I first became interested in the Sultana will doing some Genealogy research on my husdand side of the family. Will doing this research I discovered that he had a several great grandfather that may have been on the Sultana when she went down. Having never heard of the Sultana I purchased a copy of Jerry O Potter The Sultana Tragedy; America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster and later Gene Eric Salecker, Disaster on the Mississippi. I could not believe what had happen and nothing about it was ever being mention in history class in school. With help from members of the Sultana Mailing list at Rootsweb in finding resources I wrote the following persuasive essay for a College English assignment.
Have also discover since from pension records my husband several great grandfather Truman Jackson member of Company G 95th Ohio Infantry died on the Sultana when she went down. Judy

You will not find this a great piece of Literary art however, hope you enjoy

The Sultana

by Judy Jackson

The Sultana was a steamboat that was build to hold three hundred seventy six passengers and her crew. She blew up in 1865 near Memphis Tennessee carrying roughly two thousand three hundred passengers. Why was a boat design to carry only three hundred seventy six passengers so overloaded? Was it neglect, greed or a rush to get these men home or a combination of all three?

In order to have an idea of what is going on you need to have a little understanding of the events and history surrounding the Sultana.

The Sultana began in 1862 at a boat yard in Cincinnati, Ohio. She was roughly two hundred sixty feet in length and was design for speed. Her paddle wheels were power by steam generated in four tubular boilers. This was a design that was new for steamboats built during this time. The Sultana was design for speed and the New Orleans trade. The Sultana design was one of the finest for that era. In February of 1863, the Sultana was launch into the Ohio to begin her journey. She was to carry seventy-six cabin passengers, three hundred deck passengers and her crew.

Many men on the Sultana that fateful night were in bad condition from their stay in Andersonville prison located in Georgia and Cahaba prison in Alabama.

Cahaba (or Castle Morgan) prison was design to hold roughly several hundred prisoners. At one time, the prison contained several thousand or more men. The only place for fresh water was a polluted stream that ran from the town of Cahaba. Due to this over crowding, the Confederacy decided to open Andersonville prison near Andersonville Georgia and close down Cahaba. However, due to the number of prisoners taken during the Civil War Cahaba remain open. It was home for close to three thousand Union soldiers according to Gene Eric Salecker, Disaster in the Mississippi (14).

Andersonville prison was considered one of the worst prisons located in the South. In Jerry O. Potter book, The Sultana Tragedy, the prison was contained on twenty-seven acres (12). Depending on the number of prisoners, this could have “meant that each man had less than four square yards of living space” (Potter 12). According to the Qvid L. Futch, History of Andersonville Prison, roughly thirty-two thousand eight hundred ninety-nine prisoners were at one time in the prison (44). Almost thirteen thousand men died by wars end at the prison camp due to the conditions (Potter 15).

The men did not have shelter to get out of the elements. Each man originally received raw rations, which had to be cook. However, firewood became scare. When they received cooked rations, it was in smaller amounts. Pure water was another problem. The water supply became so contamated that it was unfit to use, but, since it was the only source the prisoners used it. This caused sickness and severe weight loss in the men. The dead toll was high, with the largest number on any one-day listed as one hundred twenty-seven (Futch 44). Many of these prisoners arrive in Vicksburg weighting only ninety pounds or less (Potter 14). The conditions of the men helped contribute to the high death toll when the Sultana exploded. In addition, to this writer, it may have also contributed to the rush to get these men back to their families.

Around April of 1865, the prisoners from Andersonville and Cahaba were to be parole and sent to Vicksburg, Mississippi. There were several officers in charge, which were to handle the paroled Federal prisoners in Vicksburg. These men were General Napoleon J. T. Dana, Captain George A. Williams, Captain Frederic Speed, Lt. Col. Reuben B. Hatch and Captain William F. Kerns. Several of these men were later to have allegations of bribery brought against them. Captain Speed was order to take rolls of each man, as they arrived as quickly as possible. The number was so great that it took time to have this done, and in the end, the rolls were to be finished on the Sultana. The rolls however was never finished which resulted in many men not counted.

Two different line The Atlantic and Mississippi Steamboat Line and The Merchants’ and People line were competing in transporting the Federal prisoners out of Vicksburg. The first steamboat the “Henry Ames” was to take roughly eight hundred prisoners but ended up with nearly one thousand three hundred men. The “Olive Branch” arrived and left the same day with seven hundred soldiers. It was right after this that Captain Speed made allegations of bribery against Captain Kerns. Captain Speed was claiming that Captain Kerns was not informing him when boats were arriving.

The Sultana soon arrived and the rolls for three hundred to four hundred men were completed. The Captain of the Sultana, J. Cass Mason wanted as many men as he could possibly get. The army was paying five dollars for enlisted men and ten dollars for officers to transport north. He was inform by Captain Speed that he might be able to have around seven hundred men if he would wait another day. However, Captain Mason wanted more.

One reason he felt he was due more men was that he was a member of the Merchants and People’s line that had a contract with the government for services during the Civil War. Another reasoning was that he was a part owner of the steamboat. In 1864 he owned three-eights interest but by 1865 only one-sixteenth. (Potter 45). This was suggesting he was maybe having financial problems.

There were several different meetings with Captain Mason and certain members of the military over Captain Mason wanting more passengers on his boat. Captain Mason also made the charge that Captain Speed was delaying in getting all the paroled prisoners to his boat for “pecuniary consideration had been offered per capita for the detention of men and shipment of them on the other lines.” The above statement came from a report by Major General Napoleon J. T. Dana, United States Army written in Vicksburg, May 8, 1865 (The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies 211). General Dana after these charges had been brought to his attention ordered that all men be loaded onto the Sultana. He had asked both Captain Speed and Captain Williams if the boat could handle this load and they had inform him that it would.

Captain Mason had never mentioned to anyone connected with the military that the Sultana had to have her boilers repaired when she first arrived in Vicksburg on April 23^rd. The chief engineer sought out a local boilermaker, named R. G. Taylor. Mr. Taylor then was told the boiler had given out. The boilermaker found that a bulge had developed on one of the boilers. Mr. Taylor wanted to replace the boiler but Captain Mason only wanted him to patch them for it would not take as much time and delay his leaving Vicksburg. Mr. Taylor did make some repairs but was not allow to do some of the work he felt was necessary. Such as forcing the bulge back, that had developed. He was only allowed to cover it with a patch. This again was to speed up the repair so the streamer would not be delay in her leaving Vicksburg. At the time of the repair, Mr. Taylor “knew that the bulge should have been cut out entirely, not just covered up (Salecker 51). He also “felt that the safety of the boilers had been further compromised by their constant use with little waters in them, a very dangerous practice on any type of boiler. For some unknown reason, Taylor said nothing to the engineer about his feelings (Salecker 52). In fact, Mr. Taylor went on record later during an inquiry saying that he felt the boilers to be thorough and if permanent that two sheets adjoining the leak should “have been taken out, and that in its then condition it was not perfect” (War of the Rebellion 216).

Captain Kerns went to several of his fellow officers and tried to get some of the men placed on another larger streamer the “Lady Gay”. He was he again told that all prisoners would be transported on the Sultana. When the “Lady Gay” pulled out from Vicksburg, she did not carry one paroled man. Another streamer The “Pauline Carroll” arrived and Captain Kern requested putting some of the men on this boat. Again, Captain Kerns was inform that there was enough room on the Sultana.

Members of the military had several complains leveled against them by engineers of the trains that hauled the paroled prisoners to Vicksburg over the way they were overloading the men onto the train. Some of the men even complained over how they were loaded onto the train and again when they found the ship so overloaded. In a report made by Retired Brigadier General William Hoffman United States Army, to the Office of the Commissary General of Prisoners May 19, 1865, he stated that “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 crowded together in great discomfort on one boat when another equally good was lying alongside willing to take them” (War of the Rebellion 215).

When the streamer finally left Vicksburg on April 24, she carried roughly two thousand three hundred people. She arrived at Memphis on April 26 leaving later that night. Around 2:20 a.m. on April 27, her boiler gave way creating a disaster that that took the lives of more than eighteen hundred soldiers, as well as woman and children. It also inflicted untold injuries on many others. Those not killed outright died from exposure to the cold waters of the Mississippi, the inability to swim and the terrible burns suffered in the explosion and fire.

The Military held an inquiry after the tragedy. Many of these reports from this inquiry are located in The War of the Rebellion. Again in a report from William Hoffman Retired Brigadier General he stated “ Upon a careful consideration of all the facts as presented in the testimony here with 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” (215). He went on later to say the following officers Captain Williams, Captain Speed, Colonel Hatch and Captain Kerns “were responsible for the embarkation of so large a number of troops on an unsuitable vessel” (215).

The only person who faced trial was Captain Speed. He was charged with, “Neglect of duty to the prejudice of good order and military discipline” (War of the Rebellion 217). Captain Speed was found guilty and sentenced to be removed from the military.

When his file was forward to Brigadier General Joseph Holt, judge advocate general of the United States Army, he cleared Captain Speed of all charges. Those that he did blame he tried to justify why they acted the way they did. He went on to say that there was no evidence that the overcrowding was a cause for the accident and mentions that the engineer felt the boilers were sufficiently repairs.

In the end no was ever held responsible for the deaths that occurred on the Sultana and the government officially ended their involvement in the accident.

Some of military officials in charge should have been held accountable for their action. First, there was no need for the Sultana to be so overloaded. The crowding was so bad that if the soldier all moved to one side she was in danger of tipping over. Mention had been made that the men could hardly move around on her deck or even lay down.

The “Lady Gay” and the “Pauline Carroll” were both in port. Both steamboats left with none of the paroled soldiers on them. Why, was there such a need to put them all onto one boat? To this writer it points to that fact that maybe bribery was going on with some of the officers in charge. It has also been mentioned in a Report made by Major General Cadwallader C. Washburn, United States Army, commanding District of West Tennessee May 23, 1865 “ There appears to have been a general suspicion on both sides that bribery was being used. Each party was accusing the other, but there is not proof to sustain such accusation or suspicions. All the parties belonging to the boat who were in any wise responsible for the disaster lost their lives at the time of the explosion or have since died” (War of the Rebellion 213). True during wartime the need of transporting men from one area to another in a hurry, passenger limits was sometimes overlook. This was not the case with the Sultana however.

Secondly, was Captain Mason looking to turn a profit from transporting so many passengers? I mean with each man loaded onto the boat that meant anywhere from to five to ten dollars more depending on a man’s rank.

According to records, the boilers had not been repaired, as they should have been. Was this because only what was needed to be fixed was done or was it the need to get under way in a hurry? According to the boilermaker contacted in Vicksburg, he was not allowed to make the repairs that needed to be done. Claims were made that Captain Mason wanted to get under way as fast as he could. The chief engineer of the Sultana claimed that the boilers were not having any problems and were full of water when the explosion occur.

. Who is telling the truth? Is each party trying to cover-up their involvement? The answer will truly never be known. These facts went down with the Sultana and the men that were kill on her.

Each person can read the facts about the Sultana and will have to make up their own mind. The one fact that remains is over one thousand eight hundred men, women and children lost their lives to a little greed, a little neglect and the rush to return these men back to their families.

It is a shame when Civil War history is taught, in our schools that the Sultana accident cannot have a small place in the history book. It is a story that needs to be told as will as remember.

Works Cited

Futch, Ovid L., History of Andersonville Prison. University Press of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 1968

Potter, Jerry O., The Sultana Tragedy; America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster. Pelican Publishing Company, Inc., Gretna, Louisiana, 1992

Salecker, Gene Eric, Disaster on the Mississippi. Naval Institute Press Annapolis, Maryland, 1996

United States, War. Dept., United States, Record and Pension Office, United States, War Records Offices, The War of the Rebellion: a Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies. Series 1 Volume (Part I) Government Printing Office, Washington D.C. 1896 located at the Cornell University Library Making of America. http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/moa/moa_search.html

Other Sources Consulted

Andersonville Prison and the Steamboat Sultana’s Explosion By Isaac Noah Davenport Url http://web.utk.edu/~ddonahue/turner/gt-c15c.htm

“Plague Would Note Sultana’s Hellish End” Enquirer Local News Coverage April 16, 1999 URL http://enquirer.com/editions/1999/04/16/loc_plaque_would_note.html

The Sinking of the Steamship Sultana near Memphis, Tennessee Ur; http://www.ionet.net/~cousin/dale4.html

The Sultana Disaster, April 27, 1865 Url http://home.flash.net/~gsheilds/Sultana.html

The Sultana Disaster: Titanic of the Mississippi Url http://www.uoguelph.ca/~dbergero/design.html

Thomas B. Reeves Url http://www.rapidnet.comn/~greg/Tom/

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March 8, 2001