Sultana Disaster

Journal and Courier (Lafayette, Indiana) 09 Apr 1960 p.23

Lt. John C. Webster, orphaned when very young, left school to enlist (40th IN.) and was seriously wounded at Missionary Ridge and at Kennesaw Mountain. After his discharge, he studied medicine and practiced for many years at Romney. Several men from the 40th (IN.) were involved in the disaster of the riverboat Sultana on April 28, 1865. The Sultana, over-crowded with 1,866 Union soldiers, mostly captives freed from Andersonville prison, caught fire from the explosion of a hastily patched boiler and was completely destroyed on the Mississippi near Memphis. Hundreds of soldiers who had survived in the water or were trapped by the collapse of the hurricane deck or scalded by escaping steam. In all 1,238 men died, including Capt. Will L. Coleman, Capt. Henry L. Hazelrigg, and George D. Kent. Theophilus W. Milligan, of Clarks Hill, and Christian Nisley were among the survivors.

(James H. Jackson, Co. H, was also killed in the Sultana disaster) S.R.B.