The Sinking of the Sultana

The Sinking of the Sultana. The Worst Maritime Disaster In United States History. , News of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln on April 14, 1865 overshadowed the tragedy of the Sultana, which happened two weeks later., The actual number of casualties from the SS Sultana is unknown, but some estimates are as high as 1,800. The SS Titanic sank on April 15, 1912, with a loss of 1,517 people. The Sultana tragedy is the greatest maritime disaster in United States History., The steamboat Sultana exploded at 2 a.m. on the Mississippi River near Marion, Arkansas. April 27, 1865. Over 2,000 recently released Federal prisoners-of-war and civilians were on board. Authorized human capacity was 460. Approximately 1,500 people either burned to death or drowned., The Sultana was 260 feet long and 42 feet wide. When the Civil War ended, the Federal government paid $5 per soldier and $10 per officer for passage home on a steamer. Disease infestation and shortage of food and pure water caused thousands of Federal soldiers to die in the overpopulated prison camps at Andersonville, Georgia, and Cahaba, Alabama. Fragile soldiers, who had survived the horrors of battle, faced a cruel destination when they climbed aboard the ill-fated Sultana., Arkansans rode aboard wooden rafts in order to pull survivors out of the river. Townspeople transported the near-dead to in-house and riverbank care stations. Others swam to the opposite shore were taken to the hospital or the Soldier’s Home in Memphis, Tennessee., Robert Crittenden Chapter , Daughters of the American Revolution