HALF CENTURY AGO

Exactly a half-century ago Tuesday the steamer Sultana sank in the Mississippi, near Memphis, Tenn., carrying 1,500 Union soldiers to their watery graves …Most of these soldiers were Ohioans. The boat contained 2,500 soldiers and was badly overcrowded. A boiler explosion caused the disaster…the soldiers were weakened from confinement in Southern prison camps, which made the casualty heavy. Samuel Clemens of Steubenville was among the dead... (Herald Star Apr. 30, 1915)