Destruction of the Steamboat Sultana: The Worst Maritime Disaster in American History

TheSultanawas a sidewheel Mississippi steamboat carrying almosttwo thousandrecently-releasedUnion prisoners-of-war back north at the end of the Civil War. At 2:00 a.m. on April 27, 1865, when the boat was seven miles above Memphis, her boilers exploded. Almost 1,200 people perished in the worst maritime disaster in United States history. Gene EricSaleckercoversthisdisasterin detailand dispels the many myths that have been connected to theSultanafor too long.

Almost every authorwhohas written about theSultana has relied on the words of a few survivorsorreferred totheworksof previous authors to get their story.Advancing the scholarship, the author has visited the NationalArchives in Washington, DC tocombthrough the handwritten transcripts of the three investigative bodies thatlooked intothe disaster or poured over the handwritten testimony from the court-martial trial of Capt. Frederic Speed, the only person tried for the overcrowding of the vessel.In 1996, after extensive research and using the most current sources available at that time,SaleckerwroteDisaster on the Mississippi:TheSultanaExplosion, April 27, 1865.Still, there were inevitableomissions.After almosttwenty-five yearsof continued research on the Sultana, and all those involved in the disaster,Saleckerhas gleaned unparalleled knowledge into every aspect of thedisaster.Hisresearch, covering the National Archives, andthousands of pages of newspapers from around the world and government documents, including pension records and service records,has allowed Gene to tell the story of theSultanaas completely aspossible.By bringing his research back to primary sources,Saleckerdispelsmythsandaddstothestory of theSultana.

InDestruction of the Steamboat Sultana:The Worst Maritime Disaster in AmericanHistoryparoledprisoners,civilianpassengers, guards, crewmembers,rescuers,andeyewitnessestelltheirstories in their own words. The true, and complete, story about theSultanaand the disaster has finally, and fully, been told. See more