Steamboat Disasters - Encyclopedia of Arkansas [4]:2931, Leaving Vicksburg, Sultana traveled downriver to New Orleans, continuing to spread the news of Lincoln's assassination. (Post-Dispatch), The Golden Eagle heads downstream at St. Louis on May 14, 1940. Explosion and Burning of the Steamboat Teche on the Mississippi River, May 5, 1825. I gave only short shrift to the coal-torpedo sabotage theory. The boat was loaded with passengers, mostly from Mississippi and Louisiana, headed to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras. [21], Two years earlier, in May 1886, came a claim that 2nd Lt. James Worthington Barrett, an ex-prisoner and passenger on the steamboat, had caused the explosion. Probably the most interesting of the wrecks are Vessel No. What the reader needs to know is that Captain Hatch, who had been corrupt throughout the war, would not have been there if not for some influential friends and relatives in the government, including President Abraham Lincoln. William "Buck" Lehye, who sold the Golden Eagle one year before, and Mrs. Frank Lind, a lifelong fancier of steamboat travel. Bates, both eight-footers, arrive a, On April 18, 1949, at Verhagen Hall at St. Louis University a priest just back from a year of study at Harvard completed an exorcism after hea. In writing my first few books I literally had to go to the U.S., state, and military archives to do my research. Fogelman's ancestors didn't have any boats to reach the trapped soldiers, so they improvised. "I understand that the Fogelmans were able to put together some logs to make a raft and go out and take people off the boat as it drifted back this way," Fogelman says. As the crew made sure the cargo was packed tightly, the captain blew the whistle. The city of Marion is the closest city to the wreck site and is also the home to a number of descendants of people who aided in the rescue of the Sultana victims. A female fan exclaimed what a lovely shade of Cardinal in reference to the trim on the new uniforms. 5) was built in February 1863, but she was used extensively throughout the last two years of the Civil War to carry Union troops and supplies on the Cumberland and the Mississippi Rivers to aid in the collapse of the Confederacy. Early western river navigation was always dangerous, but it was a necessity in order to ship supplies to U.S. Army frontier posts and civilian settlements. The official inquiry found that the boilers exploded because of the combined effects of careening, low water levels, and the faulty repair made a few days earlier.[16]. It was easier to copy everything and not use some of it than to forget to copy something and need it later on. Both groups met as close to the April 27 anniversary date as possible, corresponded with each other, and shared the title National Sultana Survivors' Association. On May 6, 1856 a steamboat named Effie Afton crashed into the bridge, destroying the steamboat as well as part of the bridge. On March 26, 1915, while the Alice Miller was laid up at Vicksburg, fire broke out in the kitchen, and the boat was destroyed. The Sultana made it only a few miles north of Memphis. tragically sunk during the civil war the sultana accident took as many lives as the titanic but has garnered far . Near midnight, Sultana left Memphis, leaving behind about 200 men. The Nick Wall, named for a noteworthy Missouri River riverboat captain, was a 338-ton sternwheel paddleboat built in 1869 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. "Lincoln had just been assassinated. [4]:164 Other vessels joined the rescue, including the steamers Silver Spray, Jenny Lind, and Pocahontas, the navy ironclad USS Essex and the sidewheel gunboat USSTyler. Captain Mason of Sultana, who was ultimately responsible for dangerously overloading his vessel and ordering the faulty repairs to her leaky boiler, had died in the disaster. Library of Congress [4]:7985, While the Sultana burned, and the men on the steamboat were either already dead or fighting for their lives, the southbound steamer Bostona (No. Since the US government was paying steamboat captains a dividend to carry the prisoners back north, Captain Hatch and the captain of the Sultana worked out a deal whereby Hatch would guarantee a large load of ex-prisoners for the Sultana in exchange for a kickback of the government funds from Captain Mason. You've read 1 out of 5 free articles of Naval History this month. Mrs. Lind's birthday cake was lost, but fellow evacuees serenaded her as morning sun warmed their island refuge. They can search material held in small, local historical societies. "They had survived prison in one of the most hideous places the South had. Introduced in 1848, they could generate twice as much steam per fuel load as conventional boilers. 1820 1830 April 21, 1838 - Oronoko Most of the passengers were asleep at the time Killed almost everyone either instantly or later from wounds it caused 109 people died 1840 Was traveling to St. Louis when it hit a snag and had several planks torn from the bottom of the boat Send to: Patrick Rash. Shipwreck found in Mississippi River near Grand Tower, Ill. - KFVS12 Effie Afton Hits the Bridge. Instead of taking two or three days, the temporary repair took only one. Potter, Jerry. [33] The museum is only temporary until enough funds can be raised to build a permanent museum. [4]:2728, Upon reaching Vicksburg, Mississippi, Mason was approached by Captain Reuben Hatch, the chief quartermaster at Vicksburg, with a proposal. PDF Download Free Sinking The Sultana A Civil War Story Of Imprison Pdf The massive steam explosion came from the top rear of the boilers. Without a pilot to steer the boat, Sultana became a drifting, burning hulk. Being so closely packed within the 48-inch (120cm) diameter boilers tended to cause the muddy sediment to form hot pockets and were extremely difficult to clean. Although sediment settled in the bottom of even the flue boilers, it was never thought to be much of a hazard. Mississippi woman dies in boat crash on the Jourdan River | Biloxi Sun Some 1,700 returning Union Veterans died. (Post-Dispatch). Through the corruption of Captain Reuben Hatch, a Union officer at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and the captain of the Sultana, James Cass Mason, those 2,000 ex-prisoners were crowded onto a boat with a legal carrying capacity of only 376 passengers. 1, a wooden model barge, and Vessel No. Barges still carry some goods on the river, but trains and trucks carry most of the freight in America. The name stuck. "We feel like we're a part of this Civil War story, but we're the conclusion that no one heard," says Lisa O'Neal, a Marion resident and member of the Sultana Historic Preservation Society. Sometimes captains accidentally ran their boats up onto the sandbars. Featured in the museum are a few relics from Sultana such as shaker plates from the boat's furnace, furnace bricks, a few pieces of wood, and some small metal pieces. As for the Sultana disaster itself, it was clearly a case of putting profit over safety. The boat and its entire cargo was a total loss. Frank Barton is the descendant of one of those Confederate soldiers, a man named Franklin Hardin Barton. Reuben Benton Hatch, an individual with a long history of corruption and incompetence, who kept his job through political connections: he was the younger brother of Illinois politician Ozias M. Hatch, an advisor and close friend of President Lincoln. Sign up to get updates about new releases and event invitations. And many of them were saved by local residents, like John Fogelman an ancestor of the city of Marion's current mayor, Frank Fogelman. The Missouri History Museum had it on display from 1962 to 1996, and preserves it in storage. He has conducted interviews with some 75 high-profile people, including historians, government officials, combat veterans, journalists, explorers, and Hollywood stars. Soldiers from Kentucky and Tennessee were among the first to die, he says, "because they'd been packed in next to the boilers. BNSF Railway says two of three locomotives and "an unknown number of cars carrying freights of all kinds" derailed onto the banks of the Mississippi River around 12:15 p.m. Crews are now working . And it was very cold. The Chicago Opera Troupe, a minstrel group that had traveled upriver on Sultana before getting off at Memphis, staged a benefit performance, while the crew of the gunboat Essex raised US$1,000 (equivalent to $17,702 in 2021) [14], In December 1885, the survivors living in the northern states of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio began attending annual reunions, forming the National Sultana Survivors' Association. The Slate Group LLC. Cape Girardeau:Later renamed the River Queen, the vessel sank in 1968. However, the explosion of her boilers just above Memphis on 27 April 1865 put a terrible end to that endeavor. The giant paddle wheel started turning faster. The temporary museum it has created near City Hall includes pictures, personal items from soldiers, pieces of the Sultana, and a 14-foot replica of the boat. DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) People living along the Mississippi River watched warily Sunday as water levels rose in southeast Iowa and northwest Illinois, awaiting spring crests as floodwaters began . Instead, Mason and his chief engineer, Nathan Wintringer, convinced the mechanic to make temporary repairs, hammering back the bulged boiler plate and riveting a patch of lesser thickness over the seam. Author Q&ADestruction of the Steamboat Sultana Considered one of them was the biggest vessel ever to sail via the world. And the boat was filled with enlisted men primarily men who really hadn't made a mark in history or a mark in life." Burning of the Orline St. John, near Montgomery, Alabama, March 2, 1850. by Kelby Ouchley Courtesy of The Historic New Orleans Collection Steamboat Princess. An interview with author Gene Eric Salecker. It seemed that profit was the driving factor for most steamboat owners and captains. Sometimes these snags stuck out of the water. The stops were reversed on the downstream journey as passengers, mail, and tons of freight including four-hundred-pound bales of cotton were loaded and unloaded. Robert Fultons steamboat is arguably the single most important invention that spawned settlement and economic expansion in nineteenth-century Louisiana. Some survivors were plucked from the tops of semi-submerged trees along the Arkansas shore. Author Q&ADestruction of the Steamboat Sultana, Fred Schultz has been in the publishing business since 1980 and was editor-in-chief of. The power of the boilers came with risk - the water levels in the fire tubes had to be carefully maintained at all times. Buried treasure: Long lost Steamboat Malta found under Missouri - KMBC Is it a good thing? Although brought up on courts-martial charges, Hatch managed to get letters of recommendation from no less reputable personages than President Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant. Find out more about what this space is all abouthere. He died in 1871, having escaped justice because of his numerous highly placed patronsincluding two presidents. yet the tragedy got very few headlines. Leyhe died in 1956 in St. Louis at 83. During her time in port, and while the repairs were being made, Sultana took on the paroled prisoners. All the examined boat wrecks were working vessels, towboats or barges, so the artifacts and other data gave a glimpse into the lives of river men on the Mississippi around the turn of the 20 th century. 2) The use of the sediment-laden Mississippi River water to feed the boilers. It was late April 1865 and more than 2,000 tired, sick, and injured men, wearing dirty and tattered clothes, filed down the bluff from Vicksburg to a steamboat waiting at the docks on the Mississippi River. Wolf River.
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