for those who boarded were not kept.
“A board of inquiry later delved into the Sultana incident. The army officer in charge of the prisoner transfer was court-martialed and released from service, but his conviction was later overturned and he has honorably discharged. The Sultana’s engineer had his license revoked, but he was later exonerated of all blame. The War Department made an official announcement that in future transportation matters where army personnel were involved,
…the strictest attention should be given to prevent the use of any but perfectly safe transports, under experienced and careful masters….The late calamity to the steamer Sultana shows the need of extreme caution…ion the management of river transportation.
(Crutchfield, James A. It Happened on the Mississippi River. 2009, p. 109.)
Elliott: “There was never a happier lot of men than those who marched out of Andersonville Prison [GA] on March 20, 1865, on the way to freedom; not that any of them were in a physical condition to cause happiness….I was one of them. I had been captured at Spring Hill, near Franklin, Tennessee, on November 30, 1864…. [p. 163]
“They waited patiently for the train, but when it finally arrived there was a wild scramble to get on board, every man for himself, as if in terror lest he be left behind. But there were some…who were unable to help themselves, and had to be lifted on as little children…. [p. 164]
“The ‘Sultana’ was a boat that had been built for the cotton trade of the lower river, and therefore her lower deck was higher than that of ordinary boats. She was on an up trip from New Orleans to St. Louis, and had on board a number of passengers, many of whom were to get off at Memphis….There were perhaps half a dozen women, one of whom was a bride returning with her husband from their bridal tour. My recollection is that the crew numbered about sixty-two, and that in all there were over 2,200 souls on board. My recollection is confirmed by a letter from F. A. Roziene, dated at the Seventy-second Regiment Illinois Infantry Volunteer Society, Rookery Building, Chicago, July 6, 1912, in which he says:
I was an A. A. A. G. of Camp Fish, at Four Mile Bridge, near Vicksburg, where we received paroles, exchanged prisoners, etc. This camp was under the immediate command of Gen. M. L. Smith, commanding post of Vicksburg. The camp was named after A. A. G. Captain C. A. Fisk. The superior command was in General J. N. T. Dana, and his A. A. G. Captain Frederick Speed, who controlled the shipment of the last squad of the camp, on April 25, 1865. I have reason to remember the deplorable occurrence from the reprimand I received from Captain Speed for advancing the impression to the men that they were to be apportioned to different boats.
At the time I had a list of the officers and men shipped on the ill-fated steamer ‘Sultana.’ Their aggregate number from each State was, Ohio, 552; Michigan, 420; Indiana, 460; Kentucky, 180; West Virginia, 12; Tennessee, 522; total, 2,134. Added to this list was a squad of Confederate prisoners under guard, on their way to another military prison camp, other passengers and the crew. At Vicksburg the loss was estimated at 1,900 lives.’
“Some one was certainly at fault for crowding so great a number of human beings on one boat, when there was no emergency calling for it, and especially so great a number of men who were so reduced in strength that they were not able to do much for themselves in case of an accident. Some one should have been held responsible, but I cannon say who it should have been from my own knowledge…. [pp. 167-169]
“We landed at Memphis just after dark on the 26th, and many of the passengers left us at this point…” [Notes on p. 170 that “about one hundred and fifty fortunate soldiers…” were left behind in Memphis (giving impression they had got off to go into town and had not made it back in time).] [pp. 169-170]
“….it must have been about 3 o’clock in the morning when I was awakened. My first sensation was of a very oppressive heat…The lights were dim, and they must have been obscured by the escaping steam from the exploded boiler….The cabin floor had dropped down at the front, without breaking off, and now made an inclined plane to the lower deck. The cots…had disappeared. Looking down on the lower deck to the front, I was reminded of a fire in one of the old-time fireplaces….
“Curiously enough, although the cots and staterooms were full of men, the explosion did not seem to have awakened them. Up to that time I had not heard a scream, and everything was as quiet as it was when I went to bed. I certainly was dazed or confused, and did not realize what had happened….I turned around and made for the stern of the boat, hardly knowing what I was doing. The ladies’ cabin was shut off from the men’s cabin only by curtains, and I pushed back a curtain and started through, when I was confronted by a lady, who I supposed was in charge of the cabin, with, ‘What do you want in here, sir?’ I paid no attention to her but went ahead, saying that there was something wrong with the boat.
I went on through the cabin to the stern of the boat and climbed up to the hurricane deck. Throwing myself across the bulwark around the deck, I looked forward toward the jackstaff…and, if I am not mistaken, one of the boat’s chimneys was down….I was that the men were jumping from all parts of the boat into the river. Such screams I never heard–twenty or thirty men jumping off at a time–many lighting on those already in the water–until the river became black with men, their heads bobbing up like corks, and then many disappearing never to appear again….
“….I looked up to the ceiling and saw the fire jumping along from one cross-piece to another in a way that made me think of a lizard running along a fence.
“I now made up my mind to leave the boat, and walked around the right side of the cabin to the wheelhouse. I feared that it was too far to jump, and on looking over to see what the distance was, I saw one of the fenders hanging just behind the wheelhouse. I lost no time climbing over the side of the boat and ‘cooning it’ down to the lower deck…and stepping to the edge of the boat, and looking to see that the river was free from any poor struggling soldier, I dived off….I had no sooner struck the water than I saw that I could not depend altogether on my own exertions, for as I went into the river it was colder than ‘Greenland’s icy mountains,’ and I went down so far that I thought I would never come up…. [170-173]
[Elliott goes on to note that after making it back to the surface he found a piece of boat debris to hang onto where he watched the boat burn and sink.] “The men who were afraid to take to the water could be seen clinging to the sides of the boat until they were singed off like flies. Shrieks and cries for mercy were all that could be heard….that dreadful scene went on and finally closed by the deck going down with all the men who were on it into the flames…. [p. 174]
[Elliott notes how he floated past Memphis before being rescued by a gunboat. (p. 175)]
“Over fourteen hundred souls had left their bodies to float down that dark and gloomy river…” [p. 177]
“A man who claimed to be an eyewitness told me that [Sultana] Captain Mason remained with the boat to the last, walking up and down the hurricane deck and encouraging the men to keep cool, until he went down with it into the fire. The pilot on duty at the time, one mate, and probably three others of the crew, were all that were saved [of the crew]. The bride whom I mentioned was lost….” [p. 178]
(Elliott, Joseph Taylor. “The Sultana Disaster.” Pp. 161-179, Indiana Historical Society Publications, Vol. V, No. 3. Indianapolis: Edward J. Hecker, Printer, 1913.)
History.com: “At 2 a.m. on April 26, the steamboat left Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was built to hold 376 passengers, but reports say that there were as many as 2,700 people on board as it lumbered slowly up the Mississippi River. It took 17 hours to make the journey to Memphis, where it stopped to pick up more coal.” (History.com. This Day in History, “Civil War Vets…Caught…Steamboat Explosion.”)
Hoffman (in Elliott): “Sir:–Pursuant to your instructions of the 30th ult., I proceeded direct to Memphis, Tennessee, and Vicksburg, Mississippi, to inquire into the circumstances of the destruction of the steamer ‘Sultana’ in the Mississippi river, near Memphis…by which calamity a large number of paroled prisoners…lost their lives….” (In Elliott, p. 187.)
“Upon a careful consideration of all the facts as presented in the testimony herewith submitted, I am of the opinion that the shipment of so large a number of troops (1,866), on one boat, was, under the circumstances, unnecessary, unjustifiable, and a great outrage on the troops.
“A proper order was issued by the general commanding the department for the embarkation of the paroled prisoners, and there were four officers of his staff who were responsible that this order was properly carried out, viz.: Colonel R. B. Hatch, captain in the quartermaster’s department, chief quartermaster; Captain Frederick Speed, A. A. G., U. S. Volunteers, adjutant general department of Mississippi; Captain George A. Williams, First U. S. Infantry, commissary of musters and in charge of paroled prisoners, and Captain W. F. Kernes, A. Q. M.,, U. S. Volunteers, and master of transportation. If there was anything deficient or unsuitable in the character of the transportation furnished, one or more of these officers should be held accountable for the neglect. [End of p. 188.]
“The testimony shows that it was well understood by the four officers named that the troops in question were to embark on the ‘Sultana.’ She was provided by the master of transportation, with the approval of the chief quartermaster, upon the order of General Dana, though not upon a formal requisition, and Captain Speed and Captain Williams were to superintend the embarkation. Nothing was known positively as to the number of men that were to go on board, but it was the impression that there would be from 1,200 to 1,500; nor was any inspection of the boat made by either of the officers above named to determine her capacity or her condition. Neither one of them knew whether she had proper apparatus for cooking for so many men, or other necessary conveniences required for troops on transports. The troops were sent to the steamer from the camp in three parties…though Captain Speed and Captain Williams knew only of the first and third parties; the second party consisted of between three hundred and four hundred men. As the men were being embarked, Captain Kernes seems to have been satisfied that too many were going on one boat and he so reported to Colonel Hatch, who agreed with him in his belief but failed to interfere himself, as it was his duty to do, or to make any report of the matter to General Dana, because, as he states, he had had a day or two before some difficulty with Captain Speed about the shipment of troops. There were two other steamers at the landing during the day, both of which would have taken a part of the men, and there was, therefore, no necessity for crowding them all on one boat; it only required an order from Colonel Hatch, or a representation of the facts to the commanding general.
“Both Captain Speed and Captain Williams acted under the impression that there were only about 1,400 men to be [end of p. 189] forwarded, and having also a conviction that bribery had been attempted in induce the shipment of part of the men on the ‘Pauline Carroll’ they, during the day, resisted the proposition to divide the command between the two boats, in the belief that in doing so they resisted an attempt at fraud. It was not until the troops were all on board that they became aware of the fearful load that was on the boat, and then they seemed to think it too late to make any change, but neither of them made any inspection of the boat to see whether there was room enough for every man to lie down. The testimony shows, and by a calculation of the area of the three decks I am satisfied, that there was scant sleeping room for all the men when every part of the boat from the roof of the texas to the main deck was fully occupied. At night it was impossible to move about, and it was only with much difficulty that it could be done during the daytime. The cooking was done either by hot water taken from the boilers or at a small stove on the after-part of the main deck, and owing to the limited nature of this arrangement, the difficulty of getting about the boat, and the want of campo kettles or mess-pans, the cooking could not be very general. Before the troops embarked there were on the boat about sixty horses and mules and some hogs–one hundred or more. The great weight on the upper deck made it necessary to set up stanchions in many places, in spite of which the deck perceptibly sagged.
“The impression seems to have been entertained that the paroled troops, having been so long suffering together in rebel prisons, were particularly anxious to go home together in the same boat, but there is no foundation for this belief. The men were exceedingly anxious to return to their homes and were willing to put up with many inconveniences, but they felt that they were treated with unkindness and harshness when they were so crowded together [end of p. 190] in great discomfort on one boat, when another equally good was lying alongside willing to take them.
“From the foregoing, I am of the opinion that the four officers above named are responsible for the embarkation of so large a number of troops on an unsuitable vessel, Colonel Hatch and Captain Speed being the most censurable. It was their duty especially to see that the service was properly performed. Captain Williams was assisting Captain Speed, and seems to have felt that there was no special responsibility resting on him; but there was a manifest propriety in his knowing the number embarked, and if there was a deficiency of transportation he should have reported it. Captain Kernes made no inspection of the steamer to see that she was properly fitted up, but he did report her to Colonel Hatch, and also to General Smith, as being insufficient for so many troops, and his report should have been noticed. He made no report of the repairing of the boiler, which he seems to have been aware was going forward, and which it has not yet been decided positively was not the cause of the disaster.
“Lieutenant W. H. Tillinghast, Sixty-sixth United States Colored Infantry, was the only other officer connected with this service, but he had no directing control. It is shown by his own testimony that a bribe was proffered to him to induce him to use his influence in having some of the troops shipped on the ‘Pauline Carroll,’ which he showed a willingness to accept–at least he did not reject it–and which he failed to report until after the loss of the ‘Sultana.’ The testimony of the four officers above referred to is very contradictory, and I have formed my opinion from the general tenor of the testimony and the circumstances of the embarkation.
“Brigadier-General M. L. Smith, United States Volunteers, had command of the district of Vicksburg at the time, but he had nothing officially to do with the shipment of [end of p. 191] the troops; yet as it was officially reported to him by Captain Kernes that too many men were being put in the ‘Sultana,’ it was proper that he should have satisfied himself, from good authority, whether there was sufficient grounds for the report, and if he found it so he should have interfered to have the evil remedied. Had he done so the lives of many men would have been saved.
“In reference to the immediate cause of the calamity, the testimony which I have been able to collect does not enable me to form a positive opinion. The testimony of the two engineers of the ‘Sultana,’ and of the inspector at St. Louis, establishes that her boilers were in good condition on her leaving that port for New Orleans, and apparently continued so until her arrival within ten hours’ run of Vicksburg, when a leak occurred in one of her boilers. On the arrival of the boat at Vicksburg this leak was repaired by a competent boilermaker, and was pronounced by him a good job, though he qualifies the character of the work by saying that, to have been thorough and permanent, the two sheets adjoining the leak should have been taken out, and that, in its then condition, it was not perfect. The first engineer, Mr. Wintringer, testifies that after leaving Vicksburg he watched the repaired part of the boiler, which was near the front end, just over the fire-bars, carefully, and it did not at any time show the least sign of giving way. When he was relieved from charge of the engine by the second engineer the boilers were full of water and in good condition, and on their return to Memphis, the second engineer, Mr. Clemmans, who being on watch at the time of the explosion was fatally scalded, told him before he died that the boilers were all right and full of water. I was told by another engineer at Cincinnati that he had said the same thing to another person on landing at Memphis, but this other person was not within my reach. [End of p. 192.]
“There is nothing to show that there was any careening of the boat at the time of the disaster, or that she was running fast; on the contrary, it is shown that she was running evenly and not fast.
“A piece of boiler was obtained from the wreck, by order of General Washburne, which I examined. It seemed to have been broken from the bottom of the boiler the breadth of a sheet and torn tapering to near the top of the boiler, tearing the iron lake paper, at times through the rivet holes and then through the middle of the sheet. The lower or wider end seems to have been exposed to the fire without the protection of water, and if so, doubtless was the cause of the explosion; but this piece of iron may have been exposed to the fire of the burning vessel after the explosion, in which case some other cause must be found to account for it. The testimony of some of the most experienced engineers on the western rivers is given, to throw some light on the matter, but until the boilers can all be examined, no reliable conjecture can be made to account for the explosion. Thus far, nothing has been discovered to show that the disaster was attributable to the imperfect patching. It is the common opinion among the engineers that an explosion of steam boilers is impossible when they have the proper quantity of water in them, but the boilers may burst from an overpressure of steam when they are full of water, owing to some defective part of the iron, in which case there is generally no other harm done than giving way of the defective part and the consequent escape of steam. One engineer, who is said to be the most reliable on the river, said that even in such a case the great power of the steam having once found a yielding place tears everything before it, producing the effect of an explosion, and his view seems to be reasonable.
“What is usually understood as the explosion of a boiler [end p. 193] is caused by the sudden development of intense steam by the water coming in contact with red-hot iron, which produces an effect like the firing of gunpowder in a mine, and the destruction of the boilers and the boat that carries them is the consequence.
“The report and testimony show that there were 1,866 troops on board the boat, including 33 paroled officers; one officer who had resigned, and the captain in charge of the guard. Of these, 765, including 16 officers, were saved, and 1,101, including 19 officers, were lost. There were 70 cabin passengers and 85 crew on board, of whom 12 to 18 were saved, giving the loss of 137; making the total loss, 1,238….” (p. 194) (Hoffman, W., Brevet Brigadier-General, Commissary-General of Prisoners, U.S. Army. “Destruction of the Steamer ‘Sultana’ in the Mississippi River, near Memphis, Tennessee, April 27, 1865.” Pages 187-194 in Elliott.)
Major General N. J. T. Dana Statement included in Hoffman report excerpted above: “
“Headquarters Department of Mississippi, Vicksburg, May 8, 1865.
“Brigadier-General W. Hoffman, United States Army, Commissary-General of Prisoners:
“In compliance with your verbal request this morning, I have the honor to report as follows regarding the shipment of paroled federal prisoners from here:
“The commissary of musters of this department, Captain George A Williams, First U.S. Infantry, was, by my order in the latter part of March, placed in charge of the duties pertaining to an assistant commissioner of exchange, with a view to transaction of business with the rebel agents then in charge of federal prisoners of war who were arriving under flag of truce.
“The rebel prisoners having positively declined to turn over any prisoners till they received an equivalent, Captain Williams was sent, first to Mobile and then to Cairo, to communicate with Major-General Canby, Lieutenant-General Grant and Brigadier-General Hoffman.
“During his absence, Captain Frederick Speed, assistant adjutant-general of this department, at his own suggestion, was assigned by me to the performance of Captain Williams’ duties, and took entire charge of the receiving of prisoners from the rebel agents and of sending them to the parole camps at the North.
“During Captain Williams’ absence at the North, orders were received, through me, by the rebel officials from Colonel Ould, rebel commissioner, by which they were induced to parole the prisoners; and I then ordered Captain Speed to prepare their rolls as rapidly as possible and sent them North as rapidly as the rolls could be prepared, calculating, as near as circumstances would permit, about 1,000 at a load for the regular packets as they passed.
“The first load which was sent North was expected to be about 800, as that was about the number for which rolls were completed when the ‘Henry Ames’ was expected. She was delayed, however, and by the time she was ready to leave the rolls were ready for upwards of 1,300, and she carried them off. I had taken great interest in expediting the departure of these brave fellows to their homes and I went down to see this load start.
“The next load was by the steamboat ‘Olive Branch,’ which arrived so soon after the departure of the ‘Ames’ that rolls for only about 700 were ready for her.
“After she left Captain Speed came to me in considerable indignation and asked for authority to place Captain Kernes, the quartermaster of transportation at his post, in arrest. He stated that he had ordered all boats to be reported to him immediately on arrival and to await orders; that this boat had arrived in the middle of the night and had not been reported to him till 8 o’clock next morning; and that she had been unnecessarily detained after being loaded; and that he had been informed that this delay was made because she did not belong to the line which had the government contract; and that the contract line had offered a pecuniary consideration, per capita, for the men to be kept for their boats; and the intention was to detain the ‘Olive Branch’ till one of the contract line came along to take the load from her. I directed him not to arrest Captain Kernes till he was satisfied, upon proper investigation, that the reports he had heard were well-founded.
“The next boat was the ‘Sultana,’ and she arrived so soon after the departure of the ‘Olive Branch’ that Captain Speed reported to me that rolls for only about 300 men could be prepared, and that, therefore, none would go by her, but they would wait for the next boat.
“Captain Williams had arrived from the North in the night. Soon after making his first report Captain Speed came to my office and reported that he had consulted with Captain Williams and had decided to ship all the balance of prisoners on the ‘Sultana,’ as Captain Williams had advised that they be counted and checked as they went on board and prepare the rolls afterward. I expressed satisfaction at this and asked how many there would be, and he replied about 1,300–not to exceed 1,400–that the exact number could not be stated owing to discrepancies in the rebel rolls.
“About the middle of the day Captain Williams came and reported that the captain of the ‘Sultana’ said in would leave in an hour or two and a large proportion of the men were still out at the parole camp, and he did not believe that proper exertions were being made to get them off, and that he had been informed that a pecuniary consideration had been offered, per capita, for the detention of the men and shipment of them on the other line, and that he thought Captain Speed was practicing delay purposely for the detention of the men till the ‘Sultana’ should leave and a boat of the other line arrive. I then informed Captain Williams of what Captain Speed had previously reported regarding Captain Kernes and his clerks, and stated that I thought he had the rumor wrong. He promised to investigate it, and afterwards reported to me that he was entirely mistaken as regarded Captain Speed. I also ordered a telegram to be sent to Captain Speed informing him that the boat would leave in an hour or two, and inquiring if any more men would go by her.
“After dark Captain Speed reported that all the men were in from camp.
“Up to this moment I considered that he had performed his difficult task with great satisfaction and efficiency.
“The next morning on visiting my office I inquired of Captain Speed whether the boat had left and was informed she had. I then inquired as to the exact number of men she had taken, and was astonished to hear that there were 1,900. Having never seen the boat, I inquired as to her capacity and as to the comfort of the men and was assured by both Captain Speed and Captain Williams that the load was not too large for the boat, that the men were comfortable and not over-crowded and that there were very few boat which had so much room for troops as the ‘Sultana.’
“I had, at first, intrusted the whole business to Captain Williams, but he having left Captain Speed was placed in charge of it, in addition to his other duties, by my orders. He assumed and managed it as I thought with ability and I never had any report or complaint, further than is stated above, prior to the deplorable calamity to the boat, and was not informed of any other circumstances in the details of the whole matter.
“I am, very respectfully, etc.,
“N. J. T. Dana,
“Major-General.”
(Dana, Major-General N. J. T. “The report of Major-General Dana…,” in Elliott pp. 195-200.)
Huffman: “The Sultana was 260 feet long and 42 feet at its widest point and was designed to carry about 375 passengers and crew. It already had about 180 private passengers and crew on board, but by the time more than 2,000 paroled prisoners, their Union Army guards, a few Confederate soldiers headed home, and members of the U. S. Sanitary Commission boarded, the boat left Vicksburg with about 2,400 people on board – more than six times its capacity. There was standing room only. Many of the freed prisoners were so sick or badly injured that they had to be carried aboard. Still, the men were glad because they were on their way home.
“….The overcrowded Sultana left Vicksburg traveling upriver to Memphis, Tennessee. Because the snow had melted in the north, the river was flooded and the boat struggled against the currents with its heavy load. In Memphis the boat docked and some of the men got off and toured the town. Late that night they re-boarded the boat and headed upriver again. Around 2 a.m., while most of the men were sleeping, the Sultana exploded and caught fire about seven miles upriver from Memphis. Some people later claimed the Sultana had been sabotaged by Confederate soldiers, but the United States government concluded that the boilers that heated water for its steam engines had exploded due to a faulty design and the heavy load of its human cargo.
“Fires built in enclosed chambers heated water to the point that it turned to steam, and the pressure of the steam turned turbines that propelled water wheels, which in turn propelled the boat. A leak in the tubes that carried the super-heated water caused the explosion of the Sultana’s boilers, which destroyed the nearby parts of the boat and sent hot water and burning embers onto the sleeping passengers. Some were killed instantly by the explosion. Others awoke to find themselves flying through the air, and did not know what had happened. One minute they were sleeping and the next they found themselves struggling to swim in the very cold Mississippi River. Some passengers burned on the boat. 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.
“Of the approximately 2,400 people on board, about 1,700 died. The Sultana remains the worst maritime disaster in American history — more people died than with the 1912 sinking of the Titanic.” (Huffman. “Surviving the Worst…Wreck of the Sultana at the End of…American Civil War.”)
National Railway Historical Society: “June 30, 1866 The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Company is incorporated in Hartford, Connecticut. Partners Jeremiah Allen and Edward Reed are inspired to act following the April 27, 1865 boiler explosion on the steamboat Sultana, which killed over 1,600 passengers.” (Nat. Railway Hist. Soc., Inc. Railroad Historical Almanac 1860-1879. 2006, 7)
Ohio Historical Society: “During the night of April 27, 1865, while carrying over 2,300 Union soldiers – over six times its capacity of 376 passengers – a steam boiler aboard the Sultana exploded. The ship erupted in a massive fireball and sank in the cold, flood-swollen Mississippi River ten miles north of Memphis, Tennessee. Over 1,700 individuals died – some 200 more than those lost aboard the Titanic in 1912 – in what remains the worst maritime disaster in American history. Of the total casualties, Ohio lost the most of any state, with 791 dead. Indiana lost 491 persons, with Kentucky suffering 194 dead. It is estimated that, of the Ohio casualties, over fifty were Cincinnatians.” (Ohio Historical Society. “The Sultana.” Remarkable Ohio.)
“In 1862, less than a mile upriver from this marker, the John Lithoberry Shipyard in Cincinnati constructed the Sultana, a 260-foot, wooden steam transport. At the end of the Civil War, the U.S. Government contracted the Sultana to transport recently freed Federal prisoners north from Confederate stockades.” (Ohio Historical Society. “The Sultana.” Remarkable Ohio.)
Potter: “….Built in Cincinnati, Ohio, in early 1863 for Captain Preston Lodwick, the 260-foot-long Sultana was reported to be ‘one of the largest and best steamers ever constructed.’ With a legal carrying capacity of 376, the Sultana, which had a crew of eighty to eighty-five, was permitted to take on only about 290 passengers. Lodwick owned the Sultana until March 1864, when he sold her to three investors, one of whom was J. Cass Mason, the steamer’s captain and master. However, to off-set his financial problems, Mason had, by mid-April of 1865, sold most of his interest in the Sultana to his first clerk, William J. Gambrel and others.
“After the Sultana docked at Vicksburg, Mason went into town on a quest for passengers for his boat’s return trip. General Dana, the Union Commander for the Department of the Mississippi, had ordered that the soon-to-be paroled prisoners at Camp Fisk be sent northward from Vicksburg on privately owned steamboats, with the vessels’ owners receiving five dollars per enlisted man carried and ten dollars for each officer.
“Mason, in an effort to get as many of these soldiers as possible for his upriver trip, met with two army officers — Brigadier General Morgan L. Smith and Lieutenant Colonel Reuben B. Hatch — while the Sultana was stopped at Vicksburg. Because Smith, commander of the post and the District of Vicksburg, was, like Mason, from St. Louis and had been a riverboat captain for several years prior to the war, the two may have been acquainted. In any event, Smith promised Mason a full load of soldiers for his upriver journey.
“Mason got a similar promise from Hatch, the chief quartermaster for the Department of the Mississippi and a man whose military record was tarnished by evidence of corruption. Early in the war, while serving as an assistant quartermaster at Cairo, Illinois, Hatch had been arrested for taking bribes in the purchase of military supplies. The evidence of his guilt was overwhelming, but thanks to his brother, O. M. Hatch — the secretary of state for Illinois and a friend and financial supporter of President Lincoln — Reuben Hatch never appeared before the court-martial tribunal that had been ordered to try him. O. M. Hatch, along with Illinois Governor Richard Yates and Jesse K. Dubois, the state auditor, wrote to Lincoln proclaiming Reuben Hatch’s innocence and seeking the president’s aid.
“President Lincoln endorsed their letter and forwarded it to the judge advocate in Cairo who was handling the prosecution, requesting that if ‘the Judge Advocate has the means of doing so I will thank him to give me his opinion of the case.’ Lincoln also appointed a civilian commission to investigate the charges leveled against Reuben Hatch. Two of the three men on the commission were from Hatch’s home state of Illinois, so it was not surprising that the accused was cleared of all charges.
“Following his exoneration at Cairo, Hatch continued his military career, rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. In early 1865, a military commission at New Orleans tested Hatch on his knowledge of the duties of an assistant quartermaster general — a position he had held for the previous four years — and found him ‘totally unfit’ to discharge the duties of that post. Nonetheless, just ten days after the board released its findings, Hatch was inexplicably made the chief quartermaster for the Department of the Mississippi, stationed at Vicksburg.
“After receiving assurances from General Smith and Colonel Hatch that he would have a full load of soldiers aboard the Sultana when it headed north from Vicksburg, Mason reboarded his steamer and embarked for New Orleans. The Sultana arrived at the Crescent City on April 19 and remained there for two days before heading back to Vicksburg with approximately 250 passengers and crewmen on board.
“Despite the conclusion of government inspectors, following an April 12 inspection in St. Louis, that the Sultana ‘may be employed as a steamer upon the waters herein specified, without peril to life from imperfection of form, materials, workmanship, or arrangement of the several parts or from age or use,’ crew members aboard the vessel soon became concerned about the condition of the steamer’s massive boilers. One crewman, who disembarked only two hours before the Sultana left New Orleans, later reported that the boilers had been patched or repaired at Natchez, Mississippi, and at Vicksburg on the two previous trips.
“The crew’s concerns proved justified when steam was discovered escaping from a crack in one of her four boilers as the Sultana reached a point about ten miles south of Vicksburg, forcing her to continue up the Mississippi at a greatly reduced speed. Fearing that the crack posed a significant threat to the safety of the steamboat, her chief engineer declared that he would not proceed beyond Vicksburg until necessary repairs were made….
“The officer in nominal command of the prisoner exchange was Captain George Augustus Williams. A graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, Williams was a veteran of more than 13 years of service in the regular army but had never risen above the rank of captain. While serving as the provost-marshal at Memphis, Tennessee, in 1864, he had been dismissed from service because of ‘excessive cruelty to prisoners and gross neglect of duty.’ He was saved from disgrace by the intervention of Union General Ulysses S. Grant, whose written testimonial helped persuade the army to reverse his dismissal….
“The Sultana finally docked at Vicksburg early on the evening of April 23. Arriving so soon after the departure of the Olive Branch, the Sultana almost did not get any prisoners to carry north. Captain Speed, aware that the rolls of only three hundred of the remaining soldiers had been prepared, reported to General Dana that no prisoners would be shipped on the Sultana; he could not, he said, complete the remaining paperwork before the steamer’s scheduled departure on the following day.
“Furious when he learned that his steamer was to get none of the prisoners promised him, Mason went immediately into Vicksburg and met with Colonel Hatch, General Smith, and Captain Speed. At first, Speed refused to place any of the soldiers on the Sultana until the necessary rolls were completed. During the meeting, however, Captain Williams, who had returned to Vicksburg that afternoon, convinced Speed that there was no need to prepare the rolls before the soldiers boarded the steamer. According to Williams, the men could merely be checked off as they went aboard, and the rolls completed after the departure of the boat.
“Later that same evening, Speed reported to General Dana that all the prisoners remaining at the parole camp and in the hospital at Vicksburg would be shipped as planned on the Sultana. Dana was also informed that the total number of prisoners to be shipped would be between 1,300 and 1,400, the number of men Speed estimated still awaited transport.
“Captain Speed’s decision to place all of the remaining prisoners on one vessel was expedient rather than prudent. Since the Sultana had a legal carrying capacity of 376 passengers, even his estimate would have been far too many for the steamer to hold. In reality, however, Speed had grossly underestimated. Instead of 1,300 to 1,400 prisoners awaiting transport, there were in excess of two thousand.
“Mason knew that time was critical; if the Sultana did not leave on April 24, some other steamboat would carry the remaining troops from Vicksburg. Thus, the leaking boiler that had slowed her return from New Orleans had to be repaired quickly. R. G. Taylor, a local boilermaker who had been summoned to examine the problem, told Mason that extensive repairs were needed. Mason implored Taylor to settle for patching the leaking boiler so that the steamer could leave Vicksburg on schedule. Although he initially refused, Taylor finally agreed to place a small patch over the area leaking steam. After completing the job, he warned that the repairs were only temporary and was assured by Mason that the work would be completed when the Sultana reached St. Louis.
“The next morning, Williams and Speed traveled to Camp Fisk. The two officers agreed that Speed would remain at the parole camp to supervise the loading of the men onto the trains, while Williams would ride on the first train back to Vicksburg, where he would keep count as they boarded the Sultana. The tired but excited former prisoners, grouped according to their native states, quickly climbed onto the first train.
“The confidence that Williams and Speed had in the ability of the Sultana to carry all the remaining prisoners was not shared by Captain William F. Kerns, the quartermaster in charge of river transportation. Kerns had tried in vain to convince Speed to place some of the men on the Lady Gay, a steamboat then docked at Vicksburg that was larger than the Sultana. Speed, refusing to divide the prisoners, continued to maintain that they all could travel on the one vessel. The Lady Gay, therefore, headed north from Vicksburg without a single paroled prisoner on board.
“A few minutes after the departure of the Lady Gay, Captain Williams and the first trainload of former prisoners — an estimated 570 — pulled into Vicksburg. These men joined 398 soldiers already on board the Sultana, who probably came from the military hospital. Thus, the Sultana then exceeded her carrying capacity by more than six hundred….
“As the day wore on, two more trainloads of men boarded the Sultana. Captain Williams, whose responsibility was to count the soldiers as they went aboard the steamer, was not at the dock when the second group of men walked across the Sultana‘s gangplank. Consequently, four hundred soldiers were not added to his tally.
“After this second load of soldiers boarded the Sultana, Captain Kerns warned Colonel Hatch that too many prisoners were being placed on the one steamer and tried to have some men sent north on the recently arrived Pauline Carroll. Hatch sent a telegram to Speed at the parole camp asking if there were more prisoners than could go aboard the Sultana. Speed, still convinced that there were no more than a total of 1,400 to be shipped that day, replied: ‘[No,] they can all go on one boat.’ With that assurance, Hatch refused to divide the men between the two vessels.
“Equally certain that his assessment was correct, Captain Kerns approached General Smith, pleading with him to ‘interpose his influence and have part of the prisoners go on the Pauline Carroll.’ Smith, like Hatch, did nothing.
“The third and final train arrived at the riverfront late on the afternoon of April 24, carrying approximately eight hundred paroled prisoners. As the long column of soldiers from the train snaked toward the Sultana, Captain Kerns once again implored Speed, who had ridden into Vicksburg on the train, and Williams to reconsider and place some of the men on the Pauline Carroll, which was still docked beside the Sultana. Both officers refused Kerns’s request. Williams, who had been aboard the Sultana, declared that there was plenty of room on her decks for the men to be comfortable. A little while later, Kerns watched in dismay as the Pauline Carroll steamed away from Vicksburg with a total of 17 passengers.
“Dr. George S. Kemble, the medical director of the Department of the Mississippi, who visited the Sultana after the second trainload of men had boarded, shared Kerns’s view. Concluding that the steamboat was too crowded for the comfort and safety of the sick men, Kemble sought and received permission from General Dana to remove 23 men who were confined to cots from the Sultana. He also redirected a column of 278 soldiers who came from the hospital.
“Major William Fidler of the 6th Kentucky Cavalry, the highest ranking Union prisoner of war, also disagreed with Williams’s assessment. As the last detachment of men boarded the steamer, Fidler complained to Mason that there were too many passengers aboard the Sultana. By now, the vessel’s captain, having received many more troops than even he desired, was growing concerned about the stability of his boat. Although he ‘thought he could carry them through,’ Mason nevertheless protested any further loading. He too was ignored.
“While the exact number of people loaded onto the Sultana on April 24 remains unknown, there can be no question that the steamer was grossly overcrowded. The human load was so great that it was necessary for the crew to install extra supports for the upper decks, for fear that the sagging floors might collapse. Captain Speed was shocked when informed by George Williams that he had counted 1,996 men boarding the ship, several hundred more than his estimate.
“What Speed did not realize was that Williams’s figure only included the prisoners from the first and third trains, since the soldiers from the second train boarded the Sultana without being counted. In reality, the steamboat carried as many as 2,100 soldiers, approximately 100 civilian passengers, and 85 crewmen for a possible total of more than 2,300 people, more than six times the vessel’s legal limit. William J. Gambrel, the first clerk and part owner of the Sultana, told one soldier that ‘if we arrived safe at Cairo it would be the greatest trip ever made on the western waters, as there were more people on board than were ever carried on one boat on the Mississippi River.’
“At 9:00 p.m. on April 24, the Sultana slowly backed away from the wharf at Vicksburg and headed north on the flood-swollen Mississippi River. The enormous weight of the passengers and cargo on the decks of the steamer worried her crew. Gambrel warned Major Fidler that any sudden movement by the prisoners could cause the decks to collapse. He also expressed concern that too many men crowding to one side of the deck could result in the boat capsizing.
“That horrifying scenario almost played out when the Sultana docked briefly at Helena, Arkansas. Word quickly spread among the passengers that a photographer was setting up his camera on the west bank of the river. The excited soldiers, hoping to be caught on film, quickly moved to the port side of the boat, causing the Sultana to list dangerously. The resulting photograph, however, is the last picture taken of the steamer, as well as of many of those on board….
“After a four-hour stop at Memphis that evening, the steamer headed across the wide river to Hopefield, Arkansas, where she took on a thousand bushels of coal. At about this time, Captain Mason, who had grown increasingly concerned over the safety of the Sultana and her passengers, told one prisoner that ‘he would give all the interest he had in the boat if it was safely landed in Cairo.’
“By 2:00 a.m. on April 27, the top-heavy Sultana had reached a point seven miles north of Memphis, where the river was nearly four miles wide. Most of the passengers slept on the crowded decks, as stokers shoveled coal to feed the four massive boilers that were located on the main deck between the waterwheels. Rising above the boilers were the upper decks, constructed of light, flimsy wood that was coated with highly combustible paints.
“Suddenly, three of the huge boilers exploded with a volcanic fury that a witness on the shore described as the thundering noise of ‘a hundred earthquakes.’ The blast tore instantly through the decks directly above the boilers, flinging live coals and splintered timber into the night sky like fireworks. Scalding water and clouds of steam covered the prisoners who lay sleeping near the boilers. Hundreds were killed in the first moments of the tragedy. The upper decks of the Sultana, already sagging under the weight of her passengers, collapsed when the blast ripped through the steamer’s superstructure. Many unfortunate souls, trapped in the resulting wreckage, could only wait for certain death as fire quickly spread throughout the hull. Within twenty minutes of the explosion, the entire superstructure of the Sultana was in flames.
“The burning wreckage began to drift slowly downriver, as those on board fought to survive. With only 76 life preservers and two small lifeboats available, most of those who survived the blast jumped for their lives into the river. In the hours before dawn, hundreds of soldiers and civilians struggled in the river as they awaited rescue. But help did not come until 3:00 a.m., an hour after the explosion. The Bostonia II, plowing downriver, came upon the Sultana engulfed in flames, and immediately began to haul the survivors from the water around the wreckage.
“In Memphis, sailors stood on the decks of United States Navy gunboats watching the red glow from the dying steamer that lit the northern horizon, yet no rescue effort was launched until approximately 3:20 a.m., by which time cries could be heard from out across the river. As cutters from the gunboats began sweeping the river in front of Memphis for survivors, their crews were directed in the darkness by the victims’ screams for help. A sailor aboard the USS Tyler wrote in the ship’s log that ‘of all the sounds and noises I ever heard that was the most sorrowful; some cursing, calling for help; and shrieking. I will never forget those awful sounds.’
“When the sun rose in the eastern sky, more than 1,700 were dead or dying. Among the fatalities were Captain Mason….
“More than 500 of those who made it to shore were placed in hospitals; the Soldier’s Home at Memphis took another 241. Many of these injured did not live to enjoy the freedom they had so recently won. Sergeant William Fies of the 64th Ohio Infantry, in describing the grim sights in one of the hospital wards, wrote that he ‘was placed in a ward with quite a number who were severely scalded, or otherwise badly injured, and such misery and intense suffering as I witnessed while there is beyond my power to describe. The agonizing cries and groans of the burned and scalded were heartrending and almost unendurable, but in most cases the suffering was of short duration as most of them were relieved by death in a few hours.’
“Because no accurate assessment of the number of passengers had been made, it was impossible to calculate the exact number of dead. Both the military’s estimate of 1,238 and the Customs Department’s figure of 1,547 were based strictly on Captain Williams’s tally of prisoners placed on the Sultana at Vicksburg and were, therefore, too low. In reality, the death toll stood at more than 1,700.
“Within hours of the disaster, General C. C. Washburn, the commanding officer at Memphis, appointed a military commission to investigate the tragedy. After weeks of testimony, the commission discounted the crowded conditions aboard the Sultana, concluding that ‘the evidence fully shows that the government has transferred as many or more troops on boats of no greater capacity than the Sultana frequently and with safety.’
“….The Washburn Commission concluded that insufficient water in the boilers precipitated the explosion, despite testimony to the contrary by the Sultana‘s second engineer, who was on watch at the time of the explosion and who died soon after from the injuries he had received.
“It was the investigation and report of J. J. Witzig, the supervising inspector of steamboats, that shed the most light on the cause of the tragedy. Witzig contended that the shoddy repair to the middle larboard boiler at Vicksburg had caused the explosion. The small patch, he reasoned, was too thin to stand the excessive pressure in the boiler on the upriver trip.
“At the conclusion of all the military investigations, Hatch and Speed were ordered to appear before court-martial tribunals. The charges against Hatch stemmed from the fact that he had selected the Sultana to transport the prisoners. Speed, because of his temporary replacement of Williams, was deemed to be the officer in direct command of the prisoner transfer.
“On November 1, 1865, a court was appointed to try Captain Speed at Vicksburg. Although the government called several witnesses to testify, the prosecution failed to compel the appearance of one key witness, Lieutenant Colonel Hatch. A request by the prosecutor to the Secretary of War to have Hatch arrested and brought to Vicksburg to testify went unanswered. In June 1866, the military court found Speed guilty on all charges and sentenced him to be dismissed from the army. The verdict, however, was later reversed by the judge advocate general, and Captain Speed was honorably mustered out of service.
“Hatch never stood before a court-martial tribunal. On June 3, 1865, he was relieved of his duties as chief quartermaster of the Department of the Mississippi. A few weeks later, he boarded the northbound steamer Atlantic, carrying $14,490 in government money. During the voyage, the safe of the Atlantic was robbed. The thief was caught before the boat reached St. Louis, and all the money was recovered, except for more than $8,500 in government funds Hatch claimed he had placed in the safe. He was found to have violated military regulations by removing the funds from the Department and was held personally liable for the loss of the money. Thus, Hatch’s career ended as it began — in controversy.
“With Speed’s exoneration, the military closed the books on the Sultana tragedy. In the end, no one was held responsible for the worst maritime disaster in American waters. Speed stayed in Vicksburg, becoming a criminal court judge and a powerful voice in Mississippi politics. George Williams retired from the military in 1870 as a major; he later served several terms on the school board in Newburgh, New York. General Smith, after resigning from the army, served as second assistant postmaster general during the Grant administration. On December 29, 1874, Smith was thought to have committed suicide after an article appeared in The New York Times accusing him of taking a $50,000 bribe.
“The horror of the Sultana tragedy was multiplied by its futility. Headlines in the Memphis Daily Appeal screamed: ‘IT WAS MURDER!’ And the newspaper was correct. There was no military reason requiring or justifying the placement of so many soldiers aboard the Sultana. The real cause of the disaster was not the failure of the patch on the boiler, but the conspiracy of greed at Vicksburg that put the quest for profits above the safety of the weary soldiers who thought the horrors of war were behind them forever….” (Potter, Jerry O. “Sultana: A Tragic Postscript to the Civil War.” American History Magazine. August 1998. Digitally published 6-12-2006 at historynet.com.)
Supervising Inspector of Steamboats (J. J. Witzig), Fourth Supervising District: “Disaster of the Sultana. This is perhaps the most frightful disaster ever recorded in the annals of steam navigation. It is stated that over fifteen hundred (1,500) lives were lost. The Sultana was built at Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1863. She was of 660 38-100 tons burden (old measurement), had accommodations for seventy-six (76) cabin passengers, and three hundred (300) deck passengers. She had four high-pressure boil4rs, 18 feet long and 46 inches in diameter, made of iron 17-48 of an inch in thickness; each boiler had 24 return flues, 5 inches in diameter, made of iron one-eighth of an inch thick. The Sultana was inspected in St. Louis, on the 12th day of April, 1865, by the local board of inspectors, composed of John Maguire and John Shaffer. The boilers were subjected to a hydrostatic pressure of two hundred and ten (210) pounds to the square inch. The working steam pressure allowed was on hundred and forty-five (145) pounds to the square inch. The Sultana had two engines, with cylinders 25 inches in diameter and 8 feet stroke; had three forcing pumps, six inches stroke, and respectively 5, 6 and 7 inches in diameter; two of them were worked by hand. The explosion occurred on the 27th day of April, 1865, at about seven miles above Memphis, Tennessee. There was no local board at that time at Memphis. As soon as the news of the terrible occurrence reached St. Louis, by telegraph, I, as supervising inspector of this, the fourth district, considered it my duty, as prescribed by the 22d section of the act of Congress of 1852, to repair immediately to the scene of the calamity. What urged me to take immediate steps is, that on all such occasions the surviving parties leave for parts unknown as soon as they can procure the means to do so. This is especially the case with those that are supposed to be best informed of the probable cause of the accident. Arriving at Memphis, Tennessee, I found that Major General Washburn had instituted a military commission to inquire into the matter. They had made little progress, and had concluded to go to Vicksburg, where they had good ground to believe more information could be gathered, I was invited by General Washburn to join the party, and did so.
“At Vicksburg, one of the first witnesses put under oath was R. G. Taylor, an experienced boiler-maker. He stated that he had, at the request of the first engineer, examined and repaired the middle larboard boiler of the Sultana, on her up trip to Memphis. He states that he found, on examination of the larboard boiler, that two sheets were badly bulged out. He was told by the captain that both sheets would be cut out at St. Louis, and he (Taylor) was to cut out only a piece 26 by 11 inches, which he did. He was not permitted to force back the bulge, as he desired, but had to fit his patch to the boiler as it was. The patch he riveted on was only one-quarter of an inch thick. To all this the first engineer consented. This was on the part of the engineer a gross violation of the law, the body of the boiler being made of iron 17-48 of one inch, and inspected, and the safety valves regulated for iron of that thickness, and the pressure allowed was the extreme limit. Had the boiler been inspected after the repairs, the pressure allowed by law would have been 100.43 pounds of working pressure per square inch, as prescribed for boilers 46 inches in diameter, made of iron ¼ inch thick.
“From Vicksburg to Memphis the Sultana travelled at her usual speed, which shows that the usual pressure of steam was used. The foregoing is sufficient to explain the cause or causes of the explosion. Boilers of a construction not adapted to the water of the Mississippi river, the flues being set in zigzag, which makes them very difficult to clean; the rapid accumulation of sediment renders them easily subject to be burned, or at least overheated; this seems to have been the case of the Sultana. The boilers were imperfectly repaired at Vicksburg, for which the engineer alone can be held responsible.
“There is another feature in this disaster that deserves to be mentioned – the large amount of human beings crowded on this boat. The law limits the number of passengers that a vessel is allowed to carry. That law, like many others, has during the war been set aside for military necessities. Civil officers had to be silent, and large numbers of soldiers have frequently been crowded on small crafts. This war was already ended when this inhuman shipment was made, and nobody pretended that there was a necessity. The Sultana left New Orleans with about 250 passengers and crew, and in the hold about 250 hogsheads of sugar. At Vicksburg 2,000 released Union prisoners and 60 horses and mules were shipped on her, while the certificate allowed her only three hundred and seventy-six (376) passengers, all told. The Pauline Carroll, a steamer of the same size, was lying at the wharf at Vicksburg, on her way to St. Louis. The officers of the P. Carroll were anxious to get one thousand (1,000) of those passengers at the regular government rate. The agent of that boat even offered a premium, as he declared himself, but to no avail. It was decided that hose, mule and human freight mut be crowded in one heap.”
(Pp. 216-217 in Supervising Inspector of Steamboats (U.S.). “Report of the Supervising Inspector of Steamboats,” in United States Secretary of the Treasury. Report of the Secretary of the Treasury of the State of the Finances for The Year 1865. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1865.)
The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture: “The Sultana steamboat disaster in 1865, at the end of the Civil War, has been called America’s worst maritime disaster. More people died in the sinking of the riverboat Sultana than on the Titanic. However, for a nation that had just emerged from war and was still reeling from the assassination of President Lincoln, the estimated loss of up to 1,800 soldiers returning home on the Mississippi River was scarcely covered in the national news. The remains of the steamboat are believed to lie buried in Arkansas.
“Those aboard the boat were mostly Union soldiers from Midwestern states such as Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana. Having been taken prisoners of war, they were sent to the notoriously overcrowded Confederate prisons of Cahaba in Alabama and Andersonville in Georgia. Those POWs who survived at war’s end in April of 1865 were marched to Vicksburg, Mississippi, for their return north.
“When the survivors came in sight of the Mississippi River at Vicksburg, they shouted and sang with joy. The army was paying the Sultana’s captain—who was part-owner of the boat—five dollars for each enlisted man and ten dollars for each officer taken aboard. Those who boarded the side-wheeler found a boat built for 376 that took on, by some reports, almost 2,400 men, as well as some women and children who were in passenger cabins.
“The Sultana left Vicksburg for Cairo, Illinois, forcing its way against the strong current of the Mississippi at flood stage. On April 27, 1865, at about 2:00 a.m., the Sultana was ten miles upriver from Memphis, Tennessee, with men sleeping on deck or anywhere they could find space when the straining boilers exploded, blowing the ship apart.
“Men who had been sleeping suddenly found themselves immersed in the cold waters of the swollen river. Many were killed instantly by the explosion, fire, falling timbers, shrapnel, and searing steam from the boilers, as well as by drowning. Reports estimate the number of dead as high as 1,800, with hundreds of bodies floating in the river when Memphians awoke the next morning.
“According to witnesses, it took about twenty minutes for the remains of the Sultana to burn to the waterline, finally resting in mud on the Arkansas side of the river. It is believed buried today under about twenty feet of soil beneath a soybean field in northeast Arkansas. In nearby Marion (Crittenden County), a historical marker pays tribute to the Sultana disaster.
“Many of the dead were buried in Memphis cemeteries, while some who could be identified were taken home to places such as Ohio, where cemetery markers pay tribute. Survivors of the Sultana disaster formed a national association in the 1880s, and their descendants hold annual reunions on the anniversary of the tragedy.” (The Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture. “Sultana (Steamboat).”
The Locomotive: “The most awful boiler explosion known to history was undoubtedly the one which destroyed the Mississippi river steamboat Sultana, in 1865, the number of persons killed in that one accident being no less than 1,238.
“The Sultana and the Luminary left New Orleans together, on April 21, 1865, and raced up the river for Vicksburg, where many Union soldiers, just released from southern prisons, were awaiting transportation to the north. The Luminary reached Vicksburg first, but she did not get the contract to carry the soldiers, and she shortly proceeded northward on her trip.
“About ten hours before reaching Vicksburg, a leak developed along a joint at the front end of one of the Sultana’s boilers, forcing her to lay over at that place, 33 hours, for repairs. The repairing was done, apparently, by a competent boiler maker, and it consisted in putting on a “soft patch,” of quarter-inch iron plate.
“Previous to the arrival of the Sultana, the Henry Ames had carried 1,300 of the soldiers north, and the Olive Branch had taken 700 more. It was at first reported that no men would be sent by the Sultana, as the rolls had been made out for only 300 of those that remained. Before the Sultana was ready to depart, however, it was decided to send all of the remaining men by her, counting and checking them as they went aboard, and preparing the rolls afterwards. She therefore took on 1,866 soldiers, including 33 paroled officers; and she carried, also, 70 cabin passengers, and a crew of 85.
“No inspection was made of the boat at the time, to determine her carrying capacity or condition. The cooking facilities were grossly inadequate, and the men, who did not even have room to lie down, felt that they were treated with unnecessary harshness, in being thus crowded together in great discomfort, when at least two other northward-bound boats had been at the landing during the day, and one very good one (the Pauline Carroll) was actually lying alongside at the time of embarkation.
“Proceeding up the river the Sultana passed Helena, Ark., on April 26, at 10 o’clock a. m….At about 3 o’clock a. m., on April 27, 1865…the repaired boiler exploded with tremendous violence, a few miles above Memphis, Tenn. Many persons were killed outright, and many more were thrown into the river and drowned; and the wrecked vessel took fire, and was entirely destroyed. Of the soldiers, 1,101 (including 19 officers) were killed, and of the passengers and crew 137 were killed; the total number of lives lost being 1,238, as we have already stated.
“So far as we aware, the cause of the explosion was never definitely ascertained. The boiler was a return tubular,—a type which had not been previously tried in the river service. We are told that the shell was 48 inches in diameter and 0.354 inch thick. A new iron shell of this character, with a double-riveted joint having an efficiency of 70 per cent., could carry a pressure of about 90 lbs., with a factor of safety of five. It is likely that the actual pressure carried was 150 lbs. or even more; but in justice to the officers of the Sultana it should be remembered that it was customary, at that time, to operate the boilers on river steamboats under a factor of safety which would not now meet with the approval of any engineer.
“We do not know whether the initial line of rupture in the boiler ran through the original sheet, or through the patch, which was only 0.25 in. thick; nor do we know the diameter or pitch of the rivets in the shell, nor of the bolts that were used in putting on the patch. It is quite possible that a knowledge of these points would shed light upon the cause of the explosion.
“The boilers of the Sultana had been examined by a government inspector, at St. Louis, about a fortnight before the explosion, and were then pronounced to be safe and in good condition. The chief engineer, and the second engineer (who was fatally scalded), testified that the boilers were carefully watched after the repairs at Vicksburg, that they contained plenty of water at all times, and that they were apparently all right, up to the very moment of the explosion.
“The Sultana was undeniably overloaded, and many ugly charges and counter-charges of bribery were current among the Union officers who had to do with the transportation of the soldiers, in view of the fact that there were other serviceable boats at hand, anxious to get a share of the business.” (The Locomotive. “The Boiler Explosion on the Sultana,” Vol. 27, N. 5, Jan 1909, pp. 129-130.)
Titusville Morning Herald: “Within the past forty-five years, ever since steamboats were first run in the western waters, the record of explosions had gone on increasing in number and horrors until the Mississippi is regarded as the most dangerous of all the navigable rivers of the world.
“The Sultana Disaster has never been equaled on the ocean, land or river. By the sinking of that boat twenty-three hundred soldiers of the Federal and Confederate armies found a watery grave, and only one hundred survived to tell a tale of recklessness, the recital of which even yet makes one’s blood run cold.” (Titusville Morning Herald (PA). “The Sultana Disaster,” 2-8-1871, 1.)
Walker: “….A seemingly endless line of men boarded the Sultana. According to one prisoner, they were loaded like ‘a heard of cattle.’ Another prisoner agreed; ‘We marched on the old ship and I tell you, we was as thick as bees.’ They weren’t the only ones taken aback by the numbers. Speed still believed that only 1,600 to 1,700 men had boarded the boat. In reality, the total number of paroled prisoners transported by trains from Camp Fisk to the Sultana was between 2,050 and 2,150.” [Walker, p. 81.]
Newspapers at the Time
April 27: “Memphis, April 27. The steamer Sultana, from New Orleans on the 1st, arrived at Vicksburg with her boilers leaking badly. She remained there thirty hours repairing and taking on 1,996 Federal soldiers and 35 officers, lately released from Cahawba and Andersonville prisons. She arrived here last evening, and after coaling proceeded about two o’clock A.M. When seven miles above she blew up, and immediately took fire and burned to the water’s edge. Of the 2,156 souls aboard not more than 700 were rescued. Captain Mason, of the Sultana, is supposed to be lost.
“This morning the river in front of Memphis is covered with soldiers struggling for life, many of them badly scalded. Boats immediately went to their rescue, and are now engaged in picking them up. General Washburn immediately organized a board of officers to investigate the affair, and they are now at work doing so. No further particulars have been received.
“The Sultana came out in the spring of last year, and was considered a very stanch and superior boat. She was built at Cincinnati by Capt. Pres. Lodwick, but was owned by the Atlantic and Mississippi Steamship Company, we believe, at the time of the disaster. Capt. Mason, her commander, was well known along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.” (New Albany Ledger. “River and Steamboat Intelligence.” 4-29-1865, p. 3, col. 5.)
April 28: “St. Louis, April 28 –A telegram received by the military authorities from New Madrid states that the steamer Sultana, with 2,000 paroled prisoners on board had exploded. Fourteen hundred lives are reported lost.
Second Dispatch.
“Memphis…via Cairo, April 28….Of the 2,145 souls aboard not more than 700 have been rescued. Of the rescued 510 are now in the hospitals, and two or three hundred of the uninjured are at the soldier’s home….” (Indianapolis Daily Journal, IN. “Terrible Steamboat Explosion.” 4-29-1865, p. 1.)
April 28: “Cairo, Friday, April 28. Seven hundred and eighty-six of those on board the ill fated Sultana have been found alive. The lost is now estimated at fifteen hundred. The Memphis hospitals are full of wounded from the Sultana, many being badly scalded and burned. The investigation ordered by Gen. Washburn is proceeding.” (New York Times. “The Sultana Disaster. Fifteen Hundred Lives Lost.” 4-30-1865, p. 1.)
April 28: “Cairo, April 29. Memphis papers of the 28th give further details of the Sultana disaster….The officers of the Sultana seemed to have been faithful, competent men. That there was too large a number of passengers on board is true; but the boat was strong, nad the engine had only recently passed inspection….
“A Mrs. Hoge, a passenger, was found dead, but holding fast to the limb of a tree that dropped to the water.
“The Ohio and Indiana boys comprised about two-thirds of the whole number of soldiers on the vessel.
“One soldier who was on board attempted to save the lives of two little girls, seven and nine years of age. He had a plank and thus was able to sustain himself and the children until they floated nearly opposite the foot of Jefferson street, when a rope was thrown to him from the Bostona. In attempting to catch the rope the children slipped from his exhausted arms. The brave heart that had struggled so manfully thought no more of seizing the rope, but made desperate and vain efforts, by diving, to recover the children that were hurried out of reach by the swift and treacherous current. When the soldier found that his efforts were in vain, he was too much exhausted to make further efforts to save himself, and was sinking without a struggle when the boat that had been sent out picked him up.
“Among the lost is Mrs. S. W. Hardin, Jr. She had been recently married and with her husband, who is a member of the firm of Cushman, Hardin & Co., bankers, of Chicago, was returning home from her wedding tour. They remained on the wreck till compelled by the flames to jump overboard. The cabins fell in with a crash and simultaneously several hundred persons sprang into the river causing a confusion by which the husband and wife became separated. Mr. Hardin made every effort to find his wife, but was unsuccessful. He was subsequently found in an exhausted condition, and is almost distracted. He was formerly Adjutant of the 3d Illinois Infantry….
“One woman, who had a child in her arms, got hold of a board and floated five or six miles. She was rescued opposite Beal street; but the infant was dead.
“One woman, whose husband was an officer on the gunboat, was on board with her sister, her husband and child. She was rescued, but was left alone in the world, as her husband, child and sister were lost….
“Overton Hospital received about fifty patients from the ill-fated steamer, the greater part of them suffering from serious scalds and burns. One man had his head, face and body almost denuded of the cuticle from steam. Another was suffering from concussion of the brain as well as being badly scalded and burned. Many were badly contused and a few were cut and lacerated from being hit with fragments of the wreck. All were more or less injured from their long immersion in cold water, and were only saved by the prompt and judicious medical attention given them….
“In several cases the unfortunates were found chilled to death, but floating in the water with pieces of wood under their arms….Several men were found stiff, cold and dead on banks. Their long imprisonment had so weakened them that the shock of this terrible occurrence and their immersion for hours in the cold water proved fatal.
“The Bostona saved over two hundred lives, and throughout the whole affair, captain Watson, clerks Fisher and Lorenz, pilot C. Keating, mate Alvord, engineer McGwin and indeed all on board of her deserved the warmest commendations.
“The picket boat Pocahontas picked up about one hundred and fifty persons, a number of whom died after they were taken out of the water. The body of a woman in her night dress was picked up by the yawl and placed in the picket boat.
“A man who works at the woodyard above the city was in the skiff, with two men, one man who had been rescued, but with both legs broken below the knee, the other one had only one arm. They found a girl seven years of age struggling in the water. She had on a life preserver, but it was on so low that her head was thrown downward. Three men in a skiff attempted to seize her, and in doing so in their condition, came near upsetting the boat, and missed the girl, who sank at once and was seen no more. This girl had on a fine night dress and high heeled gaiters….
“One dead man, picked up by the ferry boat, was so horribly scalded that not the size of a half dollar of skin was left on his whole body.
“Mr. Roseberry, chief mate of the Sultana, testifies as follows:–I was chief mate of the Sultana, and at the time of the accident I had charge of the boat, and was in the pilot house with Cayton. We were about seven miles up the river when the boiler exploded, and I found myself in the river. I and five others got hold of a plank, and were picked up by the Bostona. The boiler was tubed in St. Louis on her last trip and pronounced good, and the boat had the usual certificates. Mr. Schaffer, at St. Louis, was inspector.
“There was a little patch put on the boiler at Vicksburg. I believe that patch was put on the larboard side of the larboard boiler. The patch was made necessary by the breaking of the boiler. There was not, to my knowledge, any fears expressed by the crew or passengers as to the safety of the boat. I have been on the Sultana about five months, and have been on the river with Captain Mason, Master of the Sultana, for about five years. He was a perfect gentleman. There was no carousing on the boat among the crew or passengers.
“Capt. Mason was in his room, the first engineer in his, and the second engineer on the watch. The boat at the time was running as usual, about nine or ten miles per hour. She was not running against time, and no boat left with us. The boiler leaked some twelve hours before we reached Vicksburg, and the engineer said he would go no further until it was repaired. Laid at Vicksburg thirty-three hours. Most of this time was taken up in repairing the boiler, and the engineer said it was a good job. It was done by regular mechanics at Vicksburg. We had no trouble with the boiler after leaving Vicksburg.
Testimony of the Pilot.
“George Cayton, pilot on the Sultana, being duly sworn, testifies as follows:
We left New Orleans on Friday last, officers and crew about eighty men. Landed at Vicksburg on Sunday evening, and remained about thirty-three hours. Left Vicksburg on Tuesday about one o’clock a.m.; took on board 1,965 soldiers, as I heard from the clerk. Don’t know as this includes officers or not. Arrived here yesterday evening about seven o’clock, and left about two o’clock this morning. Went to the coal yard at two o’clock a.m and took aboard 1,000 bushels of coal, and proceeded up the river about seven miles, when the boiler exploded.
I was at the wheel and fell on top of the boilers, and was wedged in by the wreck. The boat was full of passengers. I should say there was some twenty-two hundred persons on board. She was a large boat, but not the largest class and about three years old.
I crawled out under the pilot house and endeavored to persuade the passengers from jumping into the river, telling them to hold on to the wreck as long as possible. The fire could then have been put out, but all the buckets, etc., were blown overboard. I got a plank and swam to the island called Hen and Chickens.
“The boat was fully supplied with life preservers. Her boilers were inspected just before we left St. Louis, on her last trip. At Vicksburg one of her flues was out of order, and it was repaired; but the collapsing of the clue could not of itself have produced the accident.
The mate was with me in the pilot house, and had charge of the boat. Captain Mason was, I presume, in his room. The boat was running at her usual rate, about nine or ten miles an hour. I would have known if the boat was running against time or crowded. We had no cargo on board except about sixty head of mules and horses..” (Chicago Tribune. “The Terrible Steamboat Disaster.” 5-1-1865, p. 2.
May 2: “Special dispatch to the St. Louis Republican. It is now ascertained there were 2,300 people on board the ill-fated Sultana, and 786 have been found alive….About two-thirds of the entire number of soldiers were from Ohio and Indiana….” (New Albany Ledger, IN. “The Sultana Disaster,” 5-2-1865, p. 2.)
May 5: “The most fearful steamboat disaster that ever occurred in the history of steamboating took place…in the blowing up and destruction of the steamer Sultana, and loss of about seventeen hundred lives….Of 2,156 souls on board, it is not supposed that more than 700 were rescued, of whom about three hundred have since died from injuries received….” (Missouri State Times, Jefferson City. “The Explosion of the Sultana.” 5-6-1865, p. 1.)
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