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

Sultana Disaster Museum: Arkansas city closes in on $10M fund-raising goal as it continues work at larger location in old high school

The overcrowded Sultana just hours before the explosion  (Library of Congress)

Backers of a new museum that will tell the compelling story of the steamboat Sultana disaster are racing to raise enough money so that FedEx, headquartered not far away in Memphis, Tenn., will donate the final $1 million to complete the fund-raising.

John Fogleman, head of the Sultana Historical Preservation Society, told the Picket in an email this week that the project has donations and pledges totaling $8.316 million. If the society garners another $684,000 by May 31, FedEx’s contribution would bring the total to $10 million for the museum in Marion, Ark. [May 15 update: The tally currently is $8.67 million]

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

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 1865 disaster is 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. 

Haizlip Studio's museum rendering depicting moment of explosion (SHPS)

Abatement of lead paint and asbestos at the gym was recently completed, Fogleman said. Request for bids for construction will go out around June 20. The society is currently looking for an executive director.

Organizers have launched a new GoFundMe page in recent weeks to augment large donations and funding from governments, foundations and other groups. “We all have our fingers crossed,” said Gene Salecker, a Sultana author and collector who serves as historical consultant for the museum.

The museum is sponsoring a fund-raiser on April 27, "Bluegrass on the Levee," on the anniversary of the Sultana’s sinking.

Abatement work at the old gym in mid-March (SHPS)

“John and I will be attending the annual reunion of the Association of Sultana Descendants and Friends (Sultana Association) being held this year at Lexington, Kentucky, on April 28 and 29, with a visit to the Perryville, Kentucky battlefield, where at least 100 soldiers that eventually ended up on the Sultana saw their first big battle,” Salecker said.

Officials in Marion -- a bedroom community just a 15-minute drive from Memphis -- say it’s important that the Sultana’s story of greed, fraud, valor and sacrifice be told in a bigger way than what’s covered in the tiny museum that opened in 2015.

No one was formally held accountable for putting too many men on the Sultana, despite documented concerns about the safety of one of the boat's boilers. Accounts of the largest maritime tragedy in U.S. history were overshadowed by headlines about the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln.

Banners for survivor reunions in the late 19th century (Sultana Disaster Museum)

The Sultana Historical Preservation Society, which has spearheaded the project in collaboration with the city, believes a compelling museum and effective marketing can bring in up to 50,000 visitors a year who collectively will spend millions of dollars to support the economy in Marion and nearby communities.

The larger venue will include scores of artifacts or memorabilia related to the disaster and exhibits on steamboats on the Mississippi River, the Sultana’s service, Civil War prisons, corruption involved in its overloading, the explosion, the struggle for survival, rescue efforts and the disaster’s aftermath.

Many of the artifacts have been donated by Salecker. He is attending an annual Civil War show in Mansfield, Ohio, in May and hopes to pick up items related to the Sultana, as he has in the past.

Previous Sultana coverage:

• Documentary, events mark 150th anniversary

• 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