Steamboat Sultana: Stories of heroic rescues lie just beneath the surface in NE Arkansas. The wreckage itself is a good bit deeper, likely under a soybean field

Rick DeSpain's drawing of John Fogleman taking raft to rescue ( www.DeSpainPrints.com)

For more than 200 years, a John Fogleman has lived and worked in a small patch of the Arkansas Delta across from Memphis, Tenn.

One had a farm in Crittenden County when a fire lit the sky a couple miles away on April 27, 1865. The overloaded steamboat Sultana, carrying hundreds of Union soldiers heading home at the end of the Civil War, exploded and caught firing, spilling passengers into the frigid Mississippi River.

According to newspaper accounts and family lore, Fogleman lashed two or three logs together, poled his way through the current and toward survivors. He plucked dozens of people to safety. It’s possible his sons Leroy and Gustavus assisted.

By chance, or perhaps fate, his great-great-grandson, retired Circuit Judge John Fogleman, is currently spearheading the effort to build a permanent museum about the largest U.S. maritime disaster. Officials hope to open the venue in Marion later this year. (A smaller museum operates a few blocks away.)

On a recent visit to Marion, I asked the judge, president of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society, to show me the soybean field where the wreckage of the vessel reportedly is covered. (Picket video, above, of Fogleman discussing site)

We had no luck because Fogleman was unable to contact the property owner in time. Still, we drove to a spot a mile or so away, as close as we could get. The area is fenced. (Note: this is private property).

Fogleman also took me close to where his ancestors lived and described the rescue effort, which will be a significant part of the museum’s exhibits.

Another great-great grandfather, Franklin Hardin Barton, and several neighbors came to the aid of Yankee troops, who were the enemy just weeks before.

The Memphis Daily Argus and other newspapers provided vivid accounts from survivors and rescuers, some of whom flocked from Memphis.

“Messrs. John Fogleman, Thomas J. Lumbertson, George Malone and John Berry, citizens of Mound City, Arkansas, are entitled to the eternal gratitude of every right-thinking mind,” reported the Daily Argus.

Franklin Barton and LeRoy and Gustavus Fogleman (Courtesy John Fogleman)

“When they saw the burning, floating mass, and heard the cries of the struggling thousands, they made haste to construct rude rafts of logs and put into the stream. With these, they succeeded in saving the lives of nearly a hundred persons. They were unceasing and labored faithfully and courageously as long as there was any possibility of relieving a suffering fellow mortal. Mr. Fogleman's residence was converted into a temporary hospital for the sufferers, and every possible care and attention were bestowed on them by Mr. Fogleman and his family. The number who had been brought in -- rescued from the river -- at 12 o'clock yesterday were 110 enlisted men, ten officers, four ladies and fifteen citizens."

Another account was sent to the Chicago Tribune (right, click to enlarge)

While visitors to the small current museum ask about the wreck and why it has not been raised, it’s important to note the Mississippi has shifted course often over the years. Small tributaries and lakes go away or are formed, and small islands do the same. So no one is 100 percent sure where the remnants of the Sultana lie.

About 1,200 people died in the disaster. The vessel’s boilers are considered to be the main cause of the catastrophe. There are also claims of greed and sabotage, but that's another story.

Jerry Potter, a Memphis attorney and noted expert and author on the Sultana, searched for the wreckage in the early 1980s near a small community of Mound City. He used old maps and eyewitness accounts. (Salvage efforts years before removed portions of the Sultana,)

Potter told the Picket he met with the son of the man who owned the land at the time. Potter showed him a map where he thought the wreckage was located.

“He stated that about 100 yards north of my location he had found pieces of metal. (He) and I searched together, and over the years, we uncovered many pieces of metal which were identified as coming from an 19^th century steamboat.

Author Clive Cussler brought the first magnetometer to the site and got readings on buried metal.

“We had two other magnetometers and got readings of buried metal. The ‘History Detectives’ show on the History Channel brought experts to locate the wreckage, who agreed with my opinion about the location of the wreckage,” said Potter.

“According to eyewitness accounts, the wreckage came to rest at the head of Chicken Island. At that time, Chicken Island was actually an island, with the main channel of the river flowing on the east side and (the) Mound City chute on the west side. The river filled in around the wreckage and closed off the north end of the Mound City chute.”

Potter said they placed steamboat metal parts in a building. The landowner lost possession of the property and when the author approached the new owner he was unable to find the parts, he said. “The owner thought they might have buried the parts while clearing the property before his purchase.”

The wreckage of the side-wheeler is about a mile from the main channel and is too deep to uncover, the author of “The Sultana Tragedy: America’s Greatest Maritime Disaster” added.

“I believe that the hull's remains would probably be in good condition since they are below the water table ...  I am 90% sure that we located the site of the Sultana. There are no reports of any other steamboat wrecks in the area, and the 1876 map (highlighted above) marks the location. The only way I would be a 100% sure would be to uncover the wreckage, but the costs of such an undertaking would be in the millions.”

Fogleman and I drove by farms and a few homes on the flat land. One stop was the sight of Native American mounds at Mound City (Picket photo, right).

The judge has spoken publicly about the January and February 1863 Federal burnings of Mound City and nearby Hopefield in response to Confederate guerrilla activities and the trial of a man accused of instigating the hanging of an abolitionist.

“This punitive expedition relates to Union efforts to secure Memphis, Tennessee, as a supply and hospital base capable of supporting ongoing operations against Vicksburg, Mississippi,” says the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “It stands as an early example of the shift toward hard war tactics that would increase throughout the remainder of the Civil War.”

So, given the tension between Union forces and civilians in Memphis and Crittenden County, it may seem surprising the latter joined efforts to save Sultana’s victims.

Instinct must have kicked in.