The Greatest Maritime Disaster in United States History

On April 27, 1865, the greatest maritime disaster in United States history occurred when a steamboat called the Sultana exploded on the Mississippi River. It was an incident that wasn’t widely covered at the time because of what was going on, and it is still not widely known about today.

The steamboat, Sultana, had been built two years earlier in 1863 in Cincinnati and traveled between St. Louis and New Orleans carrying freight and passengers on the Mississippi River. The 260-foot-long wooden steamboat had been commissioned to carry troops during the Civil War along with carrying its regular passengers and cargo.

After Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Union General Ulysses S. Grant on April 9, 1865, Union prisoners of war began to be released from Confederate prisons. Thousands of Union soldiers awaited a way to return north, but they had no way to get there. The U.S. Government began to contract with steamboats on the Mississippi to move the soldiers and paid $5 per enlisted man and $10 for each officer.

The Sultana was on a return voyage from New Orleans when it docked in Vicksburg, Mississippi, on April 23, 1865. Vicksburg was a primary holding area for recently released Union prisoners of war. J. Cass Mason, the captain and one of three investors of the steamboat, had previously…