7/26/2023 0 Comments Knox news sentinel costEven today, it’s reputedly the most impressive one. Whatever remains of the Sultana is believed to be under layers of silt near the Mississippi River, more than 400 miles away from Knoxville.įor many years, the only memorial to the Sultana was in a cemetery on Maryville Pike. That it should happen not on high seas, but on a river within view of both shores-it might be hard to dramatize, at that. Most of its passengers were recently paroled prisoners of war, Union men who had spent the last several months in Confederate prison camps and were finally on their way home from a war that was blessedly over.Īnd maybe the Sultana’s problem is that it’s too strange to be legendary. Of course, another problem for publicity, compared to the Titanic, is that the Sultana’s passengers didn’t include the rich and famous. 11, 2001, it came across as a short page-four story in The New York Times. Although the Sultana disaster had a death toll less than half than that of Sept. Its losses didn’t compare to that of the Civil War’s dozen deadliest battles. ![]() In fact, it was deadlier than any shipwreck in the world in the 19th century. In body count, it was deadlier even than the Titanic. ![]() That is, at least, the most common explanation for why most Americans have never heard of the worst maritime disaster in American history. The month of April, 1865, they say, deadened editors and readers to the horrible news of the riverboat Sultana. It would be the subject of folksongs and novels and movies.īut it was the month of a Confederate surrender ending our bloodiest war, the month of America’s first and most critical presidential assassination. If it had happened in any month other than April, 1865, they say, it would be the legendary American disaster every school kid knew about.
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