In January of 1863 the steamship Sultana was launched. The ship was built for a Capt. Preston Ludwick at a total cost of $60,000. She was a 260 foot wooden hulled steamboat, with 3 decks. With a passenger and crew capacity of 376 persons. From February 1863 to March of 1964 the earnings from this ship doubled the cost of building it, by transporting freight and men for the federal government. Most of these men were Union solders being returned home, after being exchanged or mustering out when their time was served. Ludwick later sold the ship to 3 investors because he thought it was to dangerous at the time to be going up and down the river. The ship had been fired on many times by both the north and the south armies. One of these investors was also the Captain, J. Cass Mason.
This was the third ship that had been named Sultana, each of the previous ones shared the same fate.
By the latter part of 1864 most of the heavy fighting had stopped. But a Nathan Forrest had been ordered to destroy Union supply lines. In doing so he captured 571 men when the Fort at Athens surrendered to him. Not knowing that the fort had surrender, a relief column was attempting to fight its way to the rescue of the fort. The relief column was made up of 700 men from the 18th Michigan Infantry and the 102nd Ohio Infantry. When they arrived at the fort they were shocked to see the gates open and their comrades marching out. Resistance seemed futile and they too surrendered.
General Forrest captured almost 2300 men on Sept. 24th and 25th. Officers were paroled under terms of surrender and enlisted men were turned over to the Confederate States as prisoners of war, and were sent to Cahaba Prison. The prisoner exchange had started in the War of 1812. The rate of exchange ranged from 60 men for a general to 1 man for a private. But by a the summer of 1864 they had stopped doing this because the prisoners would just go back to the battlefields. I guess they figured if they just kept them, till the war was over or they died, that would be that many less men that they would have to fight.
On November 30, 1864, another 700 Union men were taken prisoner and sent either to Cahaba or Andersonville Prisons, Andersonville being the worst. Conditions in the prison camps claimed the lives of approximately 26,436 Confederate and 22,576 Union solders, most dying from malnutrition, disease and violence.
Andersonville Prison was 27 acres, most of which was swamp and was enclosed by a pine stockade fence 20 feet high. With two more fences surrounding the first. There was a dead zone 10 feet from the fence and if you crossed it you were shot and killed. There were as many as 32,889 prisoners crowded into this prison. Most if not all the men had no shelter and were dressed in rags and endured all kinds of weather. There wasn't any protection from the rain, snow, or heat. Deaths ranged from 90 to 130 persons.
Cahaba Prison (which will be the subject of my next book report) was an old cotton and corn shed measuring 193x116 feet. There was also a fence around it. And within these walls were over 3000 prisoners. At the time Army regulations stated that each man was to have 42 square feet of living space. These men had less then 6. Andersonville had less then 4 feet per man. There was a small trough like gutter that ran through the prison, which was the only source of water, to be used for drinking, cooking, and bathing. The men were given 10-12 ounces of corn meal that included cob and husks, and 5-7 ozs. of bacon or beef that was usually rotten. In February of 1865 the Alabama River flooded the prison. The men were left to stand in freezing water up to their waists for 4 days and nights.
Also at that time the north began exchanging prisoners, letting the sick and disabled ones go first because they knew they would not be sent back to the front lines. On March 20th, a group of soldiers that were to be exchanged from Andersonville, were marched to a train that was to go to Alabama. Taken with a group from Cahaba they were sent to Vicksburg, Mississippi, where the Office of Exchange was located. After arriving in Vicksburg the men were housed at Camp Fisk about 4 miles out of town. Here they would begin the paper work for discharge. During March and April this camp received over 5000 prisoners. Even though they were being exchanged they were still under control of the Confederate Army. When the exchange was finalized the men would go by steamer and train to Camp Chase in Ohio, where they would be granted there discharge papers.
On April 12 the Sutana was inspected and found sound to carry the men north. On the 16th the steamer was headed for Vicksburg where the Union prisoners were being held. Capt. Mason felt that his boat was entitled to a load of passengers because his boat belonged to the Merchants and Peoples line which held a contract with the government for transporting troops and freight. The military was offering $5.00 for each enlisted man and $10 for each officer. Mason was in much need of money as he had sold off most of his shares in the boat, starting out with 3/8ths interest he was down to owning only 1/16th. Everything he owned was invested in this small share. Mason intended to use what ever influence he could to make sure the Sultan won a large number of prisoners for transport to the north. When he arrived in Vicksburg, to make sure that he had a full load of men he made deals with a Ruben Hatch who was a Lieutenant Colonel assigned to duty as Chief Quartermaster. And Brig. General Morgan Smith was commander of the post. Just months before Ruben Hatch had used the influence of his brother, who was the Illinois Secretary of state and personal friend and advisor to Pres. Lincoln to get out of a court marshal. He had been in charge of buying things and would charge the government more than what he was paying and keep the difference. He had been keeping a double set of records.
Mason then headed to New Orleans where he advertised for passengers. They left with 250 passengers and crew. When the Sultana was 10 hours south of Vicksburg the Chief engineer discovered steam escaping from a small crack in one of the boilers. The leak was bad enough that he refused to go any further than Vicksburg unless the crack was repaired. While the Sultana was heading to Vicksburg at a much slower speed, the Confederates finally agreed to parole the men from Camp Fisk and ordered Capt. Fredrick Speed, the Assistant Adjutant General, to start preparing the rolls for the men as quickly as possible. He was also instructed to place 1000 soldiers on each of the regular steamers docking at Vicksburg. There were 2 shipping companies competing for transport rights. One was the Merchants and People line that owned the Sultana and the other was the Atlantic and Mississippi Steamboat line. The first boat to pull into port was the Harry Ames, owned by M&P line. Originally to have 800 prisoners, it left with 1300. The next boat, the Olive Branch from the A&M line, left with 700 men onboard. After the Olive Branch pulled out of port Capt. Speed accused a Capt. Kern, the assistant quartermaster in charge of river transportation, of taking money and detaining prisoners until a ship from the M&P showed up. Capt. Kerns had been ordered to report to Capt. Speed when the ships came in. The Olive Branch came in at 1 a.m. on April 23 and it was not reported to Capt. Speed until 9 a.m. Kerns had given the report to Rubin Hatch, who was suppose to give it to Speed. Remember that Hatch was one of the people Mason had made a deal with. Hatch did not give the report to Speed as he was trying to give the Sultana time to get into port. With Sultana holding a contract she would be given passengers before the other boats. The Sultana finally docked at 8:45 that evening. The local boilermaker, R.G. Taylor, was called to check and repair the boilers as soon as possible. He found a large bulge in the seam of the middle boiler. Taylor told the Capt. that for safety 2 sheets of the boiler needed to be replaced. The Capt. said that would take too long, he wanted to leave as soon as possible. Taylor told him that if he wouldn't let him do it properly he would not do it at all, and walked off the ship. The chief engineer Wintringer followed him and convinced him to come back and Capt. Mason persuaded Taylor to limit repairs to just a patch about 26"x11" and promised that they would get it fixed properly when they reached St. Louis. Taylor told them that the bulge needed to be forced back before the patch could be put on, but he was not allowed to do that. The patch was fitted over the bulge. Even with doing just this minor repair it took over 20 hours to complete. Wintringer approved Taylors work. Taylor, with 28 years of experience, is on record as stating that he did not consider the boilers to be safe after the limited repairs, and that all the boilers on the Sultana appeared to have been burned by insufficient water supply.
Since the Sultana had arrived within hours of the Olive Branch leaving, the rolls for only about 3 to 4 hundred men had been completed. This was hardly worth Mason's time. So he paid another visit to Hatch and later met with Capt. Speed. Speed told Mason that if he could wait another day or two he would be given all the men he could carry. He needed that much time to complete the rolls. Mason was still not satisfied and went to see Gen. Smith, who had also promised him all the passengers he could carry. While there he met Capt. Williams, who was the Commissary of musters at Vicksburg. Mason threatened to file a complaint in Washington against the exchange office for giving prisoners to an un-contracted steamer, the Olive Branch. Williams told Mason that they wanted to get the matter over with and suggested that the rolls could be completed once the men were on board.( NOTE: THIS IS THE MAIN REASON THAT THERE WAS NOT A CORRECT COUNT FOR THE NUMBER OF MEN ON BOARD AT THE TIME OF THE EXPLOSION.) They sent for Capt. Speed and asked if he thought this was possible. Speed objected to this, but William's won over Speed and it was decided that all remaining prisoners, between 1300 and 1400 men be shipped on the Sultana.
Speed and William's went to the camp to ensure that men were boarding on the trains that would take them into Vicksburg. By April 24th 2000 men had already been shipped north. Because of Speeds failure to prepare the rolls in advance there was a miscalculation in the number of men left at the camp. The actual number was more like 2400 instead of 1300 or 1400
That same day another ship, the Lady Gay, owned by the same line as the Sultana, came into port. The Lady Gay could also hold more passengers. Capt. Kerns felt that with such a large number of prisoners left that they should be divided between the two ships. He approached Hatch about this matter, asking if they should detain the Lady Gay. A telegram was sent to Speed at Camp Fisk asking this question. Hatch received notice that all the men should be put on one boat, the Sultana. The Lady Gay left port at noon that day with NO PASSENGERS.
Speed stayed at the camp to make sure the men were loaded on the trains. Williams went to the boat to keep track of the number of men that boarded. 570 men arrived on the first train and joined about 398 men that were already on board. William's assumed they were from the hospitals. At this time there were already about 968 men on board a boat that had a legal capacity of 376.
Kerns asked the steamers first clerk, Gamble how many were on board and was told 1000 with 500 more expected. He then asked if he thought that was too many. Gamble said the boat could safely accommodate all the men. Meanwhile Capt. Williams met with the assistant quartermaster under Hatch and was informed that Speed was receiving $.50 a head for furnishing men to one of the steamboats lines. There was no proof that Speed had taken any bribes. But it was made know after the accident, that it was Tillinghast the man that accused Speed, had been the one that had actually been bribed.
The second train arrived with 400 men and Capt. William's was not at the docks when this train arrived and these men were never counted. At 3p.m. another ship, the Pauline Carroll arrived in port. Kerns was still convinced that there were too many men for one ship. Hatch again was asked to send another telegram to Speed, and was again told that all the men go on one ship the Sultana. Kerns stated he would not have anything more to do with the matter. But he then went to General Smith to protest again. Smith said Kerns could detain the Pauline Carroll, but the ships captain said he couldn't wait because he was behind schedule, unless they could guarantee that troops would be loaded. Kerns went aboard the Sultana and talked to Capt. Mason, who said they had 1000 and expected only about 600 more and the ship had carried more men than that in the past.
The last train arrived with about 800 men and were loaded on the Sultana. Kerns confronted Capt. Speed, again Speed insisted that there was enough room and since most of the rolls had been prepared for the troops to travel together, that's the way it was going to be. But one must remember that earlier it had been decided that the rolls would be completed after the men were on the ship. Speed later said that he questioned Capt. Williams and it was he who said there was enough room. Several other officers also expressed their concerns of over crowding. Even some of the prisoners complained that they were packed on every part of the ship like hogs, not even given as much space as they were given on slave ships. But most of the men were more then willing to suffer the over crowding, after all they were on their way home. In the end the Pauline Carroll left port with only 17 passengers.
After all the troops were loaded Speed was informed that the head count was 1996. It was stated that the Sultana was carrying the largest number of passengers ever carried upriver on a single vessel. When Wm. Gambrel, the first clerk and part owner of the ship was approached he remarked "if they arrived safely in Cairo it would be the greatest trip ever made on the western waters." He stated that there were 2400 soldiers, 100 citizens, and about 80 crew members, in all over 2500. The ship also carried freight which included 250 hogsheads of sugar each weighing over 1200 pounds, and 97 cases of wine. Also on the main deck were 70 to 100 mules and horses and 100 pigs. The strangest cargo of all was the crews pet, a large alligator, that was kept in a wooden create.
At 9p.m. the Sultana pulled out of Vicksburg. At 6:30 p.m. on the 26th she docked in Memphis. Here they unloaded the sugar and wine. Then at 11 p.m. went across the river and loaded 1000 bushels of coal.
At 2 a.m. the boat was about seven miles from Memphis traveling mid-stream at her normal speed of about 9 miles an hour . Because the river was flooded it measured about 4 miles across. At this exact time 3 of the 4 boilers exploded. The blast tore through the decks above the boilers sending boiler fragments, pipes, brick, and machinery through the upper decks like shrapnel. In addition to debris the explosion caused a spray of scalding steam and boiling water to rain back down on the passengers. Many people were thrown off the boat, many jumped and hundreds were trapped between the collapsed decks. People used anything they could get there hands on to stay afloat. Bails of straw, chunks of wood, there is even an account of someone using dead horses.
Since they were about 2 miles from shore it was very hard for people to tell which way they were going or even where the shore was. One can only imagine the chaos and fright that these men and women felt. Some that were strong enough to make it to shore spent the rest of the night perched in trees waiting for daylight and someone to rescue them. Remember that it was only April and it was still very cold even for the South. The book goes into great detail with first hand accounts from men that survived.
The red glow of the fire could be seen 7 miles away in Memphis. The boat was still floating with the current as it continued to burn. At 3 p.m. the steamboat Bastonia II arrived and started pulling people from the river and throwing anything that would float into the water for people to cling to. Soon other steamers and boats came to the rescue. One being the Tyler which sent out its life boats. One of the people credited with saving 40 to 50 lives was Francis Ackley, the wife of the acting ensign of the Tyler. In 1902 Congress passed a private bill awarding her a $20 a month pension for her heroic efforts. A PERSONAL NOTE:I think that it was wonderful that the Government awarded this woman and probably many other like her. But you should remember that Andrew's wife Mary was awarded only $8 a month according to his pension records and her husband fought in the war for 3 years, was held Prisoner of War for over 5 months and died in the explosion.
The rescue went on for many hours, and bodies were pulled from the river for many weeks following the explosion. The highest estimate of the death toll is 1547 and the lowest is 1238. It is estimated that they rescued 757 people from the river and at least 300 of these died within days, of burns and wounds and exposure.
On April 30 the first of several investigations was started. Several persons testified as to how many people were on board, and still no one came to the same figure twice. Someone testified that it was sabotaged, as they found what appeared to be fragments of an artillery shell in the remains. R.G. Taylor, who repaired the Sultans boiler, testified that Capt. Mason would only let him do so much repair to the boiler and promised to have them done properly when they reached St. Louis.
Then the issue of bribes came up. Where the steamboat companies were offering $.50 a head to army personnel to ensure that they would get as many of these men as possible. Earlier I mentioned that the Army was paying the shipping lines $5.00 a head for soldiers. Lets do the math 1547 x $5.00=$7,735. 1547x.50=773.50, for the men that accepted bribes, $7,735.00-$773.50=$6961.50 for the steamship owners. Not much money when you consider all the lives that were lost.
Lt. Wm. Tillinghash implicated Fredric Speed, as being bribed to hold prisoners at Camp Fisk for the Pauline Carroll, claiming that is why he protested that the men could not be ready for the Sultana because the rolls weren't done yet. Speed testified that he only knew of 2 trains going into Vicksburg with a total of 1400 men. That's why he claimed that all of them could go on 1 boat. Speed denied that he had chosen the Sultana, stated that it had been Ruben Hatch's decision. He also denied that anyone had offered him money in exchange for prisoners.
After many investigations it was concluded that: the explosion was caused by insufficient water supply to the boiler, which they held the engineer Wintringer responsible and tried to revoke his license. This order was ignored and blame was placed on Sam Clemens who was on duty at the time of the explosion but who died afterwards. Capt. Mason was blamed for the over crowding but he also died. Rubin Hatch was relieved of his duties, being found mentally unqualified to be a quartermaster. But not before he managed to have allegedly stole $8,542 of government funds.
Fredrick speed was the only man that was actually tried for the disaster. Charges were: #1. over loading the boat #2. not splitting up the men and letting them go on the Pauline Carroll or Lady Gay thus causing their deaths. After several delays the trial finally ended on June 5th, 1866. Speed was found guilty on all charges. He was sentenced to dismissal from the service. However, Speeds file was turned over to Brig. Gen. J. Holt, the Judge Advocate General of the Army, for review. He saw fit to clear Speed of all charges, and he was honorably discharged on Sept. 1, 1866. Speed, following his discharge, studied law and became a criminal court judge.
Many people, myself included, had never heard of this tragedy, mainly because there was so much happening at the time. The war had just ended. Newspapers were still writing about the cessation. Pres. Lincoln had been shot and killed. John Wilkes Booth had been killed the same day the Sultana reached Memphis.
In 1885 the Sultana Association was formed by the survivors in Fostoria, Ohio. They petitioned Congress to allocate funds for a monument and requisition a pension for each survivor. 25 years later nothing had been done. On January 6, 1896, 31 years after the destruction, a bill was introduced to Congress. It would provide a pension for all the survivors, and widows and children of the victims. The House of Representatives referred the bill to the Committee on Invalid Pension and ordered it to be printed. There is no evidence, though that it was ever returned to the House for further action.
On July 4, 1916, at Mount Olive Cemetery, near Knoxville, a group of survivors from the East Tennessee Sultana survivor association, unveiled a monument with the following words carved in stone. "In memory of the men who were on the sultana that was destroyed April 27, 1865, by explosion on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee." On the back of this are the names of 365 Tennesseans who were on board.