Bill Text: WV SR21 | 2021 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Recognizing anniversary of SS Sultana tragedy
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 3-0)
Status: (Passed) 2021-03-18 - Completed legislative action [SR21 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2021-SR21-Introduced.html
SENATE RESOLUTION 21
(By Senator Weld)
[Introduced March 17, 2021]
Recognizing the anniversary of the tragic accident of the SS Sultana.
Whereas, The explosion of the SS Sultana on April 27, 1865, is considered the worst maritime disaster in American history; and
Whereas, The steamboat Sultana was one of the largest business steamers constructed with a capacity of 376 passengers plus crew members, when it launched from Litherbury Boatyard in Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 3, 1863. During the Civil War, the Sultana was frequently commissioned to carry troops and supplies due to its size and efficiency; and
Whereas, On April 24, 1865, during a stop at Vicksburg, Mississippi, a series of hasty repairs to the Sultana’s boilers were made, and nearly 2,000 Union soldiers, who had been recently released from the Confederate prison camps Andersonville and Cahaba, were crowded aboard for the trip north along the Mississippi River; and
Whereas, On April 27, 1865, at 2:00 a.m., the dangerously overloaded Sultana exploded and sank seven miles north of Memphis, Tennessee, in a massive conflagration of fire and flying shrapnel caused by the boat’s inadequately repaired boilers as the boat worked to overcome the strong currents of a flooded Mississippi River; and
Whereas, More than 1,100 of the nearly 2,200 passengers aboard lost their lives in the tragedy, including both initial survivors of the explosion who later died from burns, hypothermia, or exposure; and
Whereas, This disaster occurred 12 days following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln and less than three weeks after the end of the Civil War. It received very little public attention and is scarcely remembered today; and
Whereas, Among the Union soldiers killed in this catastrophic accident, were 10 West Virginians: PVT Anthony Craig, Battery D, 1 WV Light Artillery; PVT William Cruddas, Co. L, 1 WV Cavalry; PVT John Hudson, Co. G, 65 Ohio Infantry, born in Berkeley County, WV; SGT James H. Lyons, Co. B, 6 WV Cavalry; PVT Alexander A. Manners, Co. K. 1 WV Infantry; PVT Thomas McGinnis, Co. F, 15 WV Infantry; PVT John Wesley Steele, Co. C, 5 WV Infantry; PVT Allen Ramsey C. Stephens, Battery D, 1 WV Light Artillery; PVT John D. Weihert, Co. F, 10 WV Infantry; and PVT John Welch, Co. K, 6 WV Cavalry; therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate:
That the Senate hereby recognizes the anniversary of the tragic accident of the SS Sultana; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Senate, on the 156-year anniversary of the tragic accident of the SS Sultana, honors the memory of all soldiers and passengers who lost their lives in this disaster; and, be it
Further Resolved, That the Clerk is hereby directed to forward a copy of this resolution to Dr. Louis Intres, Director of the Sultana Disaster Museum in Marion, Arkansas.
