The Forgotten Disaster April 27, 1865. Mississippi River. The Sultana carried 2,137 people. Legal capacity was 376. Captain Mason took a bribe to overload it to about 5.7 times capacity. Most passengers were freed Union POWs. They had survived Andersonville. Three boilers exploded near Memphis. An estimated 1,200 to 1,800 died. Lincoln's assassination two weeks earlier buried the news.
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