Stars of the Sultana story: Maj. William H. Fidler commanded Union soldiers on the overloaded steamboat. He tried to keep his men safe, but then calamity struck

A Harper's Weekly depiction of the April 1865 disaster in the Mississippi River (Library of Congress)

Submitted by Gene Salecker

Ahead of the Nov. 14 grand opening of the new Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion, Ark., the Civil War Picket asked experts for submissions about the people involved in the story – the soldiers, the survivors, the heroes and the scoundrels. The overloaded steamboat exploded and caught fire in the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865. About 1,200 people perished, many of them released Federal POWs heading home at the end of the war. Noted Sultana author and collector Gene Salecker submitted the following about Maj. William H. Fidler, who tried to save a female passenger on the boat. 

The highest-ranking officers among the 1,947 released Union ex-prisoners of war were two majors, James William Carlin, 71^st Ohio Infantry, and William H. Fidler (right), 6^th Kentucky Cavalry. Since Carlin had been captured in October 1864 and was not in good shape physically, and since Fidler had been captured in April 1865, only a few days before the loading of the Sultana, the 22-year-old was placed in command of the returning soldiers.

Born in Haysville, Ky., southwest of Louisville, in 1843, he was the second of eight children born to Samuel and Minerva Fidler. Samuel, a shop owner, died in August 1861, leaving the family void of a breadwinner. To help reduce the number of mouths’ to feed, oldest brother James enlisted in the 10^th Kentucky Infantry in November 1861.

Almost a year later, 20-year-old William and his 18-year-old brother Jessie both traveled to Louisville and joined the newly formed 6^th Kentucky Cavalry, William as the major and Jessie as a sergeant in Company K.

Always the dutiful son, William regularly sent most of his $169 per month pay home to his widowed mother and siblings. Over the next three years, he proved himself a competent officer by ably handling his cavalrymen in Middle Tennessee and throughout Gen. Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign. In the spring of 1865, the 6^th Kentucky Cavalry took part in Maj. Gen. James H. Wilson’s cavalry raid through northern Alabama and Georgia.

On April 6, 1865, while fighting a rear-guard skirmish near Tuscaloosa, Ala., Maj. Fidler and a large portion of the 6^th Kentucky Cavalry (flag at left) were cut off from Gen. Wilson’s main body and forced to separate and flee into nearby swamps. Tracked down by Confederate soldiers with bloodhound dogs, Fidler and two privates were eventually captured near Pleasant Ridge, Ala. First held in a city jail, he was eventually sent to the neutral exchange camp, Camp Fisk, set up four miles outside of Vicksburg, Ms.

As the ranking officer among the men from Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, West Virginia and Kentucky, Maj. Fidler helped organize the men into companies of 100 by state and assisted in getting the rolls called and the men placed on the trains that took them from Camp Fisk into Vicksburg to be loaded aboard the Sultana.

Coming in on the third and last train, Fidler immediately saw how crowded the Sultana had become with the first two trainloads of ex-prisoners, and stopped the third trainload of men, insisting that they should go on a different steamboat, the Pauline Carroll. Unwilling to divide the prisoners and mess up their rolls and books, one of the Union officers involved in the loading of the Sultana told Maj. Fidler that the Pauline Carroll had smallpox onboard.

Realizing that in their weakened condition, many of the men would not survive a bout of smallpox, Fidler agreed to put every last man on board the Sultana, to the number of 1,947.

During the trip upriver on the Sultana, Maj. Fidler and the other officers among the ex-prisoners were constantly reminding the men to stay in one spot and not crowd to one side of the boat, thus causing the vessel to capsize. As an officer, Fidler and his aide, Capt. James M. McCown, and all the other officers, slept on twin bunkbed cots set up down the length of the second deck main saloon.

At 2 in the morning of April 27, 1865, while almost everyone was asleep on the Sultana, three of her four boilers suddenly exploded, erupting upwards and tearing a huge hole in the center of the saloon.

Both Fidler and McCown were tossed from their bunkbed, with McCown being severely scalded in the face, neck and hands, and inhaling the scalding, spreading steam, thus burning his lungs and the mucous membrane on his tongue.

In spite of his horrible injuries, McCown followed Fidler down to the main deck so that they could find fire buckets to put out the slowly growing fire. Unable to do so, and with the flames growing in size, the two officers from the 6^th Kentucky Cavalry began tossing pieces of the Sultana into the water to help others stay afloat.

While the two men were thus engaged, they heard a female civilian passenger call out that her mother was in the water and drowning. Without hesitation, Maj. Fidler jumped into the water and went to the mother’s rescue.

Although Fidler reached the lady and took hold of her, they were soon swallowed up by the mad, panicked crowd. Both Maj. William H. Fidler and the mother of the young female passenger were soon pulled beneath the brown, swirling water. His body was never recovered. (McCown survived the tragedy.)

Only 22 years old at the time of his death, a military headstone was later erected for Fidler in the Lebanon National Cemetery in Lebanon, Ky.

COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE MUSEUM

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/10/an-alligator-was-mascot-of-steamboat.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/10/descendants-of-sultana-disaster-victims.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/07/remembering-sultana-disaster-this-14.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2026/01/steamboat-sultana-stories-of-heroic.html

https://civil-war-picket.blogspot.com/2025/06/an-arkansas-museum-telling-tragic-story.html

Perdido Key's Fort McRee is long gone. But the shifting sand at a federal seashore in Florida continues to serve up Civil War cannonballs, including 157 just this year

Some of the mortars found in February in the vicinity of Fort McRee (Michael Lockman/NPS)

You can forget about seeing any visible signs of Fort McRee if you travel to the remote, eastern edge of Florida’s Perdido Key.

Civil War artillery fire, time, storms and shifting sands have erased all traces of the 19th-century bastion a few miles southwest of and across the water from Pensacola. But that doesn’t mean the former Confederate site built on what was called Foster's Bank doesn’t serve up reminders of its existence.

Gulf Islands National Seashore announced in September 2021 that 192 mortar rounds were found along the remote beach after Category 4 Hurricane Ida.

When the Picket reached out recently to the park about whether anything new has been learned about them, officials said another large cache of encrusted shells were found this year, in February. That was a surprise to me, though not the park.

Fort McRee was built in the 1830s to protect Pensacola and its deep harbor.

The fort had 12 casemates and an associated water battery, which may be underwater today. There may have been other batteries. It’s unclear whether these particular shells were discarded, forgotten about or left behind by Confederate troops..

It’s likely the cannonballs are somehow associated with Fort McRee, which was built on a narrow barrier island separating Pensacola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. In 2022, the park said some of the cannonballs utilized Hotchkiss timed fuses.

In November 1861, the garrison engaged in gunfire with nearby Union-held Fort Pickens and a couple warships -- and came up on the losing end. The heavily damaged brick fort was abandoned by May 1862, only to fall into further ruin over the years. (Fort Pickens was one of only four Southern forts to remain in Union control throughout the war.)

These archaeological finds suggest this portion of Perdido Key has "moved" over the years, because of currents and the ever-shifting sand. Visitors to the area generally come by boat, because the road ends several miles to the west. Ruins of post-Civil War batteries are visible.

Likely Confederate soldiers at Fort McRee, circa 1861 (Gulf Islands National Seashore)

The Picket recently submitted questions about the February discovery. The responses below are by Michael Lockman, archaeologist at Gulf Islands National Seashore. Some responses have been edited for brevity.

Q. I understand some additional Civil War cannonballs were found in the vicinity of Fort McRee in February 2026. Was that the case?

A. The shells found in February of 2026 were located nearly a kilometer from the historic location of Fort McRee on Perdido Key Island.

Q. Were they found along the surf line?

A. The shells were exposed in the intertidal zone.

Some of the mortar rounds uncovered by Hurricane Ida in September 2021 (Gulf Islands National Seashore)

Q. What is the total number of shells for this discovery? 

A. US Air Force explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) experts rendered 157 shells inert within the same week of the identification.

Q. Who called in the discovery to park rangers?

A. A Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) employee discovered the shells during a routine species survey.

Q. Did this discovery, like the one in 2021, come after a storm?

A. To the best of our knowledge, the February 2026 exposure was not associated with any named storm event.

The ruins of Fort McRee, beginning to vanish by the late 1880s (NPS collections)

Q. Are the rounds believed to be Confederate, likely from 1861?

A. The provenance of the shells remains uncertain, though Hardy and Bezemek (2023) cite Bartelson’s (1972) “A Field Guide for Civil War Explosive Ordnance” to suggest the presence of ears on either side of the fuse are characteristic of shells from the Confederate states army.

Q. Were they destroyed on site by EOD experts from Hurlburt Field, as was done in 2021?

A. Yes, the shells were rendered inert onsite via controlled detonation by US Air Force explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) experts station at Hurlburt Field.

Not much was left by the time of this 1907 post card (NPS collections)

Q. Are they believed to be mortars, possibly 10-inch?

A. The shells were 8-inch mortar rounds.

Q. How were they found? In clusters? Singly?

A. The shells were exposed in two clusters.

Q. Were the shells stacked in any way?

A. The shells appeared to be palletized (stacked).

Just a fragment remained at the time of this 1940 photograph (NPS collections)

Q. One of my posts on the 2021 finds mentions 194 shells, with 53 mortars being destroyed. I am trying to ascertain the total number from 2021. Was it 194 or 247? Or something else?

A. EOD rendered 192 shells inert in 2021 via controlled detonation. (Below, photo of that operation, NPS; click to enlarge)

Q. Does the NPS have any current investigation/findings on the 2021 and 2026 cannonball deposits -- source of shells, type of artillery battery, etc.

A. The area is being investigated as a Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS) by the U.S.  Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).

Q. Does the park currently, or will it in the future provide information or exhibits on these discovered mortars?

A. Gulf Islands National Seashore currently has no plans to create virtual or printed exhibits about this topic. To protect the resource and comply with all applicable laws, regulations, and policies, the exact location of the mortar cache will remain confidential.

Q. Would it be fair to say this second find was surprising?

A. Not exactly, since this area has history of having a large military presence.

A reenactor wanted a monument put up to recall the service of his ancestor's Union brigade. John Fritz, who lives 1,700 miles away, bought 3 acres at Resaca

From left, John Fritz, Jake Boling and Robert Jenkins with installed monument near Resaca (Bob Jenkins)

Wherever the 105^th Illinois Infantry fought during the Civil War, John Fritz has been sure to follow.

The reenactor -- whose great-great-grandfather, Christopher Fritz, served as a private in Company G -- has traveled to 20 or so sites in Georgia and the Carolinas.

In between, Fritz has volunteered at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park outside Atlanta for more than 10 years and driven north to Resaca, Ga., where his ancestor also fought.

Eventually, the Chandler, Az., resident (left, NPS photo) wanted something tangible to bear proof of the service of the 105^th Illinois and other regiments in Brig. Gen. William T. Ward’s brigade in the 20^th Corps.

About 10 years ago, after participating in the Resaca reenactment several times, Fritz decided to preserve part of that battlefield by buying a small parcel and erecting a monument to the brigade.

Fritz, who turns 64 in November, recently achieved the goal with the installation on three acres he bought from a family at U.S. 41 and tiny Pilgrim Way in Whitfield County.

“It has been a dream come true,” Fritz told the Picket, which learned about the purchase from a social media post by rangers at Kennesaw Mountain.

“Although the property is not part of Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, it preserves an important piece of the Atlanta Campaign story,” a park Facebook post said.

His ancestor helped clear the way for comrades

Pvt. Christopher Fritz was likely picked for an Army of the Cumberland 20^th Corps detachment known as pioneers because he was a carpenter and dependable. Fritz, a native of Germany, enlisted in 1862 and mustered out in June 1865.

Reverse of monument lists regiments and casualties (Kennesaw Mountain NBP)

During the Atlanta Campaign, the acting engineers followed Union skirmishers and made sure roads and bridges were in place or passable for the main army, among other duties.

They were, in essence, tips of the spear.

The soldier lost a thumb to gunfire while on guard duty for several months at Fort Negley in Nashville. The incident apparently was accidental, John Fritz says. Christopher received a pension about 25 years after the war

The veteran had a family in Belvidere. Ill., and died in August 1903 at age 73. 

Three markers will be placed near brigade monument

John Fritz wanted some Resaca battlefield land to be preserved. When no battlefield parcels appeared on the market, he went door-to-door, talking to landowners in Whitfield and Gordon counties.

He obtained a tract where Ward’s troops gathered before the May 13-15, 1864, ferocious, but inconclusive, battle at Resaca.

The granite memorial, provided by North Georgia Monument in Calhoun, was erected in mid-October. Preservationists plan to place three markers on the parcel.

Robert Jenkins, executive director of the Blue and Gray Education Society and the leader of Save the Dalton Battlefields, said the spot is near where the Federal IV Corps arrived to the battlefield as they marched south from Dalton down U.S. 41 and deployed on the evening of May 13, 1864.

“On this land is where a Confederate surprise attack on the afternoon of Saturday, May 14, 1864. led by General John Bell Hood that had rolled up a portion of the Federal IV Corps was stalled and stopped by Peter Simonson’s 5th Indiana Battery and Robinson’s brigade of Williams’s division of the XX Corps,” Jenkins wrote in an email.

Circled area shows location of Ward's brigade before its advance on Confederate lines

On May 15, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker launched an assault against the Confederate right flank. Troops from Ward's brigade (including the 70th Indiana, led by future president Benjamin Harrison) stormed an earthen redoubt containing four 12-pounder Napoleon guns commanded by Capt. Max Van Den Corput. Ward's men overran the battery

Jenkins said the markers will follow the action on this land and surrounding area on each of three successive days. (Below, Brig. Gen. William T. Ward)

“Thanks to John’s acquisition of this land and his generosity in allowing us to place three markers there, (we will have) the ability to be able to interpret and tell this part of the battle from a perspective and portion of the battlefield that has never been done before.”

Jenkins said the three acres are north of and not connected with 303 acres of Resaca battlefield acquired by the American Battlefield Trust in partnership with Save the Dalton Battlefields, Friends of Resaca Battlefield and the Georgia Battlefields Association.

Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park said historic “landscapes endure because people care enough to protect them.”

“Thank you, John Fritz, for helping preserve this important part of our shared history.”

John Fritz with monument on his land; click to enlarge (Kennesaw Mountain NBP)

Vince Dooley, college football coaching great, cared deeply about Civil War battle sites. Two grants in his name will help save 303 acres at Resaca in NW Georgia

Coach Vince Dooley (Picket photo) and scenes of acquired land (ABT and Blue and Gray Education Society)

College football coaching great Vince Dooley’s passion for history will live on through the issuing of the first two battlefield preservation grants in his name. They will help safeguard key portions of the May 1864 Resaca battlefield in Northwest Georgia.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources said $945,000 in Dooley matching grants will be given to the American Battlefield Trust for the preservation of 303 acres.

The battlefield is on both sides of Interstate 75 in Gordon and Whitfield counties. A portion lies in the state’s Resaca Battlefield Historic Site.

The grants account for about one half of the $1.9 million purchase price for parcels held by two property owners. The ABT closed on the properties and now owns the land. It will be seeking grants from the National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program to cover the cost of the other half, spokesperson Jared Herr said.

The 303 acres are shown in yellow and orange; click to see details on military units (American Battlefield Trust)

“From his time on the gridiron to his decade on our Board of Trustees, Vince Dooley brought passion and tenacity to everything he did,” said David Duncan, president of the American Battlefield Trust. “This fund is the perfect way to honor Coach Dooley’s legacy. This addition to the Resaca battlefield is the beginning of an exciting new chapter in an incredible preservation story in Georgia.”

The former University of Georgia coach and athletic director died at age 90 in 2022. The Georgia General Assembly subsequently created the fund and Gov. Brian Kemp signed the measure last year.

The three-day battle at Resaca, while inconclusive, was a major clash during Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s Atlanta Campaign. The newly acquired property was in the middle of the fight. Robert Jenkins, head of the nonprofit Save the Dalton Battlefields, said some Confederate trenches survive, though some were lost to timber cutting.

Vince Dooley and Charlie Crawford at Potato Hill in Whitfield County in 2014 (GBA)

The ABT worked with his group, the Georgia Battlefields Association and the Friends of Resaca Battlefield on the project.

“There are plans to interpret that land, as well, with trails and historic markers, but that will take some more time,” Jenkins told the Picket this week.

The acquisition is a victory for local residents and preservationists, who fought a proposed truck logistics center in Gordon County, in part arguing it would negatively affect Resaca battle sites. The county commission voted last year to deny the required rezoning.

His celebrity brought attention to Civil War

Dooley brought celebrity and a real passion for history when he toured and backed preservation of battlefields or attended meetings of the Atlanta Civil War Roundtable.

Historian, author and tour leader Ed Bearss (left) with Dooley on a tour (GBA)

After his passing, Dooley was remembered, of course, for his sports accomplishments: college football’s National Championship in 1980 and six Southeastern Conference titles, among others. But he immersed himself in other interests, including gardening, political science and history. The Marine Corps veteran was a philanthropist and mentor. He earned a masters in history.

“The Civil War probably is the most critical time in our history. It defined who we are,” Dooley told me in 2010. He later went on to edit  a book about a Georgia officer.

The Mobile, Ala., native had an ancestor who fought for the Confederacy. Pvt. George Stanter (the surname shared by Dooley’s mother) served with the 24th Alabama Infantry. Dooley was a fan of Patrick Cleburne, the Irish-born Confederate general who was “ahead of his time” in pressing for African-Americans to fight for the South. The idea was squashed until late in the war.

His fame had an effect when a tour group would arrive at a historic site or eat at a restaurant, the GBA’s Charlie Crawford said in 2022.

“Every waiter or waitress would drop by his table even if they were not responsible for that table. Docents at museums or park staff would come by to shake his hand or ask to have a photo taken with him, and he was always very accommodating,” Crawford said.

David Duncan, president of the ABT, told the Picket he recalls seeing Dooley in Washington, D.C, and how people were drawn to the former coach. “To see the Georgia delegation with Vince Dooley was like being with John the Baptist.”

Dooley never lost his love for studying history by visiting battlefields.

His popularity and legacy led to the creation of the state battlefield preservation fund. It will be funded by annual appropriations by the General Assembly, public and private grants, gifts and monies from other sources.

Deal followed collapse of distribution center

The region around Resaca is rife with Civil War sites, and the ABT and preservation groups have been working for years to save battlefield parcels -- big or small.

“We don’t always explain the method by which we discover potential properties for acquisition, since there’s considerable variation in the process,” said Crawford, president emeritus of the GBA. “Sometimes, that involves a long pursuit of a property that has long been known to contain earthworks. Other times, it’s serendipitous, as when tree removal alerts us that a property has been purchased by a developer.”

The ABT, in a news release, said development threats to the 303 acres have loomed large (at left, Bob Jenkins photo).

“The land was subject to an industrial rezoning effort in early 2025. While that attempt failed, the properties remained vulnerable until they were acquired by the Trust. The acreage adds to the more than 1,000 acres previously saved by the Trust on the battlefield,” the group said.

Jenkins, with Save the Dalton Battlefields, told the Picket one of the parcels is near the state historic site.

Camp Creek runs through part of the properties.

The 303 acres will connect the eastern and western portions of the Resaca battlefield with the northern portion.

The ABT bought the land from property owners that had an interest in selling acreage for the proposed distribution center or access to it. Preservation groups and area residents opposed the idea, saying it would add to traffic and infrastructure problems in Gordon County, Jenkins said. "It would destroy core battlefield property by developing and altering that hallowed land forever.”

After the rezoning fell through, the groups and ABT asked the owners to sell the land at fair market price. That occurred in 2025.

The ABT says since 1997 it has worked with local partners to save more than 2,400 acres -- valued at more than $10.2 million -- across eight Georgia battlefields. 

Groups will soon focus on interpreting ground

Because the Dooley fund and the ABT are covering the entire purchase, the network of smaller preservation groups can now focus their spending on infrastructure, such as a road or trail system. (Above, ABT photo of one parcel)

Jenkins, who is executive director of the Blue and Gray Education Society, said he wants to focus now on interpreting the battleground for historians, park rangers and the public.

The top parcel witnessed attacks by elements of Howard's and Hooker's Federal corps on May 14, 1864. Hooker's XX Corps attacked the next day. Confederate forces counteattacked during the battle but the fighting ended in a stalemate. Joseph E. Johnston ordered his men in gray to withdraw. (Hooker in photo).

Jenkina, an attorney, called Dooley a “great, great man.”

He recalled a GBA bus tour years ago in which he and Dooley took part. The coach asked Jenkins to sit with him. “I thought, 'What an honor.' He wanted to pick my brain about a book project.”

The historian said the coach would be proud of the Vince Dooley Battlefield Trust Fund Program.

“This is quite a legacy.”

Burial scheduled: Third Union soldier discovered in Second Manassas surgeon's limb pit will be interred will full military honors at Arlington on Nov. 4

At far right, the graves of two Federal soldiers buried at Arlington in 2018 (Picket photo)

An unknown Civil War soldier whose remains were found in a surgeon’s limb pit at the Second Manassas battlefield will be buried with full military honors Nov. 4 at Arlington National Cemetery, officials announced Monday.

The closed funeral will include an escort for the teen soldier who died in August 1862 at the Virginia battlefield. The remains of two other soldiers found in the pit were buried at Arlington in 2018.

“On Nov. 4, Arlington National Cemetery will honor this Union soldier with the solemn dignity, care and respect earned through his service to our nation,” said Karen Durham-Aguilera, executive director of Army National Military Cemeteries and the Office of Army Cemeteries, in an Arlington news release. “Although the identity of this soldier is unknown, his sacrifice has not been forgotten. His reinterment affirms our enduring obligation to ensure that every service member receives an honorable final resting place.”

The National Park Service in August announced the March 2024 discovery of the young man, saying he was apparently buried in a New York infantry jacket.

The limb pit was discovered in 2014 during excavations associated with water pipe maintenance at Manassas National Battlefield Park. Two bodies and seven (possibly eight) amputated limbs were removed in 2015. The burial occurred near the site of a field hospital.

The entire pit was not excavated at the time, apparently because of time and funding limitations. While archaeologists believed there were more partial remains, they did not expect a whole set to be found when they returned in 2024.

Archaeologists found six brass New York State Excelsior coat buttons and seven brass cuff buttons with the soldier, who may have been a teenager. (NPS photo, above)

NPS documents studied by the Picket indicate the excavation yielded four new surgically amputated limbs and the body of the soldier. “Found in direct association with this soldier's interment was a rubber pocket comb,” the agency said.

The Army has requested the comb for the burial. (Photo above, National Park Service)

Monday’s announcement said honors will include a casket team, firing party, bugle, folding of and presentation of the flag, a marching element, military band and caisson. An Army Arlington Lady will accept the flag on behalf of the unknown soldier’s family.

The boy soldier will be buried in Section 81, near the other two soldiers, who were laid to rest in September 2018.

Officials did not disclose who will be present at the November funeral ceremonies, saying services will be closed.

National Park Service archaeologists with human remains at Manassas in March 2024 (NPS)