Terror on the Mississippi: The Sultana Disaster, Part I: After some research

» FortBrooke1824 - After some research

There was a claim that a former Confederate threw explosives in the coal but it turned out to nothing more than a rumor.

Engineers both in that time and this modern day have claimed that such an horrid distaster probably did result from the boilers pressure.

The Sultana had left New Orleans for Vicksburg. While in port the crew had noticed that the boilers had been leaking and were repaired in a make shift kind of way.

At Vicksburg the Sultana took on the bulk of her passengers. Because everyone wanted to hurry the muster roll was taken on board the Sultana instead of on land where a record would also be left behind. This would be a mistake. If something were to happen to the Sultana no one would know exactly who was and who was not on board. The next stop was Memphis on April 26th.

At Memphis many soldiers got off as did passengers. But the crew again did a make shift repair of her boilers. J.C. Mason was the captain of the Sultana and by all reports he was an able and careful skipper.

The next stop after Memphis would have been Cario, IL followed by Evansville,IL and then Louisville,KY and finally Cincinnati,OH. So the soldiers droppped off at Cincy would have taken a train to Camp Chase if indeed their destination was Columbus, OH. I would assume that the soldiers dropped off at Evansville would have gone to Camp Harrision in Indianapolis. But in any event the soldiers were to be dropped off in many different locations.

According to one soldiers account of the Sultana disaster there was even a ten foot alligator on board, in a wooden crate. The soldier shot the alligator and then threw the crate into the river and used it as a float for awhile. Seems a little far fetched by thats his story.

As far as the Sultana not making the papers there are a couple of more possible reasons. One would be the army did not want this disaster to be widly spread. It's not very good PR when you lose so many lives. The second would be that more of the influential newspapers were back East. And this had been a Western news story and it affected those mostly in the West.

-- posted by FortBrooke1824