‘Sultana Time’ is fast approaching

‘Sultana Time’ is fast approaching

Annual heritage festival includes a full slate of presentations on disaster, other topics

news@theeveningtimes.com How many people actually died on the Sultana? What’s the latest progress on efforts to build a new museum? Who were the locals who helped rescue people the night the boat exploded? And what caused the greatest maritime disaster in U.S. history?

All of those questions and more will be answered this weekend by a panel of experts at the 3rd Annual Sultana Heritage Festival.

The festival is free and will be held on Saturday at Trinity in the Fields Anglican Church in Marion from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“This is our third time,” said Marion Chamber of Commerce President Tracy Brick. “It’s going to be factual enough so that someone who is a real historian will enjoy it, but also entertaining enough for the person who lives in town who wants to learn more about the Sultana. So I think we have something where we can reach a pretty broad audience.”

The Sultana was a Mississippi River paddlewheel steamboat that exploded on April 27, 1865, due to a faulty boiler. The boat was carrying over 2,000 Union soldiers who were returning from the war and were crowded aboard the grossly overloaded boat. Over 1,100 people perished making it the greatest maritime disaster in U.S. history.

The festival will kick off with an update by Sultana Museum development director Louis Intres, who will outline his fundraising and planning efforts to build a permanent museum.

“He’s got a lot going on,” Brick said. “He’s been a busy man. So he will kind of set the tone.”

Jimmy Ogle, a Shelby County historian, will give a presentation called Memphis: Before, During, and After the Civil War.” “He’s not going to talk specifically about the Sultana,” Brick said. “But he is

very entertaining.”

Historian Gene Salecker, author of Disaster on the Mississippi, will give a talk about “The Sultana by the numbers” and share new information about the passengers

and the casualty

count.

Initial reports had the death toll at around 1,500 to 1,800, a number Salecker says is several hundred too high.

“I think what Gene will have to say will shock people,” Brick said. “He’s probably going to spark some good discussion — I think even amongst the speakers.”

Salecker will also be bringing a 16 foot display of military rations from the Revolutionary War to the current War on Terrorism.

Jerry Potter, a Memphis attorney whose book The Sultana Tragedy brought the disaster to the public’s attention, will speak about why it happened.

Potter first learned of the Sultana when he saw a painting of the boat on fire in a public building in Memphis and spent the next 14 years researching the tragedy. He located the remains of the Sultana in 1982 buried under a soybean field in Marion.

“Jerry is such a good speaker,” Brick said. “ He knows this stuff inside and out. And he is just such a big supporter of everything we are doing over here.”

Judge John Fogleman will host a talk about his ancestors who helped rescue survivors of the Sultana.

His great-great-grandfather, John Fogleman, heard the explosion and along with his two sons, Dallas and LeRoy, fashioned a raft made out of logs and paddled out to the burning boat to ferry survivors to safety.

Another relative, Confederate Captain Frank Barton, hid a small dug out canoe and also helped rescue survivors.

“He’s really stepping out this year,” Brick said. “He will be portraying his greatgreat- grandfather.”

The festival will conclude with a Civil War era church service led in character by Pastor Tom Letchworth.

Letchworh will also have copies of his new book “War Ain’t No Picnic: 30 Civil War Stories and Devotionals” for sale.

“Brother Tom is a fantastic speaker,” Brick said. “The first year we did this we had it in a tent. He does it in costume from that period. This year he is going to do it inside as if it were the Sunday after the tragedy. So that should be a great way to end.”

There will also be a special screening of a new documentary “Remember the Sultana” produced by Mike Marshall and narrated by Lord of the Rings star Sean Astin at 6 p.m.

By Mark Randall