The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1888-05-08
THE sUITAyA DISASTER.
A Tragedy of the War EIpIaInsd-HOW the
vessel was Blown Up.

vessel was bloWn Ups
ST. LOUIS, May THE awful explo-
sion on the steamer sultana, near Mem
phis, twenty.three years ago, in which
nearly two thousand Union soldiers lost
their lives, has always been a mystery.
The survivors Of their reunions have
recently made number OF statement
regarding the affair, but the most sensa-
tional story has been told by q resident
OF this city, VIM. C. streetor.
His statement fixes the explosion as
the result Of design. He claims that q
noted Confederate blockade runner and
mail carrier named Robert Lowden, bet
ter known during the war as Charles
Dale, was the author OF the terrible
disaster.
Eyes, I know something about the
Sultana disaster" said Mr.. Streetor, in
reply to an inquiry. 81 can give the
cause Of explosion. A torpedo inclosed
in lump Of coal was carried aboard the
steamer at Memphis and deposited in the
coal pile in front OF the boilers for the
express purpose OF causing her destruc-
ton. The man who placed the torpedo
on the boat is my authority, for had
the statement from his own lips. He
was notorious Confederate mail carrier
and blockade runner, was captured some
five or six times, and once, at least, was
sentenced to death by military COM
mission in this city.
Toward the close Of the war, II will
be remembered, President Lincoln is
sued an order tnat no one should be ex-
ecuted under military laws until the SEN
tence had been confirmed by the Presi-
dent. It was while awaiting contirma-
ton OF the sentence that he escaped
from the military prison in this city and
made his way South, where he remained
until after the close OF the war. his
friends obtained pardon for him from
President johnson, and, armed with
that, he returned to his home in st.
Louis. 1t was after his return home
that he told me the story OF how he
smuggled the torpedo on board the Sui
tana, His real name was Robert Lowden,
but he was always known in the city by
his alias, Charlie Dale. He was paint
er by trade, and he worked in the same
shop with me for William H. Gray, some
three years after the close Of the war.
DALE's DARING.
"Dale was at that time a young, vigor-
GUS, daredevil. He possessed bravery
Of a certain kind, think, equal to that
Of any man who ever lived. He was
cool and calculating in his disposition,
but at times he drank heavily, and when
in his cups was disposed to talk little
too much for man with record like he
had. 1t was while he was drinking one
day that he and got to talking about
the war and the burning OF so many
boats by the Confederate agents came
up in the course OF the conversation.
He told me had fired no less than half
a dozen steamboats, on the Mississippi.
! asked him in an of.hand way what
he knew about the Sultana explosion.
Then he told me the story ofthe torpedo
in the coal, and, using his own express
sion, 1t had got to be too -ticklish a
job to set boat a fire and get away
from her.
"0ut Of a hundred other OF Dale's dar-
ing exploits during the war one in par
ticular impressed me Us showing the
character OF this remarkable man. 1t
was accomplished while the Federal
feet was lying between Memphis and
Vicksburg. Dale had escaped from
prison in this city, and was on his way
South. He was in quandary for sew
eral days as to how he was going to get
through the Federal lines. Finally he
hit upon plan and it was successful.
He got coffin at Memphis, calked it
up with white lead, aud launched it on
the Mississippi. Then he laid himself
out in the ghastly looking boat and
hoated down the stream. He passed the
Government gunboats at night, and two
or three times when the current Of the
stream drifted the coffin up against the
hulls OF the boats he reached out with
his hands, pushed his craft clear, and
landed in the morning safe within the
Confederate lines.
Before the war Dale was a member OF
the old Liberty Volunteer fire company
in this city and was well known to a
great many people living here now. He
died in New Orleans during the yellow
fever epidemic along in the latter part
OF the '60s. But to return to the Sui.
tana explosion. have read carefully
all the information l could find about
it, and from the character OF the ex-
plosion have been led to believe that
Charley Dale's story Of the torpedo is
true"