Sultana Disaster Museum steams ahead with more artifacts, bidding process to build a larger venue about 1865 maritime disaster

Andersonville POW drinking from gourd, survivors group pennant (Sultana Disaster Museum)

The Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion, Ark., continues to add Civil War prisoner artifacts to its collection while preparing to mail out bid packets to build a larger and more dynamic permanent venue.

“What started as a dream among a small collection of people dedicated to bringing the Sultana story to life is finally becoming a reality,” the museum said in a recent social media post.

The museum design has been finalized and a parcel for extra parking and a memorial was purchased, the museum said.

“We may not make it, but our goal is to open by April 27, 2025,” the 160^th anniversary of the maritime disaster, said John Fogleman, president of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society.

Marion's old high school is being reused for venue (Sultana Disaster Museum)

Fogleman said the initial bidding – with a Nov. 13 deadline to submit -- will be for:

-- Renovation of an old high school gymnasium that will hold exhibits (removal of existing bleachers and stage, salvaging wood for reuse, etc.)
-- Building an addition to the south side of building, featuring a main entry, museum store, gathering area and a multiuse auditorium.

Haizlip Studio of Memphis, Tenn., has served as the architect and design agency for the project and will have a hand in designing the exhibits. “This work will be bid separately. Until bids for construction are in, we will not know how much we can budget for exhibits,” Fogleman said.

The city, close to where the vessel Sultana exploded and caught fire at the Civil War’s end,  broke ground last November for a museum that will honor soldiers who died in the disaster and residents who helped save others who were plunged into the Mississippi River in late April 1865.

About 1,200 passengers and crew perished. Hundreds of Federal soldiers, many recently freed from Confederate prisons, including Andersonville and Cahaba, were on their way home.

The disaster is currently remembered at a small museum a few blocks from where working is going on now in the gymnasium-auditorium at Marion’s old high school. Dreams for a larger facility germinated many years ago.

Museum officials say the exhibits (see site plan at left, click to enlarge) will build off the full story of the Sultana with information about the importance of the river, the Confederate prisoner of war camps at Cahaba and Andersonville, the bribery and corruption that led to the overcrowding of the side-wheel steamboat, the explosion and fire, and the creation of the Sultana Survivors Association.

A compelling angle, Fogleman says, will be the debate over what caused the explosion: Was it sabotage, the leaky boiler, a poor boiler design, a secondary source or a combination of all factors?

Gene Salecker, a Sultana author and collector who serves as historical consultant, continues to purchase numerous items for the museum. Not all pertain to the Sultana, but they help further the story of Civil War prisons and the vessels that plied the Mississippi before and during the war.

“It's always fun to find new Sultana, steamboat, or POW items,” Salecker said.

He recently brought to Marion a large U.S. flag banner. It has a blue upper portion with 40 stars (authorized on July 4, 1890) and two red and one white stripe. The banner is marked "Sultana Survivors Reunion," with one word on each stripe. 

New construction will house entrance, store and auditorium (Sultana Disaster Museum)

In late August, the museum acquired an oil painting (top of blog post) showing an emaciated Union prisoner, drinking from a gourd. The work, entitled “Andersonville 1864,” shows him drinking water from Providence Spring, which emerged after a storm during August 1864, the worst month of suffering at Camp Sumter.

Salecker says a tag on the back of the painting indicates it was painted by Charles Moore of Toledo, Ohio, perhaps in the mid-1880s.

The painting came from the collection of commissary Sgt. Daniel Harmon, Co. K, 18th Michigan Infantry. Harmon was captured at Athens, Ala., on September 24, 1864, with the rest of his regiment, and spent time in Cahaba.

He was released in December 1864, months before the Sultana sinking. He became connected to the steamboat by participation in a prisoner survivors group and friendship with members of the 18^th Michigan who did travel on the Sultana.

Haizlip Studio possible exhibit depicting explosion (Sultana Disaster Museum)

The Harmon collection includes boxes with documents from a Grand Army of the Republic post, one adorned with a drawing of the burning Sultana; and a GAR kepi that belonged to Harmon.

Fogleman says the Sultana society has about $10.4 million in cash, outstanding pledges and grant commitments.

“Of this amount, money has already been spent to pay for a professional fundraiser, postage, stationery, purchase of additional property and demolition. We are seeking to raise an additional $3 million to go toward an operating reserve or endowment, orientation film and improved exhibits.”

Previous Sultana coverage:

• Documentary, events mark 150th anniversary

• Will victim's journal and Bible become part of collection?

• Descendants drop flowers in memory of the lost

• Model captures every detail of Sultana
• Disaster took lives of those who had endured so much
• Siblings recall learning of disaster