|
|
|
Chronicles
>
Sultana
Wreck of the Steamer "Sultana" |
| |
|
Mcgill Family Record
by Robert M. McGill, Maryville, Tennessee; R. E. McGill, Publisher, Richmond,
Va., 1907; pp. 54 - 58
Uriah J. Mavity enlisted August 12, 1862, in Company D.,
Sixty-eighth Indiana Volunteer Infantry, when twenty years of
age. He was a soldier through and through; always brave. He was
discharged, November 28, 1862, on surgeon's certificate of
disability. He enlisted for a second term in September, 1863, at
Acton, Ind. He was captured and sent to Cahaba prison, Ala., for
six months; was exchanged, and sent to Vicksburg, and went
aboard the ill-fated Sultana,
for home, which blew up, April 27, 1865, and he was blown into
the river, but hung to the anchor chain for six hours, with his
head just out of the water, when he was rescued.
While in the Cahaba prison, the Alabama River submerged the
prison several feet deep. He was given his final discharge in
June, 1865, at Indianapolis, Ind. He is an honored member of
Rich Mount Post, 42, and is an invalid.
Right here are coincidents worthy of note:
Companies A. and B., Third Tennessee Cavalry, United States
Army, were nearly all from Blount County, and the whole regiment
was made up from this and surrounding counties. About seventy
men from Blount County were on the
Sultana when it blew
up, and about one hundred and thirty men from other counties
nearby, making two hundred in all. Probably over half of them
were lost. The survivors have faithfully kept up their reunions
every year since the war; but death has so often invaded their
ranks, that only about seventeen are living now of the Blount
County men; among them Sam P. Dunlap, of Maryville, who is
totally blind, but otherwise in health good; Alexander Kidd
lives near by ; others in the county are Pleas Keeble, Wallace
Milsaps, Sam Pickens, Robert Rule, George C. Davis, Bart McMurry,
Adam Wilson, and others. I have often talked with these men, and
heard them tell of their escapes and the awful scenes of that
night.
I have a book before me, entitled: "Loss of the
Sultana, and
Reminiscences of the Survivors." The following is taken from the
introduction to that work :
"The average American is astonished at nothing he sees and
hears. He looks for large things. Things ordinarily are too
tame. This and the exciting events of April, 1865 perhaps
account for the fact that the loss of the steamer
Sultana and over
seventeen' hundred passengers, mostly exchanged prisoners of
war, finds no place in American history. The idea that the most
appalling marine disaster that ever occurred in the history of
the world should pass by unnoticed is strange; but still, such
is the fact, and the majority of the American people to-day do
not know that there ever was such a vessel as the
Sultana; and many of
those who do recollect something about the occurrence, cannot
tell whether it occurred in the Mississippi River, the Gulf of
Mexico, or the Atlantic Ocean; and the purpose of setting them
right and instructing others, thus holding in the memory of the
present generation, and those yet to be, the sufferings of the
defenders of our country, is the object of this sketch.
The steamer Sultana
was built at Cincinnati, Ohio, January 1863; and was registered,
as near as I can learn, at 1,719 tons. She was a regular St.
Louis and New Orleans packet, and left the latter port on her
fatal trip April 21, 1865, arriving at Vicksburg, Miss., with
about two hundred passengers and crew on board. She remained
here little more than one day; among other things, repairing one
of her boilers, at the same time receiving on board 1,965
Federal soldiers and thirty-five officers, just released from
the rebel prisons at Cahaba, Ala., Macon and Andersonville, Ga.,
and belonging to the States of Ohio, Indiana, Michigan,
Tennessee, Kentucky, and West Virginia. Besides these, there
were two companies of infantry under arms, making a grand total
of 2,300 souls on board, besides a number of mules and horses,
and over 1oo hogsheads of sugar, the latter being in the hold of
the boat and serving as ballast. At Helena, Ark., by some
unaccountable means, a photograph of the boat, with her mass of
living freight, was taken, a copy of which is in possession of
L. G. Morgan, of Findlay, Ohio, one of the survivors to-day.
Leaving Helena, the boat arrived at Memphis, Tenn., about
seven o'clock P.M. on the 26th of April. Here the sugar was
unloaded, many of the exchanged prisoners helping the crew, thus
making a little money for themselves. Some time in the evening,
probably well towards midnight, the boat steamed across the
river to the coal bins, or barges; and, after taking on her
supply of coal, started on up the river for Cairo, Ill. All was
quiet and peaceful, many of the soldiers, no doubt, after their
long unwilling fast in Southern prisons, were dreaming of home
and the good things in store for them there; but alas! those
beautiful visions were dissipated by a terrific explosion, for,
about two o'clock in the morning of the 27th, as the boat was
passing through a group of islands, known as "The old hen and
chickens," and while about opposite of "Tangleman's landing,"
had burst one of her boilers and almost immediately caught fire,
for the fragments of the boiler had cut the cabin and the
hurricane deck in two, and splintered pieces had fallen, many of
them, back upon the burning coal fires, that were now left
exposed. The light, dry wood of the cabins burned like tinder,
and it was but a short time until the boat was wrapped in
flames, burning to the water's edge and sinking. Hundreds were
forced into the water and drowned in huge squads; those who
could swim being unable to get away from those who could not,
and consequently perishing with them. One thing favorable to the
men was the fact that there was a little wind, hence the bow of
the boat, having no cabin above it, would face the wind until
the cabin was burned off from the stern, then the boat gradually
swung round, the unburned part of the boat above the water
acting as a sail, while that below acted as a rudder, and
finally drove the men into the water. A part of the crowd was
driven off at a time, thus giving many of those who could swim
or had secured fragments of the wreck, an opportunity to escape.
But there was one thing that was unfavorable, and that was the
pitchy darkness of the night. It was raining a little, or had
been, and but occasional glimpses of timber was all that could
be seen, even when the flames were the brightest, consequently
the men did not know what direction to take, and one man
especially, swam up stream. Another thing that added greatly to
the loss of life is the fact that the river at this place is
three miles wide, and at the time of the accident, it was very
high and had overflown its banks, and many doubtless perished
after they reached the timber, while trying to get through the
woods back to the bluffs, the flats being deeply under water.
Others died from exposure in the icy cold water after they had
reached the timber, but were unable to climb a tree, or crawl
upon a log, and thus get out of the water."
Inasmuch as so many men from East Tennessee, and especially from
Blount County, were on the
Sultana, and so many of them went down to watery graves,
bear with me for a few words about Blount County:
It has been said, and often repeated, that the second
congressional district of Tennessee, composed of Blount and ten
or eleven other counties in East Tennessee, furnished more
soldiers to the United States army, according to population,
than any other congressional district in the United States.
Blount County furnished so many soldiers to the Union Army that
to-day it is called "Loyal Blount."
The county was named after the territorial governor of
Tennessee, William Blount, and this included the "territory of
the United States south of the Ohio River." He was also the
first United States senator from Tennessee. And Maryville, the
county seat, was named for his wife, Mary. He signed his
official documents "Willie Blount." Major Will A. McTeer, of
Maryville, has one of those old documents, signed "Willie
Blount, Governor." |
|
Newest Material
July 17, 2007 - Added
A Federal Railroad Adventure -
"Andrews Raiders"
May 10 - Added new page
Civil War Era
Definitions with definitions to be added as I come across them
May 9 - Added article:
Our Captured Correspndent
May 9 - Added page for
Prisons and Prisoners and a page for
Libby Prison
May 8 -
Loss of Sultana, article and
biographical sketches
May - Images of Sultana
May 7, 2007 - Steamboat Sultana
pages created
|
