PRINT THIS PAGE | E-MAIL THIS PAGE

Tuesday, March 24, 1998

West Texan's father fought in Civil War, survived ship catastrophe

By CANDACE COOKSEY FULTON San Angelo Standard Times

SAN ANGELO, Texas - When he read the brief item in the "Did You Know" column of the Standard-Times, Robert Warner knew he had to respond and set the record straight.

"In 1865, the steamer 'Sultana' exploded on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tenn., killing more than 1,400 Union soldiers," the item read.

Warner's educated and thoroughly researched guess was that there were at least 2,400 men on the ship whose maximum capacity should have been about 400.

"There may have been 500 survivors," he wrote in a note to the Standard-Times.

A historian of sorts and a Civil War buff by hobby, Warner had a unique perspective for how many there were on the Sultana that night and why they were there.

His father was one of the Sultana survivors.

"My father (yes, that's right) was one of the lucky ones," Warner wrote.

The surviving son of a Union soldier provided a brief timeline of events recently in his suite at Rio Concho Manor.

"My dad was born on May 6, 1848," Warner began. "He enlisted in the Union Army on Oct. 24, 1863, and became a private in Company B of the 9th Regiment of the Indiana Cavalry," he said.

At the ripe old age of 15?

"At the ripe old age of 15," Warner said.

According to William B. Warner's military papers, he was 18 years old when he was discharged from the "service of the United States this 12th day of July, 1865."

Warner said his dad worked on steamers for a few years after the Civil War, then, wanting to travel and see the world by land, went to work for the LLG - Lemworth, Lawrence and Galveston, a forerunner to the Santa Fe - railways.

Near the turn of the century, William Warner bought farmland near Wellington, Kan. That land, said his son, was next to the land owned by the Barnes family.

"My mother was a Barnes," he added, eyes fairly twinkling at his divulgence of his parents' romance.

"They married in 1910. Dad was 62. My mother was 34.

"My brother William was born Nov. 9, 1913, and I was born Aug. 15, 1917.

"Dad died May 18, 1933, in Kansas. My mother died in San Angelo in 1965. She was 89."

Eleven months after William Warner's enlistment, Company B fought in a particularly fierce engagement in which "half of the unit were killed, including the commanding officer," said Robert Warner.

"The one who was put in command, fearing the entire company would be wiped out, surrendered. That was on Sept. 25, 1864.

"My father and the rest of his regiment were taken prisoner of war, and they were taken to Cahaba Prison, which was an old cotton warehouse, outside Selma, (Ala.)."

By 1864, the end of the war was nearing and the North decided not to trade prisoners any more. Warner said that as one might expect, the prison populations fairly well exploded at Cahaba and Andersonville.

Arrangements were made for some of those soldiers to be taken to Camp Fisk near Knoxville, Tenn.

"I should explain that it was very difficult to get Dad to talk about the war or his prison experience," the son said. "I don't have a lot of information about Knoxville.

"I do know there was a flood at some point, and I do know some of the men planned a prison break. Word of that got leaked somehow, and the prison guards moved a cannon to the front of the prison and promised to fire and kill them all if even one man made a break."

Warner also said the prisoners were all near starvation and had "only the clothing on their backs."

"Dad did say they spent their free time getting rid of gray-backs."

"Lice," he explained, lest there be confusion.

According to Warner, the Confederates at Fisk feared for their own safety after Lee's surrender "and decided they better not stay around any longer."

"They left," he said, "so the Union made arrangements for the POWs to be taken North by steamboat to be discharged."

The arrangement was that the prisoners would be transported up the Mississippi on paddle wheelers (steamboats) and that the boat captains would be paid $5 for each private and $10 for each officer they carried.

The bookkeeping was done by taking a roll-call list of the soldiers - supposedly as they were getting on the boat, Warner explained.

By the time the Sultana docked in Knoxville, April 25, 1865, three situations were mounting that would lead to the boat's ultimate disaster.

First, the Mississippi River was in flood stage. Second, the Sultana was having boiler problems and was already behind schedule because so much time was spent in repairs.

And third, the Sultana's captain had decided he would not have a high-enough income if he transported only 300 or 400 soldiers at a time - which was the boat's capacity.

Warner's understanding was that his father was in the last contingent scheduled to leave Camp Fisk. The captain had planned to load 1,200 Union soldiers onto the boat. That was in addition to the cargo and the approximately 200 crew members and civilians also on board.

But, when word got out of the last load, the soldiers rushed onto the boat. "They never knew how many got on," Warren said.

"They were packed on there so tightly, there wasn't even a place to lie down. One of the officers warned them that if the boat stopped, they shouldn't run to one side because it would turn over."

When the paddle wheeler reached Memphis, it was having boiler problems. Again repairs were attempted, and at 2 a.m. April 27, 1865, the boat left the Memphis port.

Warner said his father had gone to sleep - and was still asleep - when 10 miles up the river, the boiler exploded. When he woke up, he figured he was a quarter-mile from the flaming vessel.

There were other survivors out swimming, and several caught on to a floating device.

"But Dad said there were so many holding on, the float was sinking," Warmer said. "He let go, and then he grabbed a couple of boards and hung on to them."

Warner said his dad was only wearing "long john" underwear when the Sultana exploded, and, needing something to lash the boards together, he removed his pant leggings to use for a tie rope.

"Then, a hat came floating toward him, and he put that on. When he got rescued, that's what he was wearing, a hat, a shirt and nothing else," Warner said, somewhat amused by the spectacle his father must have been.

That the Sultana disaster in which so many drowned would become a nearly forgotten incident baffles Warner.

"I guess the whole country was in shock from the war," he said.

"Just two weeks before, Lincoln had been assassinated. . . . So many died in the Civil War. Don't they say more were killed in the Civil War than have died in all the wars since, combined?"

Warner described the sinking of the Sultana as an avoidable tragedy caused by "greed and gluttony." Though the casualties were far more than the drownings of the Titanic, the Sultana has warranted but a small mention in American history books.

One of the best sources of information, Warner and his brother found "accidentally." It was an account published in a 1955 edition of American Heritage. Since then, Jerry Potter, a friend of Warner's from Memphis, has written a comprehensive book about the sinking.

The Warner brothers (Bill lives in Austin) are also members of The Sultana Association, which meets in Knoxville each year in April on the weekend closest to the actual anniversary of the sinking.

---

Distributed by The Associated Press