And
those poor fellows who died in that awful
catastrophe! They had gone through four long years
of war, had undergone countless hardships, and
suffered hunger, pain, and sickness, on the
battlefield, and in the prison, and after all
these, they were now going home to loved ones,
their hearts filled with a great shout of joyous
thanksgiving that all war and strife and danger
were over, and that they could once more greet the
dear ones at home who they knew were waiting
anxiously for their return. (387) ~ James R.
Collins, survivor
We sometimes
come across a disaster of the past that strikes a
particular chord within us. For me, Sultana is
one such episode in American history. Twenty-twenty
hindsight suggests any number of ways in which the
calamity might have been avoided, but the dominos of
greed, arrogance, shoddy construction, avoidance,
weather, and conditions on the Mississippi led to
disaster a mere eighteen days after Lee surrendered to
Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. More than a century and
a half have passed since that fateful morning of 27
April 1865, and yet what occurred in the wee hours of
that day remains the most wretched disaster in America’s
maritime history.
Sultana, a sidewheel steamboat, was launched on 2
January 1863. She measured 260 feet in length and 42
feet wide. The diameter of each of her two paddlewheels
was 34 feet, and she could carry up to 1,000 tons of
cargo safely. Her original owner sold her the following
year to four residents of St. Louis, Missouri. One of
these became her captain, James Cass Mason. At the time
of the explosion, she carried nearly 2,000 Union
soldiers who had recently been released from
prisoner-of-war camps, including the most notorious one,
Andersonville. After time spent in horrendous
conditions, these men were finally going home to reunite
with loved ones. There were also around forty civilian
passengers aboard – including a minstrel company, a
couple returning from their honeymoon, children – and
about eighty-five men and women who worked on the
vessel. She also carried cargo – more than 200 hogsheads
of sugar and almost 100 boxes of wine, sixty hogs, and
forty to fifty horses and mules – and the sidewheeler’s
mascot, a live alligator in a wooden box. Two years
after her launch, Sultana exploded, caught
fire, and sank. Many on board died. Some survived and
lived to share their stories.
Twenty-nine chapters comprise this account of the Sultana
and those aboard her at the time of her demise. In
addition to the who, what, when, where, and why,
Salecker shares what happened afterward and what became
of her survivors. He provides extensive notes, a
bibliography, an index, maps, and photographs of people
and steamboats connected to this story.
In the intervening years, much has been written about
the disaster, but as often occurs over time, legend and
myth have crept into the historical details. One might
wonder why another book needs to tell this story, but
what sets Destruction of the Steamboat Sultana
apart is two-fold. First, the author undertook a
deep-dive into many different archives to provide the
first exhaustive study of the subject that relies
principally on primary documents. Secondly, Salecker is
a leading authority on what occurred and is the Sultana
Disaster Museum’s historical consultant. He also
owns the largest collection of materials pertaining to
the event. In writing this book, he set out to answer
four specific questions:
What
caused the explosion?
Exactly
how many people were on board at the time?
How many
people survived, and how many died?
Who were
these people?
He succeeds
in doing this and, in the process, separates the wheat
(the facts) from the chaff (the myths and legends). He
uses the actual words of those involved to relate the
truth about what transpired.
Witness and survivor accounts vividly bring the events
into focus. Details that the study unearthed are
enlightening. Salecker has been able to identify beyond
a doubt the majority of people who were aboard Sultana
during her three-day voyage upriver. Equally telling
is the fact that when compared with the number of dead
in Civil War battles, this disaster ranks twelfth.
Nearly half of those aboard lost their lives.
This is far more than just an examination of the
sidewheeler and those aboard. Salecker also delves into
the people ashore who were involved in the overloading
of Sultana, as well as local residents who went
above and beyond to help the survivors, including
Southerners who had spent the last five years fighting
the North. The condition of the POWs upon their release,
as well as what they had endured, is also recounted.
If you just want a book that recounts the story of the Sultana
and what happened, any number of books will fulfill
that desire. If, however, you want an in-depth analysis
that relies chiefly on firsthand evidence, Destruction
of the Steamboat Sultana is the volume to read.
You will come away knowing what happened, but, more
importantly, remember the people, the sacrifices they
made, and their determination to survive.
Review
Copyrighted ©2022 Cindy Vallar
Click
on the Cannon to Contact Me
Pirates and
Privateers
