Raising The Sultana (original) (raw)

About the Sultana

The SS Sultana, a wooden steamboat paddlewheeler on the Mississippi River, exploded on April 27, 1865, resulting in the greatest maritime disaster in U.S. history. Although the exact numbers are uncertain, an estimated 1,600 passengers, many of them Union solders returning home after being released from prisons in the Confederacy, were killed when three of the ship’s boilers exploded and the Sultana sank near Memphis, Tennessee. Despite the massive loss of life, there was not much press coverage, as the Sultana sank right after the assassination of President Lincoln.

This website is a database of materials collected by Arkansas State University students, faculty, and staff, working an ongoing project--“Raising the Sultana.” If you have materials you would like to have included in the database, please contact us.