The Sultana, a side-paddle steamboat, is shown above, obviously overloaded. The boat sank in the Mississippi River near Marion, Ark., across the river from Memphis, Tenn., in 1865. (Photo Provided)

In the early hours of April 27, 1865, mere days after the end of the Civil War, the Sultana burst into flames along the Mississippi River. The Sultana was a 260-foot-long wooden steamboat, built in Cincinnati in 1863, which regularly transported passengers and freight between St. Louis and New Orleans on the Mississippi River.

On April 23, 1865, the vessel docked in Vicksburg to address issues with the boiler during a routine journey from New Orleans. While in port, it was contracted by the U.S. government to carry former Union prisoners of war from Confederate prisons, such as Andersonville and Cahaba, back into Northern territory. In order to fulfill the lucrative contract, J. Cass Mason, the Sultana’s captain, opted to patch the leaky boiler rather than complete more extensive and time-consuming repairs. Fearing that his colleagues were taking bribes to transport prisoners on other boats, Union Army Captain George Williams, who oversaw the operation, hastily ordered that all former prisoners at the parole camp and hospital at Vicksburg be transported on the Sultana. Although it was designed to hold only 376 persons, more than 2,000 Union troops were crowded onto the steamboat — more than five times its designed carrying capacity. Despite concerns of overloading from several officers, Williams refused to divide the men, insisting that they travel on one vessel.

The Sultana steamed north up the Mississippi, but the severe overcrowding and faster river current caused by the spring thaw put increased pressure on its newly patched boilers. Shortly after leaving Memphis, Tenn. on April 27, the overstrained boilers exploded, blowing apart the center of the boat and starting an uncontrollable fire. Many of those who were not killed immediately perished as they tried to swim to shore. Of the initial survivors, 200 later died from burns sustained during the incident. Researchers indicate that 1,195 of the 2,200 passengers and crew died, making the Sultana incident the deadliest maritime disaster in U.S. history.

Despite its significance, the Sultana has been overlooked in history because it was overshadowed at the time by the surrender of General Robert E. Lee as well as the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the search for his murderer. These events at the end of the Civil War conspired to wipe the memory of this tragic event from our national history for over 130 years before it was brought back to light. In its magnitude, the story of the Sultana is as great as that of the more famous Titanic, and yet much more intriguing.

A book about the tragedy, Loss of the Sultana and Remembrances of Survivors, written by a survivor, was published in 1892. The Sultana Association was formed and holds an annual reunion, in hopes of drawing attention to the tragedy and the lives of those involved. A museum is being created in Marion, Ark.

Websites can be accessed by merely typing “sultana disaster” into your search engine.

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Bob Enoch is president of the Wood County Historical and Preservation Society. If you have comments or questions about Look Back items, please contact him at: roberteenoch@gmail.com, or by mail at WCHPS, PO Box 565, Parkersburg, WV 26102.