On this day in 1865 a Mississippi riverboat named the Sultana caught fire and burned after one of its boilers exploded.
The boat was packed past capacity with Union prisoners of war who had just been released after the end of the Civil War. Among those prisoners were members of Company H, Third Tennessee Cavalry, US, who were recruited mainly from East Tennessee. Many of these former POWs were killed or maimed by the explosion and fire or simply drowned in the Mississippi River. Those from the Knoxville area who survived later held reunions until the last known survivor died in the early 1930’s.
There is a memorial to the Sultana explosion in Knoxville at the Mount Olive Cemetery, off Maryville Pike. It was erected there in 1916 and depicts the steamboat and the names of those East Tennessee soldiers who died in the explosion.
If you’d like to know more, listen to our podcast about the Sultana and the man thought to be the last living survivor, Pleasant Keeble, of Knoxville, at this link:
The Last Survivor of the Sultana Explosion
