Descendants of Sultana disaster victims and survivors were early champions of a large museum. They will be in Arkansas next month to celebrate a day long coming

Descendant Robert Burke of Marion, Ind., places wreath remembering ancestor in Mississippi River in 2015; Doug Schneider of the association has created a medallion for this year's reunion in Marion.

With the grand opening of the reimagined Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion, Ark., just a few weeks away, organizers credit a meeting nearly 40 years ago for getting the ball rolling for an enduring tribute to victims and survivors of the maritime disaster.

The first gathering of the Sultana Association of Descendants and Friends occurred in Knoxville, Tenn., bringing together researchers Jerry Potter and Gene Salecker.

“Gene and Jerry had been researching the Sultana story for several years separately when they met for the first time at our first formal Sultana reunion in Knoxville in 1988,” said association co-founder Norman Shaw. “They became friends and started sharing research, resulting in Jerry's book coming out in 1992 followed by Gene's in 1996.”

The little-known story of the steamboat Sultana was finally being told.

Potter, Salecker and retired banker Louis Intres eventually championed a combination of artifacts, memorabilia and stories of those involved in the Sultana to build a first iteration of the museum in 2015, the same year the descendants group last met in Marion. (Interestingly, none neither they nor Shaw are descendants.)

Marion – across the Mississippi River from Memphis, Tenn., is near where the Sultana caught fire and exploded in late April 1865, killing about 1,200 people, including hundreds of Union soldier who had just been released from Confederate prisons and were heading home.

This year's meeting of the descendants group Nov. 12-14 will be a prominent part of the celebration in Marion, which worked for years to raise the millions needed for a larger location a few blocks from the first venue.

Salecker told the Picket no one envisioned a museum during that first meeting of descendants.

A few years later, Intres learned Salecker had been collecting artifacts and memorabilia and had put them on display a few times at the Ohio Civil War Show in Mansfield and at Sultana Association of Descendants and Friends reunions.

“I think after seeing what I was bringing to our reunions for display, and after seeing some of the photos from the Kenosha (Wis.) display, Louis asked me if I would loan him all of my artifacts for a display that he wanted to put up at Arkansas State University, where he was working as an adjunct professor. The display was put up in February 2012,” said Salecker, who lives in the Chicago area.

“In June 2013, Louis, working with the Marion Chamber of Commerce and Mayor Frank Fogleman, arranged for a display of my artifacts and some items from Jerry Potter and a few descendants … in a shopping complex. After that, in consultation with Frank and others in Marion, it was decided to look for an interim museum site, while we all looked for a permanent site for a museum,” Salecker added. (Louis Intres, photo below)

Officials say it’s important that the little-known story of greed, fraud, valor and sacrifice be told in a bigger way than what’s covered in a tiny museum that opened in 2015 and closed this past May.

The Sultana disaster was little known at the time, not helped by the fact that it got lost in headlines about the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and the end of the Civil War.

John Fogleman, president of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society, which is leading the museum effort, told the Picket the authors and descendants were responsible for conceiving the idea of the museum. Fogleman's ancestors helped rescue those thrown into the river by the catastrophe, and that aspect of the story will be featured in the exhibits.

Officials hope the larger venue – in the town’s old high school gymnasium -- will boost learning and tourism in the area.

Descendants attending this 38^th annual reunion will wear a yellow ribbon similar to those worn by survivors of the disaster. Member Doug Schneider is producing a medallion showing an historic photograph of the Sultana and the exterior of the new site. 

Schneider's great-great grandfather, Peter Rosselot, Company E, 50th Ohio Volunteer Infantry, survived the tragedy. He had been captured at Franklin and imprisoned at Cahaba in Alabama.

Rosselot (left, with wife Louise) wrote about the calamity in a chapter of Chester Berry's famous book about the Sultana. 

"There were seven of our company on the boat, and five of them perished. If it has not been for the grace of God we too would have perished. After I had got down on the lower deck I waited for a favorable opportunity to save myself. After a large number of the men had made their escape or were drowned I watched for a clear space in the river, for I was afraid some one would catch hold of me and I would share the fate of the others. I jumped off into the river, and swam away as fast as I could ..."

Schneider, who lives in Massachusetts, has been on four trips with the association. "Norm has done an amazing job of finding various places to visit that are related to the men who were on the Sultana."

Other meeting locations have included Knoxville, Cincinnati, Vicksburg, Ms., Memphis, Americus, Ga., and Athens, Ala. -- all have ties to POW camps, the boat self or the disaster.

Shaw said he expects about 200 descendants to come to Marion. He has booked rooms in four hotels. About 115 people had signed up by Monday, Oct. 5.

Descendants at their 2015 reunion in Marion and Memphis (Norman Shaw)

Here is the schedule for the descendants association gathering:

Wednesday, Nov. 11, Veterans Day: The city will have a 1 p.m. public ceremony at the museum’s flag plaza (114 Military Road). Sixth-grade students will sing and there will be a few remarks.

Thursday, Nov. 12: An afternoon meet-and-greet of descendants at the Best Western motel in Marion.

Friday, Nov. 13: A 10 a.m. tour of the new museum. John Fogleman and museum executive director Jeff Kollath will provide an introductory presentation.

The association will have a banquet from 6 p.m.-9 p.m. at The Crossings Church gym across from the museum. Tacker’s Shake Shack will provide the meal. The program includes recognitions, singing, book giveaways and a candlelight ceremony. Cost is $37.

Speakers include Potter, Salecker (at right, with model of Sultana) and Shaw.

“I expect that I will share how I first came to learn about the Sultana and became captivated by her remarkable story,” Potter said. “On a hot day in July 1978, I took a shortcut through the lobby of the National Bank of Commerce in Memphis and noticed a painting depicting the burning of the Sultana on April 27, 1865. The painting was displayed among several others in an alcove of the bank. That brief encounter sparked what has become nearly five decades of research, preservation and storytelling. My talk will focus on that journey and on the enduring mission of ensuring that the stories of the men aboard the Sultana, so often overlooked by history, are remembered and shared with future generations.”

Salecker will talk about early efforts of displaying the memorabilia and artifacts around the Midwest and finally in Marion. The author and collector said the effort moved from "Are there any interested descendants out there?" to "Look what we have accomplished."

Saturday, Nov. 14: 10 a.m. grand opening of the museum to the public.

In 2015, Norman Shaw (right) and reenactor prepare to place flag in Mississippi River in memory of soldiers

Robert Burke of Marion, Ind., is among the descendants traveling to Marion next month.

In 2015, Burke dropped a custom wreath and white rose into the Mississippi River in honor of his ancestor, Enoch Nation, 9^th Indiana Cavalry, who was a Cahaba prisoner near Selma, Ala. Many other released prisoners had been at Andersonville (Camp Sumter) in Georgia

“They never found his body,” Burke told the Picket then. “My only hope is he’s in an unknown soldier’s marked grave.”

Shaw recalls stumbling across the Sultana story as founder and later president of the Knoxville Civil War Roundtable in 1987. He learned about three local children of Sultana survivors and then about six more over the next few years. “All are gone now, of course.”

He recently sent an email to members of the descendants association, updating them on logistics for the gathering.

“In just 1.5 months, our long, sought-after dream of a new Sultana museum will become a reality,” Shaw wrote. “I'm sure your Sultana ancestors would be proud.”

Gettysburg Foundation increases its goal of flags to be placed on the battlefield in Nov. to 17,760. For $18.63, you can help remember a soldier who was a casualty

Eternal Light Peace Memorial on the battlefield (Gettysburg Foundation)

Strong public interest has prompted the Gettysburg Foundation to increase its goal of 7,000 sponsored American flags to be placed on the battlefield next month to 17,760.

The foundation is asking the public to sponsor a U.S. flag for $18.63 through “A Field of Remembrance,” a campaign initially aimed at memorializing the 7,000 men killed at the battle.

The foundation, which supports the National Park Service at Gettysburg National Military Park, launched the effort in June.

“The new goal of 17,760 flags connects the sacrifice remembered at Gettysburg with the nation’s founding in 1776 and the ideals Abraham Lincoln invoked in the Gettysburg Address,” the group said in a news release Thursday. “In his opening words at Gettysburg, Lincoln looked back to the Declaration of Independence and a nation ‘conceived in liberty’ and dedicated to the proposition of equality.”

Proceeds will support the Gettysburg Foundation's preservation and education work.

The flag installation and the David Wills House’s reopening in November are part of Gettysburg’s PA250 Adams County commemoration. President Abraham Lincoln finalized his Gettysburg Address at the Wills residence.

Flags will be placed on Nov. 12, and the display continues through Nov. 23.

“One makes the human cost of the battle visible; the other returns visitors to the room where Lincoln shaped the words that have carried that cost forward ever since,” said the foundation.

About 51,000 soldiers were killed, wounded or captured in the battle.

Campaign participants may sponsor one or more flags, with tribute-naming available at all levels. Sponsorships are now open here.

After the remembrance, the flags will be kept for flag-placing ceremonies, such as Memorial Day, at Gettysburg National Cemetery.

Woman came across this Bormann shell while cleaning a house in NE Pennsylvania. Turns out she and property owner found it while scuba diving years before

A woman who came across a Civil War artillery shell while cleaning a residence in northeastern Pennsylvania told police she and the owner of the property found it decades ago on the East Coast.

Conyngham police Chief Thomas Eibach told the Picket in an email Tuesday he was notified of the discovery on Main Street on Sept. 24. The department photographed the item (left) for identification.

The bomb squad for Scranton police subsequently determined it was a Civil War shell that potentially still contained case shot and explosive material. Artillery expert Jack W. Melton Jr. said it appears to be a Bormann shell made for Union forces.

“The person cleaning out the property was not the property owner; however, (she was) a family friend who is an executor of the property, being its original owner has passed away,” said Eibach.

“In that same respect of being a family friend, she and the original owner of the property were avid scuba divers, diving all over the world. From her recollection, this item was discovered while diving on the East Coast approximately 20-30 years ago and brought home as a souvenir, not knowing what the item was.”

Someone who saw the artifact in a garage told the woman it was possibly military ordnance, officials said.

An Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD)  team, believed to be the 55^th Ordnance Company based in Fort Belvoir, Va., was called in. (The closest military installation is Fort Indiantown Gap, a National Guard facility.)

Courtesy Jack W. Melton Jr. / CivilWarArtillery.com

Eibach said the team had forwarded him a Melton diagram (above) of a cross section of an artillery round of that type. The diagram indicates a Bormann fuse and deadly case shot inside.

The Army team took the artifact away. A public affairs spokesperson at Fort Belvoir said the round was likely destroyed. He did not know what type of shell it was. (Photograph, below, Conyngham Police)

Even 165 years later, Civil War ordnance is found, whether in homes, the ground or on coast lines. Several years ago, a huge cache was found at the Allegheny Arsenal in Pittsburgh, Pa. The facility made a wide variety of cannon shot for Federal forces.

Eibach said this type of incident was a first for him.

“However, several years prior an inert hand grenade was discovered in an attic during a home clean-out. From time-to-time, Revolutionary War Items are discovered in our area, some of which are on display at the Conyngham Valley Historical Society-Museum on Main Street. These items I believe are from the time surrounding the battle known as the Sugarloaf Massacre.”

The massacre occurred in September 1780. Native American warriors and British loyalists surprised militia, killing up to 15 soldiers. 

Personal artifacts recovered from submarine H.L. Hunley will remind The Charleston Museum visitors that crew members were regular people with 'hopes and fears'

Crew member's shoe before and after conservation (Friends of the Hunley)

Clothing and items belonging to the doomed crew of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley will go on display for the first time in an exhibit at The Charleston Museum that will feature mannequins and items related to each man.

“This exhibit, ‘Textiles from the Deep: Findings from the H.L. Hunley Submarine,’ offers fresh perspectives because it is the first time these newly conserved textile fragments will be on view for the public,” Virginia Theerman, curator of historic textiles at the museum, told the Picket in an email.

“Each crew member will have a slant board display with their archeological materials from inside the Hunley. There will also be a mannequin representing one interpretation of how that man might have been dressed, using garments primarily pulled from The Charleston Museum's collection," said Theerman. (Below, conservation of clothing, Friends of the Hunley)

The exhibit, which opens Oct. 3 and runs through April 4, features a silk bandana, shoe, buttons, brass oil can (still holding oil) and a thimble, among other artifacts. It is being sponsored by Friends of the Hunley and the South Carolina Hunley Commission.

On Feb. 17, 1864, Hunley made history by becoming the first submarine to sink an enemy warship. The 40-foot iron vessel -- bullets pinging off its iron exterior -- planted a torpedo in the hull of the Union ship USS Housatonic, setting off a charge that sent the Federal vessel and five crew members to the sandy bottom within minutes.

The Hunley and its eight-man crew disappeared beneath the waves and entered the realm of legend. To this day, historians, scientists and others debate what caused it to end up on the ocean floor. 

Since recovery from the Charleston Harbor in 2000, the submarine and the crew’s belongings have been undergoing extensive conservation at Clemson University's Warren Lasch Conservation Center in North Charleston. Some of the textile items were freeze-dried during conservation.

Kellen Butler, executive director of the friends group, told the South Carolina Daily Gazette the Lasch Center has been unable to display the textiles because of the lack of humidity controls.

The Picket has written previous posts on the conservation of clothing, which were made of cotton, wool or cashmere.

The knotted bandana (above, Friends of the Hunley) was worn around the neck of crew member James A. Wicks.

Wicks -- a Southerner by birth -- was in the U.S. Navy at the outbreak of the Civil War. When the USS Congress was crippled by the Confederate warship CSS Virginia at the Battle of Hampton Roads in March 1862, he switched sides, according to the Friends of the Hunley. 

He was about 45 years old when he joined the Hunley mission.

“Given his personal history, it is not surprising Wicks is the only crew member known to be wearing a bandana around his neck, a common practice for enlisted Union sailors during that time,” surmised a 2007 article in the Friends' newsletter, "The Blue Light."

Wicks served on the CSS Indian Chief before Hunley skipper Lt. George Dixon chose him to be part of the eight-member crew.

The Friends says the father of four girls (left) stood nearly 5 feet 10 inches tall and was a heavy tobacco user. He had blue eyes and brown hair, according to records. His family was living in Florida when war broke out.

Wicks had the Hunley’s sixth crank position and in an emergency, his job was to release the aft keel block, should weight needed to be jettisoned so that the submarine could rise from the ocean floor.

His remains were found associated with seven US Navy buttons, which is consistent with his military service, according to the Friends of the Hunley. 

Theerman said The Charleston Museum has had two prior exhibitions on the Hunley, both more than 25 years ago.

“I hope visitors will take away a human feeling of recognition from long ago history -- the idea that each one of the crew was an everyday person with their own hopes and fears,” she said. “I also hope they will learn more about textile conservation, and the science of preserving such delicate materials.”

Refurbished oil can, naval buttons and thimble; click to enlarge (Friends of the Hunley)

Bird's-eye view of the Battle of Pickett's Mill: It's happy trails to old use of terrain map as park volunteer revamps it to add troop locations and names

Revamped map in Pickett's Mill museum (Michael Hitt and Civil War Picket photos)

A large terrain map showing the trail system at Pickett’s Mill battlefield in Georgia has been saved from the dustbin of history and is being modified to add troop and artillery locations and the names of blue and gray regiments that clashed there on May 27, 1864.

“People like details,” said Michael Hitt, a volunteer at Pickett’s Mill Battlefield State Historic Site. “It causes you to start learning.”

The old map, which had been propped in the corner of an adjoining room, was to be thrown away. It had no information about the battle but was rather a basic visual guide to the trails.

Hitt, a Civil War researcher, envisioned another purpose.

He has been working on its new use for about three weeks, putting in about 50 hours as of Friday, when I paid a visit.

Whereas the map formerly was presented at an angle, the interpretive version rests flat on a platform, enabling visitors at the site in Paulding County to peer down from four angles, imagining the Confederate and Union perspectives. (See Picket video above for more detail)

Hitt has painstakingly put in small labels made of board. They denote military units, earthworks, mills and buildings present during the battle, which ended in a Confederate victory during “The Hell Hole” series of clashes there and at nearby Dallas and New Hope.

The Federal army suffered 1,600 casualties at Pickett’s Mill, compared to 500 for the South. The advance on Atlanta was delayed about a week. 

The board member with the Friends of Pickett’s Mill Battlefield painted the current trail system on the glass so people will be able to superimpose those and the map labels.

“The Pickett's Mill story will now be so much easier to understand,” the friends group said in a Facebook post.

“The idea is after people view it, from all angles, then go outside onto the battlefield, you should feel like you're in the model and you will know what took place and where. Just trying it makes history more enjoyable, as the park has only three historical markers.”

For a sense of scale, a house fits within a thumb nail, and a four-gun battery takes up the same amount of space. (Picket photos, above and left)

Unlike an electric map used in the old days at battlefields, this one is static, so it needs to capture a moment in time. Hitt chose 4 p.m., just before the futile Federal assaults began.

Hitt says the location of the map is a bonus. People will be able to look up at a series of maps on a nearby wall and see the progression of the fighting.

The volunteer would like to see more track lighting in the room to improve illumination above the map, but that likely will have to come later.

Work on the labels has been completed. Hitt on Friday showed me blue and gray construction paper and lists of regiments (Picket photos, below) he will use on the edges of the table to show who fought in the ravine and elsewhere on the well-preserved site. Asked how long it will take to finish the project, Hitt said it will be as long as it takes. (See Picket video above for more detail)

A reproduction 12-pounder howitzer that rests in the same room is positioned before a painting of a wooded area.

Hitt said that scene does not show trees and fauna that were at the battlefield, so he would like to have it redone.

Hitt is hopeful the changes will make for a better visitor experience.

“How can you make history more interesting to the average person?”

The visitor center and museum at Pickett’s Mill are open Friday-Sunday. The park is located at 4432 Mt. Tabor Church Road, Dallas, GA 30157

Under construction: The map and battlefield maps behind it (Picket photo)