The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-27
Years Ago on the Mississippi
River Above Memphis.
CONVENTION OF THE SURVIVORS
j. II. ELLIOTT, OF THIS CITY, Is a
MEMBER OF THE ASSOCIATION.
Book That Gives Reports of the
Governments Investigation and
Stories of Men Who Escaped.

TLirty-seven years ago to-day the great
est marine disaster in history occurred.
One of the boilers of the steamboat Sui
tana, some distance north of Memphis on
the Mississippi river, exploded, the boat
was destroyed by fire and almost 1,5OO per-
sons lost their lives. The catastrophe so
impressed the survivors that they formed
an association called 1.-The Sultana Sur
vivors Association and for seventeen
years the organization has held annual re-
unions. This years meeting will be held on
next Tuesday and Wednesday at Fort
Wayne. Joseph T. Elliot president of the
Marion Trust Company is a member of
the association and will attend the meet
ing
Ten years ago the Rev. Chester y.
Berry, of Michigan, collected the stories Of
a number of survivors of the wreck and
put them into a book with the reports of
the investigation of the matter. This book
gives a detailed account of the destruction
of the Sultana. The boat was a regular st.
Louis and New Orleans packet. On April
Il, 1865, it left New Orleans and arrived at
Vicksburg with 200 passengers and it's crew
on board. There one of it's boilers was re-
paired and 1866 federal soldiers and thirty
five officers were taken on board These
men had just been released from rebel pris-
ems at Cahaba, Ala, Macon and Anderson
vile, Ga, and their homes were in Ohio
Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee. Kentucky
and West Virginia. Two companies of in
fantry under arms accompanied these re-
leased prisoners. making a total of 1900
persons on the boat.
The boat arrived at Memphis at o'clock
Of foybF
it steamed across the river to the coal
| barges, and, after taking on a supply of
fuel, started toward Cairo. At o'clock in
the morning, as the boat was passing
through a group of islands known as 1.-THE
Old Hen and Chickens" one of its boilers
burst. The deck was splintered and caught
| fire and the boat burned to the waters edge
and sank. The hundreds of men huddled
| together were forced into the water and
many of those that could swim were UNI
able to get away from those that could not.
Those that did escape owed it to the fact
that one end Of the boat sank first and the
men the other end had some time to
catch a piece of wreckage before they
! slipped into the river.
The night was pitch dark and the river,
which was swollen by the melting ice, was
three miles across. Many persons, no
doubt, persisted after they had swan to
shore because they were unable to draw
themselves UP on to the land. Others, al
ready weakened by their Imprisonment,
Gied from exposure TO the cold. Among the
passengers were twelve women, members
of the Christian Sanitary Commission. One
| of them, standing on the boat, urged the
men struggling madly in the water to be
! quiet. When the flames approached her the
men pleaded with her to jump into the
water and save herself, but she refused,
saying. 81 might lose my presence of mind
and be the means of the death of some of
you" She folded her arms and was soon
enveloped in flames.
GOVERNMENTS INQUIRY.
The secretary of war, Mr.. Stanton, in
structed Brevet Brigadier General Hoffman
| to investigate the destruction of the steam
er. He went to Memphis and learned that
court of inquiry had been held by order
of Major General Washburn, commanding
the district of West Tennessee, and by
Major General Dana. The inquiry brought
out that far too many persons had been
put aboard the Sultana. There was hardly
room for all of them to lie down at night.
The deck sagged under the weight, even
after stanchions had been set up. Four
officers were reported to be responsible for
| this condition. Besides being careless, they
had permitted the overcrowdng of the
Sultana because they resisted a bride of
fered by the captain of another boat, the
| Pauline Carroll. He was eager for some
of the governments business.
This report was different from others in
| that it said there were 1 SEQ troops on board
the boat, including thirty-three paroled Off
GERS. OF these 765, including sixteen off,
GERS, were saved, and 11O1, including nine
teen officers, were lost. There were seventy
cabin passengers and a crew of eighty-five
on board, of whom eighteen were saved.
This makes the total loss 1.23S.
n. Wintringer chief engineer of the Sui
tana, made this statement regarding the
catastrophe: ION our arrival al Vicksburg
we were ordered to carry north load of
paroled prisoners, who, 1 believe, were from
Andersonville and Libby prisons. While
at Vicksburg we repaired a boiler. 1t was
| claimed by some al the time that this boiler
was not properly repaired and that this
was the cause of the explosion. In short
time the boilers were recovered and the one
that had been repaired at Vicksburg was
found in good condition, whole and intact.
and it was one of the other three that
I caused the explosion. Now, what did cause
this explosion? The explosion of the Walker
r. Carter and the Missouri in succession
| fully answers the question. 1t was a mat
ter Of the construction of those boilers.